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“From artists to art galleries, fairs and auction houses, cryptocurrencies and NFTs are redefining the art scene in Asia” — Paul Ebeling
NFT artworks are painting a new landscape for art in Asia.
Jonathan Crockett, Chairman of Asia at Phillips, says that the auction house has seen “a huge amount of interest” in NFTs in the past few months. “The blockchain technology behind NFTs has essentially enabled the discovery of some truly talented digital artists who have remained as of yet undiscovered in the traditional art market,” he said.
“The NFT market is still very new and has offered us an opportunity to engage with an entirely new community of collectors. It’s encouraging and exciting to see how supportive they are of this new medium and of digital artists in the field,” Mr. Crockett added.
In Indonesia, a community of local and international artists, collectors, curators and galleries gathered early this yr for Art Moments Jakarta, a premium art fair that has taken a hybrid in-person and online format this year due to the virus chaos.
This yr’s installment of the fair included NFT artworks for the 1st time, and 1 of the works, titled “53 Never Forgotten” by Indonesia-based husband and wife Ruanth Thyssen and Cindy Thyssen, was created to commemorate the 53 lives lost when the Indonesian Navy’s KRI Nanggala 402 submarine sank in April.
The artists, Ruanth Thyssen, an Oscar and BAFTA-nominated sound artist and Cindy Thyssen, a digital artist donated the proceeds from the sale of 5300 NFT editions of the artwork to the families of the 53 naval personnel who died as a way to alleviate their financial burden.
The work is a 53-second animation loop of a submarine floating amongst animated waves, overlaid by 53 layers of sound was sold on hic et nunc, a Tezos blockchain-based NFT marketplace, for just 1 Tez about US$3.30.
“Indonesian artists are beginning to embrace NFTs, enabling them to monetize their artwork, be positive changemakers for their communities, and help grow the creative economy of Indonesia,” said Katherine Ng, head of marketing at TZ APAC, an Asia-based consultancy supporting the Tezos blockchain ecosystem.
With the explosive growth DeFi, NFTs and stablecoins, high gas fees have been a persistent problem in the Ethereum ecosystem and alternative blockchains have emerged.
Now there are more opportunities for digital artists with the proliferation of NFT platforms and features such as programmable art, digital art split into “layers” that can change the overall image that allow them to showcase their creativity.
Artists who are looking to NFTs to help them generate value from their work must be authentic.
Because in the NFT space The Art Crowd cares about the story and authenticity simply because it’s mimicking the blockchain, everything in the blockchain is transparent.
Have a prosperous day, Keep the Faith!
