Micah Johnson

EARLY LIFE AND CAREER

• At the very young age of 3, Johnson already knew that he wanted to become a professional baseball player when he grew up. This dream came true in 2012 when the Chicago White Sox drafted him in the 9th round out of Indiana University. 
• After playing for several Major League Baseball teams, he discovered painting in 2016. With the encouragement of his then Los Angeles Dodgers teammates, his new passion was taking shape. 
• His work has focused on empowering young African-American kids to see what is possible and dream without limitations. These subjects, which are often inspired by his young nephews, began appearing in his work ever since he overheard his 4-year old nephew ask, “Can astronauts be Black?” 
• He began releasing NFTs in January 2020. At first, NFTs were just a way for him to pay the bills and support a newborn.
• After seeing the overwhelming response to his paintings, he realized he needed to expand this message to reach a broader demographic and he created an animated character named Aku.
• He released Aku in February 2021, an animated confident black astronaut character. Aku’s message became a viral sensation and became the first NFT ever optioned to become a major feature film.
  

AKU: The Moon God

• AKU depicts a young black child wearing an oversized space helmet and looking up to the sky.
• Johnson recounts finding inspiration for AKU from a heartbreaking question his sister was asked of her son, “Mom, can astronauts be black?”
• He began painting his nephew as an astronaut, which eventually lead to the creation of AKU, a character that Johnson describes as having limitless potential.
• He described AKU as a great personal achievement, noting the tokenized artwork’s success as offering inspiration to people from all walks of life.
• He sold a $1 million worth of tokenized art in just one minute on the Nifty Gateway, a Winklevoss-owned NFT marketplace.
• The physical AKU sculpture was also sold during the auction, fetching $305,000. The sculpture will be deposited into a vault and is subject to a two-year lockup.

QUOTES ON AKU

"I wanted to give him life, bring that to light, and let the other kids or other people, adults, whoever felt like there was of their dreams to have a symbol to the whole world could relate to."

"To bring together such a diverse group of people. And let them see or be inspired by AKU, you never know how many people who collected that AKU, or sell that AKU, finally found the courage to go do something that they've thought about doing, dreamed about doing, and they're going to go do it and maybe just change the world."

MEDIA

• Johnson has appeared as a guest on Real Vision.