Will NFT become an export of the future art market?
Original title: "Are NFTs the Future of the Art Market?"
Original author: Verisart Editorial & Contributors
Artists never stop exploring. They are, as the poet Ezra Pound put it, "the tentacles of humanity," always exploring, experimenting, creating new art forms, and pushing the boundaries of our social thinking.
Last year we published an article on artists working with artificial intelligence, highlighting their work with software code cooperative work. And for this article, we spoke exclusively to leading artists, collectors, and entrepreneurs in the fast-growing NFT world to find out what the future holds.
What is NFT
NFTs are a very unique type of cryptocurrency, and many of them use Ethereum ERC-721 smart contracts. They can be used to trade collectibles such as digital baseball cards or in-game assets. Minting NFTs does not require you to be proficient in code, because many NFT platforms today have minting functions that allow anyone to convert digital files into NFTs. After NFT is generated, it has verifiable digital scarcity and helps artists tokenize their digital works. When collectors purchase these NFTs, artists can also earn royalties after their works are resold.
On October 7, 2020, Christie’s sold the first NFT work "Robert Alice"s in New York Block 21", this work includes an NFT and a physical work of art, with a turnover of $131,250, more than 10 times its original estimate. This can't help but remind people of the sale of the artist team Obvious's work "Portrait of Edmond Belamy" two years ago. In the end, the work was sold for $432,500, more than 60 times its original estimate, allowing artificial intelligence art to enter a broader art market .
Artist Robert Alice explains this: "Not since the invention of printing has a technology so radically It will reorient the direction of production to the feet of artists.”
Although the first batch of NFT-like souvenirs had been born as early as 2012, until this year, the NFT art market was still under the influence of collectors and investors. Driven by growing interest, it began to flourish. According to data from the NFT analysis website NonFungible.com, the historical sales of the NFT art market have exceeded 11 million US dollars, and the development of NFT trading platforms such as OpenSea, SuperRare, Rarible, Makersplace and Nifty Gateway has facilitated the buying and selling of NFTs. , SuperRare stands out for its successful format, with carefully selected artists selling more than 700 works on the platform each month, worth more than $6.5 million since its launch in 2017.
“There are many reasons why people have shown strong interest in NFT recently. First, the new crown epidemic has forced People are unable to hold and participate in offline art events, so people begin to pay attention to NFT encryption art exhibited in virtual space.Secondly, people's interest in encryption technology has generally increased a lot in 2020, and many new users have begun to pay attention to encryption art and NFT Third, the NFT encrypted art community has been developing steadily in the past 3 years, and has completed the process from quantitative change to qualitative change, attracting more users.” SuperRare CEO John Crain said.
ATH that has been broken many times
NFT collectibles created by famous artists often sell out in seconds, as collectors scramble to get their works. Earlier this month, an NFT artwork by crypto artist Beeple sold for $3.5 million on the Nifty Gateway platform.
Another artist, Trevor Jones, who only started selling NFT artworks last year, broke the price limit of a single NFT. world record. His collaboration with artist Alotta Money, "Ethboy," sold for more than $141,500 on November 21, 2020. In addition, Trevor Jones also won the Best Art NFT Award at this year's first NFT Annual Awards for his work "Picasso's Bull #1/1". He believes that the NFT market will soon reflect the trend of the traditional art market.
“I realize that making such a statement is blasphemy to crypto artists, but this is how I see it manifested. The market will ultimately consist of many subcategories and communities. Over the next few years, with As the field evolves, these unique communities of artists will split off from the umbrella label of crypto art, driven by their own philosophies, expectations, and personal markets,” said Trevor Jones.
Another artist who rose to fame in the NFT wave is Lucho Poletti, whose works sell out quickly every time they are released. On September 3, 2020, Lucho Poletti released his first NFT series on Nifty Gateway, which was sold out within seconds and weeks, with a net income of $20,000. Less than two months later, Lucho Poletti released a second NFT series, which also sold out in seconds, netting $40,000.
"Artists are free to choose and sell their best works on this type of NFT trading platform, and many series are almost They were sold out instantly. These two series are probably my best artworks of the year, each with 3 animations,” said Poletti.
The new generation of art collectors
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Many artists see the sale of these digital artworks as an extension of their overall artistic career. Robert Alice, Trevor Jones, and Lucho Poletti have all extended their physical art into the digital realm. Trevor Jones has always considered himself a "traditional" painter, and explained how his NFT was converted from his physical works.
“Most of my NFT creations are animated versions of my physical Unique pieces for sale. The NFT version and the physical version seem to me to be two separate artistic expressions presented in different ways. While sometimes they can be sold as a set to collectors, I think they are still separate works of art ,” Trevor Jones explained.
Collectors are excited about the scarcity of these NFTs and the fact that ownership can be determined through the blockchain. Collector Jeremy Zahora has amassed 240 NFTs, including Trevor Jones, Jose Delbo, Goldweard, Twisted Vacancy, Giant Swan, Vincent Ubags, Jon Noorlander, Jon Burgerman, Metageist, Pr1mal Cypher, Yiying Lu, Hackatao, Lucho Poletti, Fewocious and more Artist's work.
“This is a new and exciting thing, and NFT can ensure that artists’ works are fair and get paid for every resale of their work, historically, artists have never enjoyed the income from resale of art, so this is really great for them, and I like it A little," Jeremey Zahora said.
Blockchain confirmation
Artist Vesa Kivinen has been working in the field of digital art since 2008. He saw the potential of combining the blockchain and the art world a long time ago, and created new forms of creative expression. In 2017, Vesa Kivinen founded her own platform, ArtForCrypto.com, and began working with digital certification provider Verisart that same year.
"Now NFT has just attracted people's attention, and people are beginning to realize that this field contains infinite energy. Here are In the future, there is even good income here. It seems that yesterday people thought it was a joke, but now I can boldly say my prediction. I think in the next 10 years, we will see a sales of more than ever Digital artwork outnumbers the total sales of physical artwork. If there is a reason, it’s because our lives are moving into the digital world,” Vesa Kivinen said.
At present, some artists have begun to use Verisart to authenticate NFT and physical works. Each Verisart certificate includes artwork images and details, as well as the current owner key, URL, secure QR code, and unique blockchain address.
Lucho Poletti loves Verisart's custom certificates, which he can format and print out so he can sign and match with Shared by collectors.
“These certificates are very valuable for collection. In addition to adding my own brand elements on the certificate In addition, I will also print the certificates on fine art paper, sign and number the back of each certificate to send with the print, and crypto art lovers will also be happy to display this certified event on the blockchain. "
Sociality in a virtual art world
Artists and collectors advocating for NFT art understand the importance of connecting with the community. Virtual worlds built on the Ethereum blockchain, such as CryptoVoxels and Somnium Space, allow users to buy virtual real estate, exhibit their creations and interact with each other.
Colborn Bell, co-founder of Crypto Art Museum (M○C△), established his A virtual reality museum to showcase NFT and crypto art. As someone more interested in showing than speculating, he was looking for a place to bring these pieces into virtual space for all to enjoy.
“It grew out of a passion for thinking about how these virtual lands might develop. Philosophically, that’s how we want to see the world. And the world that we want to create and invite people into would be the most beautiful world. So how do we start building partnerships with digital creators and those who might be the architects, designers or artists of these metaspaces?" said Colborn Bell.
With the increasing maturity of VR and AR technology, artists have gained new opportunities to display their works. Tools such as Mozilla’s Hubs have also made it easier for artists to get started. Art is no longer just a work, but has become a large environment, and the traditional roles of artist and gallery owner have slowly begun to merge.
“For many people, the arts are a social experience. Controversy. Incorporating these elements into the digital art experience is critical to its success."
What does the future hold?
The development of the NFT art market has benefited from the participation of more and more natives in the encryption field, and the popularity of Bitcoin in 2020 At the same time, it also reflects that people are really interested in emerging technologies that can realize the proof of scarcity of digital works.
The level of excitement people feel about NFT this year is similar to the birth of the street art movement in the 80s. Instead of graffiti on concrete, cloud networks, unfettered creation, and co-creative canvases. Both art movements were started by passionate groups of fringe artists who challenged the artistic norms of their time. They share a common interest in a democratic space for communication and creation. They all hope to bring art out of the gallery and into the homes of ordinary people.
Street art, long neglected by the art market, is now an established part of the contemporary art Repeatedly sold at high prices. For example, on September 18, 2020, Banksy’s “Girl with Balloon,” of 150 editions, sold for $438,500 at Sotheby’s. When these signed prints first sold in 2004, they sold for £150, generating a staggering 2,900 times return.
Whether digital art will surpass physical art in quantity or value is still highly debated, but these artists and collectors It is the real navigator of the NFT art market. As Robert Alice explains, in order to create long-term value, “We must fund more academic and art historical work on the concept of NFT as a medium. We must cultivate more is the work of an NFT. We must engage and engage the traditional fine arts community.”
Now, we can celebrate these pioneers What is created, and better yet, each of us can participate in it.
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