The Artists of #TezQuakeAid: Burka Bayram

This post is from a series of deeper dives into the work of artists contributing to #TezQuakeAid. For more information on how you can support the relief efforts, click here.

Burka Bayram is a graphic designer and visual artist from Istanbul. He's the co-founder of the delightful Slothzine, one of the top independent art zines found in Web3. He also wrote the short story: JOURNEY INTO NOTHINGNESS. His genesis mint on the Tezos blockchain was March of 2021, and quickly became an active and appreciated member of the community.

With 446 items minted at the time of writing, Burka has been creating art regularly. His works have yielded nearly 20,000 tez in sales from over 3,000 unique collectors. 440 of them are completely in monochrome color palettes.

Burka often combines photographic images with his signature style to tell stories 5 frames at a time. So far he's done 119 of these types of animations.

His art is often political commentary on anti-fascist movements and late stage capitalism, mixed with a tongue in cheek cartoon humor. His willingness to tackle these topics makes him stand out on Tezos. This is something that you're less likely to see on Ethereum, where most of the validators are in China.

So far Burka has raised over 1,000 tez for #TezQuakeAid, where all of his proceeds generated went to the fundraiser. He sold out 100 editions on the primary market at 10 tez each. In addition, there's a 25% royalty on secondary sales, ranging from 15 to 29 tez, all going to the cause. As a result this is one of the most successful drops of the event.

Looking ahead

We'll be continuing artist deep dives over the course of our #TezQuakeAid coverage. It's going to take a collective effort to keep the focus on the people of Turkiye and Syria, so keep sharing and talking about the cause. If you have any feedback or suggestions, let us know in the Discord or on Twitter.