NFT Art: Who/what/where/when and how?

We invited a guest blogger in to explain a little bit more about NFT's. It's new to us too and we are excited to learn more about how this is impacting the art world...

NFT (non-fungible tokens) are essentially data units stored on blockchain - which probably sounds as far from art as you can possibly get. However, this year has seen NFTs crossover from the level of deep crypto-currency obsession into the mainstream and they have potentially opened up a whole new world of ways to support the arts, generate greater creativity and encourage some interesting collaborations. So, how on earth do they work?

NFT Art - the basics

In the context of art the NFT is essentially a digital collector card that accompanies a purchased artwork. This card provides bonus material to the person who buys the NFT. One of the most recent examples of this comes from One Direction’s Liam Payne who used the recent lockdowns to create the Lonely Bug Collection, which is an artwork collaboration with Zedd and audio-reactive artist Sillygabe. Fans can buy the artwork and bid on the NFTs to win special prizes, one of which includes a seat at the table next to Liam at an immersive dinner party in Las Vegas.

Interest in NFT art is spreading

Liam isn’t the only one to be venturing into the world of NFT art either. These are just some of the other collaborations and NFT ventures that are currently on the table:

• The movie Zero Contact - which is in itself pretty innovative because it was shot mostly on Zoom - stars Anthony Hopkins and was the first film released on NFT viewing platform VUELE.
• Auction house Christies has also been getting in on NFT art. No stranger to embracing the digital revolution, Christie’s took a groundbreaking step in May of this year by offering traditional paintings by women alongside tokens by the anonymous feminist collective Rewind.
• Rewind has been at the heart of another NFT collaboration that is also making history. It has joined forces with the legendary Givenchy, as well as a sales platform and art space to sell the world’s first NFT for a beauty brand. Incredibly the NFT sold in just two seconds and in that tiny amount of time made a huge $128k. The work that Rewind created took original photography and brought digital editing and animation to create something rather special to celebrate LGBTQ+ rights. The artwork was sold in nearly 2,000 editions and they all sold out. Givenchy has donated the money that was raised by the sale to Le MAG Jeunes, which is the Movement for the Assertion of Young Gay, Lesbian, Bi & Trans people.

So is NFT art going to be the way forward now that so many big names are getting involved in this space? There’s no doubt that the world will always hold a special place in its heart for physical art and this is a sector that isn’t likely to disappear. However, digital art is creating opportunities for the art world to become much more inclusive, to open up to millions of collectors and to enter into new and exciting spaces of collaboration and growth.