NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are digital assets that represent ownership of unique items or pieces of content, such as art, music, and videos. In the recent past, NFTs garnered a lot of attention and hype in the art world, with some works selling for millions of dollars. However, the speculative crypto NFT bubble burst, resulting in some pieces selling for much lower than their initial prices. Despite this setback, NFTs are still relevant to the art world for several reasons.
Firstly, NFTs provide a platform for experimentation and innovation in the art world. The digital nature of NFTs allows for new forms of art that could not exist in the physical world. This cretes more opportunities for artists from all over the world to create and share their work online. Furthermore, NFTs can facilitate collaborations between artists, collectors, and technologists, leading to new forms of creativity and expression.
Secondly, NFTs offer a new level of transparency and provenance to the art market. Each NFT is uniquely identifiable on the blockchain, which means that buyers can verify the authenticity and ownership of a piece of digital art. This transparency of the blockchain allows collectors and artists to track the provenance of their works and for artists to potentially earn royalties on future resales.
Thirdly, NFTs provide a new way for artists and galleries working together. NFTs offer a new and innovative way to promote and sell artwork. In the traditional art market, galleries play a critical role in showcasing artists' works and connecting them with potential buyers. However, with limited gallery spaces and a highly competitive industry, many artists struggle to gain exposure and establish themselves. NFTs present an exciting opportunity for galleries and artists to collaborate and expand their reach by leveraging blockchain technology. By using NFTs, artists can sell their work directly to buyers, while galleries can help promote their artists and ensure that they receive the recognition they deserve. This partnership can lead to a more balanced and inclusive art world, where artists have more control over their careers, and galleries can thrive by adapting to new technologies and market trends.
Most NFT platforms fail to facilitate this partnership. Artfundi Marketplace has been created to suit both independent and represented artists, and we know that when the artist gallery partnership is good, it can be a powerful factor in the growth of market demand for an artist’s work. Thus the Artfundi Marketplace NFT smart contract accommodates artists allocating commission per piece to a partner gallery or curator.
The most recent Art Basel Art Market Report highlighted a disconnect between collectors and galleries when it comes to NFTs, with 75% of collectors reporting to be interested in collecting NFTs in future while less 50% of galleries are interested in selling them.
"We believe this is because there has not yet been the right kind of NFT platform that is curated, accommodating galleries and curators as artist partners (when relevant), safeguarding copyright of works correctly, and providing the learning tools and facilitated on-boarding to take the pain and misgivings out of whole process."
Finally, the recent burst in the crypto NFT bubble does not mean the end of NFTs in the art world. Like any emerging technology, there are bound to be ups and downs, and the art world is still experimenting with NFTs, in fact we are seeing that experimentation increasing and leading towards a more sustainable and mature market for NFTs, where the focus is on the quality and creativity of the artwork, rather than just the hype and speculation.
We cannot know the future, and thus we can’t predict the market, but we can be fairly certain that technology will continue to increase its place in our lives, and artists will produce more, and more interesting and challenging digital works, so it is relevant to be in the game, to understand how NFTs work and to make your own experiments, just don’t be left behind.
https://nft.artfundi.tech/
