The non-fungible token (NFT) space made headlines this year, and its proliferation does not seem to be lessening. This growth saw NFT art steal the show at Art Basel Miami after artists in the space visited the city to showcase their digital artwork and mingle with renowned industries and museums. Apart from artists, the art fair attracted famous musicians and athletes.
Among the key NFT exhibitions was a collection from Ross Ulbricht, the founder of darknet marketplace Silk Road. Currently serving two consecutive life sentences at a Florida prison for his role in creating the site, Ulbricht created his collection out of paintings, writings, and an animation of life on the inside.
He dropped his genesis collection with assistance and support from SuperRare, and Entopic was the collection’s curator. FreeRossDAO, an organization that seeks to free Ulbricht from prison, purchased his work and aims to share it with the world and give everyone a chance to own a piece of it.
German artist Mario Klingemann offered visitors of the art fair a chance to create unique self-portraits and mint them as NFTs on-site. To achieve this, Klingemann created an interactive AI algorithm to mint the NFTs on the Tezos blockchain.
Pushing for more women to join the NFT space
Olive Allen, a pioneer of the crypto art movement, exhibited her work in a Zaha Hadid Studio-designed metaverse in Galerie Nagel Draxler’s booth at Art Basel. She also participated in Christie’s sale of a new work dubbed Hopes for a Better Future. The piece of art focused on the invisibility of women in the crypto and NFT space.
According to Allen, women make up less than 5% of the NFT sales. Through her work at Miami, Allen advocated for equality in the space.
Armenian feminist visual artist Narine Arakelian also dropped an NFT of a painting dubbed Live. Reportedly, the NFT included an embedded contract that promised the buyer one of her eggs. Arakelian said she expects the person who buys the NFT to conceive a child from her egg. She added that she hopes a couple that has trouble conceiving will buy her NFT.
Miami continues morphing into a crypto city
With NFTs being the center of attraction at Art Basel Miami, it is becoming increasingly evident that the city is becoming a crypto hub.
Commenting on Art Basel’s decision to embrace NFTs, Miami’s mayor, Francis Suarez, said,
This is the first time that Art Basel has taken on this digital footprint. I’ve been saying this is going to be the largest sale of NFTs in the history of humanity.
