Fad or new era? Galleries take time to decide on NFTs

MUMBAI: Mike Winkelmann, also known as Beeple, sold an NFT of his work titled “Everyday: The First 5,000 Days” at Christie’s for $69 million in March this year. Prior to this, the most Winkelmann had ever sold a print for was $100. The digital collage sold for higher than works by Frida Kahlo and Salvador Dalí, ranking the 39-year-old American as the third most-expensive living artist.In 2021, we have seen everyone from fast-food chains (Taco Bell) to tech titans (Jack Dorsey) and musicians (Kings of Leon, Grimes) engage in the NFT market, in addition to Christie’s record-breaking sale.But Beeple has laid low since and was reported saying, “I wouldn’t say the art world has been overly welcoming.” India too perhaps shares the sentiment.While artists are keen to showcase their work, galleries are taking a wait-and-watch stance to gauge the potential of non-fungible tokens in the Indian market.84310870Cautious approachAn NFT, or non-fungible token, is intangible digital art and is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain. NFTs can include a piece of digital art, a digital coupon, maybe a tweet, meme or a video clip. It’s a one-of-a-kind piece of code, stored and protected on a shared public exchange. NFTs are bought and sold online, mostly with cryptocurrency.According to the NFT Report 2020, published by L’Atelier BNP Paribas and Nonfungible.com, the value of the NFT market grew by 299% in 2020. More than 222,000 people participated in $250 million worth of sales, quadrupling the volume in 2019. “While these figures are illustrative, we note they are not necessarily predictive of future trends,” says Sonal Singh, managing director, Christie’s India.Indian auction houses are adopting a cautious approach to the new art form. Tao Art Gallery and Astaguru said they don’t deal with NFTs at the moment.Urvi Kothari, gallery manager, Tao Art Gallery, says that they continue to do in-depth research to find out what Indian collectors genuinely want. She says, “The question still lingers in our minds: Is crypto-art just a fad or the beginning of a new era in these contemporary times?”84310882Leveraging Power of Blockchain TechSahil Arora, founder and curator of Method, that promotes new artists, says he and his team are internally debating on whether NFTs is something they want to commit to. “There is still some evolution that needs to come into the picture. We have listed a couple of NFTs on Foundation but that was more to understand the process rather than transactional,” he shares.Artists, however, are keen to get on the NFT bandwagon. Vishakha J Singh, VP–WazirX, a NFT marketplace, says that she has been inundated with applications. “The response has been phenomenal from creators and an entirely new generation that wishes to leverage the power of blockchain through NFTs,” she says.Currently, they have around 230 creators on their platform, with 24 in the spotlight. “Their NFT artwork has been original and authentic which has led to a success rate of almost 80% (in terms of sales), as well as repeat purchases by collectors,” she adds.Popularity and curiosity around NFTs is rising among art enthusiasts. Anwesh Sahoo, NFT artist, says that once he was picked as a spotlight artist, more offline gallery curators have reached out to him. “There’s so much interest in creators, collectors and the audience in general. Clubhouse sessions, Twitter Spaces, Discord channels each one of these virtual spaces are bustling with NFT related discussions,” he says.NFTs are the next step in the art evolution, says artist Christina Banerjee, adding that, “Selling prints of a piece of artwork would be unthinkable a century ago. Van Gogh’s paintings are authentically recreated on bookmarks. NFT’s strength lies in protecting authorship or creatorship and, theoretically, preserving the authenticity of these pieces of art.”‘Without Borders’NFT artist, Santanu Hazarika, says that because NFTs are “without borders”, looking at international platforms is also an area of interest for creators.

from Economic Times https://ift.tt/3hWlBHD