Crypto-art craze reaches China at 'NFT' exhibition

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, March 28, 2024


Crypto-art craze reaches China at 'NFT' exhibition
Works curated by Chinese organisers Block Create Art run the gamut from computer-generated videos of metallic Buddhas to a virtual reality maze and folk art-inspired paintings NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP.

by Jing Xuan Teng



BEIJING (AFP).- Bitcoin-inspired paintings and nightmarish faces conjured up by artificial intelligence, the global craze for "NFTs" -- virtual authenticity certificates -- swept into Beijing on Friday as curators opened one of the world's first exhibitions dedicated to blockchain art.

The show includes digital paintings by American artist Beeple, who sold a collage at Christie's for a record $69.3 million earlier this month.

A coin-shaped canvas by UK-based Robert Alice, covered in painted fragments of Bitcoin's source code, hangs in a secluded room accompanied by a TV screen showing its digital twin.

Works curated by Chinese organisers Block Create Art run the gamut from computer-generated videos of metallic Buddhas to a virtual reality maze and folk art-inspired paintings.

A collection of old TV monitors play animated images including a rainbow-hued portrait by American teen artist FEWOCiOUS, while a GIF of an inflatable goose head by Chinese artist Yitian Sun gyrates on a nearby wall.

Blockchain adds "a kind of abundance to art," curator Sun Bohan told AFP. "It's a kind of new experiment and exploration."

What the works have in common is NFTs -- or non-fungible tokens -- which use the same blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to turn anything from internet memes to tweets into virtual collector's items that cannot be duplicated.

Though bewildering to many, a manic appetite for digital objects authenticated through blockchain technology has spread through different markets.

The most famous example is Twitter boss Jack Dorsey selling his first tweet, from 2006, which reads "just setting up my twttr," for $2.9 million.

NFTs have recently taken the art world by storm as investors seize the opportunity to monetise digital art.

Wealthy collectors claim the bragging rights to ultimate ownership of an original virtual file even if the work can be endlessly copied.

"First Supper," a psychedelic reworking of Leonardo da Vinci's 15th century painting of Jesus' Last Supper, comprises 22 visual elements created by different artists which can be sold through online auctions.

The one-off digital copy is on display at the Beijing show, meaning every time an element -- the dinner table or the diners at the supper -- changes hands, its collector can also change a colour or texture that will appear real-time on the screen at the exhibition.

Sun said blockchain will improve the "ecosystem" of the art world, changing the "liquidity of artworks, and the diversity of relationships between collectors and creators."

© Agence France-Presse










Today's News

March 27, 2021

Louvre puts entire collection online

How do you stage a global art show now? In South Korea, curators press on.

Crypto-art craze reaches China at 'NFT' exhibition

Leon Black to step down as MoMA Chairman

NFTs are neither miracles nor scams

Historic 1822 Half Eagle sold for $8.4 million in the Stack's Bowers Galleries March 2021 auction

Lévy Gorvy opens an exhibition featuring a selection of masterpieces depicting the four seasons

New tech brings world famous Antarctic fruitcake to life

Exhibition focuses on Karl Benjamin's intensive exploration of color relationships through compositional structure

Design Museum Gent opens the new exhibition 'Home Stories. 100 Years, 20 Visionary Interiors'

Kunstmuseum Luzern reopens with an exhibition of new works by Micha Zweifel

New book offers a fascinating and long-overdue visual history of Japanese Buddhist art

Larry McMurtry, novelist of the American West, dies at 84

Patricia Fleming Gallery opens Christian Newby's 'The drum, the chime, the scrape, the splash, the jerk'

Olympia Auctions partners with institutions for fundraising initiative

France submits the baguette for UNESCO heritage status

Exhibition explores human relationships between buildings, landscape and wellbeing

National Book Critics Circle names 2020 award winners

Can you autograph a playbill through your screen?

After The Australian Ugliness: New book on Australian architecture reflects on nation's 'ugly' past

Edmund de Waal's work installed in Canterbury Cathedral for Passover and Holy Week

Ira Wagner named Executive Director of Montclair Art Museum

Roger Peckinpaugh Collection, including his NY Yankee uniform, sold for $167,548 at auction

Outstanding Victoria Cross awarded to soldier to be offered at Dix Noonan Webb

Virtual Reality is the Future of Arts and Design

Guide for FIFA 21 Sliders Career Mode in Ultimate Team

Unexpected Benefits of Playing Cards

How Important is Graphic Design for Your Business?

Love Moschino

Why A Quality Front Door Matters?




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful