Millions of NFT artists say traditional galleries will have to turn

• NFTs have shaken up the art world, and traditionalists like Christie’s have already turned around.
• NFT artist Trevor Jones says traditional art markets can become obsolete in the face of NFTs.
• Mike Winkelmann of Beeple says that galleries will eventually turn to cater to this emerging market.
• Visit the Insider Business Department for more stories.

NFT art has suddenly dominated the headlines all over the world, and its impact on the ‘traditional’ artworks may be here to stay.

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are simpler than it sounds. In fact, an NFT provides ‘proof of ownership’ with ‘blockchain’ on an item to which the token is attached. It can be anything from the Nyan Cat meme to virtual NBA ‘moments’ to an upcoming Kings of Leon album.

Major players such as Grimes and Mark Cuban also enter the NFT scene.

“I have a feeling it’s just going to get a lot bigger!” Trevor Jones, an artist with an educational background in fine arts with a focus on drawing and painting, told Insider in an interview. “Ride that crypto wave!

Jones, who has been a full-time artist since 2015, considers himself a ‘traditional painter’, but has been interested in the intersection between art and technology for the past decade, including exploring the NFT art space since 2019.

In honor of his training, all of Jones’ NFT work still begins as a traditional “physical” painting. So far, this formula has been a huge success for him: his artwork has sold for between $ 40,000 and $ 180,000 each, Jones told Insider.

And last month, he sold 4,157 pieces of his ‘open edition Bitcoin Angel’ in seven minutes for $ 777 each, totaling $ 3.2 million.

Despite his background of ‘traditional’ art, Jones predicts that this wave of NFT artists could abolish the long-standing art market.

“This digital art market is just warming up and it could easily take over the $ 67 billion (physical) art market in the not too distant future,” Jones told Insider in an email interview. “The traditional art markets, galleries and auction houses that do not see it and do not prepare it will be obsolete in 10 to 15 years.”

Beeple

Mike Winkelmann – also known as Beeple, an extremely successful digital NFT artist with millions of dollars in sales and resale – thinks that galleries will in fact cater to this emerging market.

As Winkelmann puts it, entities such as museums and auction houses are ‘gatekeepers’ and curators of the art world. And as the NFT world grows, the “noise” that accompanies the fact that it can be “reasonably cheap or easy” will produce art.

“I still think you want other people to cut through the noise and show them cool things,” Winkelmann told Insider. “I really don’t think it’s going to be the end of galleries or the end of some curation.”

For traditional galleries, this turning point could replace replaced artworks with hanging video screens that would display these new digital works, an idea that Winkelmann is already exploring.

Sergio Scalet of Hackatao, a pop-NFT art duo based in Italy, also believes that curators and art connoisseurs will be essential in this emerging scene to tell the stories of the works. Scalet believes it can create a meeting place between the NFT and traditional art worlds.

“Probably in the beginning the traditional art world will be defended, but as we can see from the creation of many new technologies and applications, the bridge is [between the two] happens, “Scalet told Insider.” Maybe these older entities [like galleries] must adapt and find a way to exist in this new space. ‘

And it seems like the traditional art world is already spinning fast. Previously, these works of (often digital) art would be rejected by old, standing art spaces. Now traditionalists are scrambling to get a piece of NFT art pie.

In February, for example, Christie listed ‘Everydays: The First 5,000 Days’ by Winkelmann. This will be the famous auction house’s first digital art sale and the first auction to accept cryptocurrency, specifically Ether.

The piece came to $ 3.5 million on March 5 and the auction will end on March 11.

Christies

The general art world’s growing receptivity to digital and NFT art is now being noticed by people who have long been integrated into the community.

‘No shadow, but there are many people [in the traditional art world] who would never have worked with us before we were in the NFT space, “Mark Sabb, founder of the artist collective Felt Zine, told Insider in an interview. They are like gallery owners and people we have looked at and understand that they will never want to work with us, represent us, or communicate really deeply with us who [are now doing so]. “

Felt Zine was founded about a decade ago to give ‘voice’ to art that is unlikely to be embraced by traditional galleries or museums.

Felt, who has always been deeply integrated into the digital art scene, was initially approached by artists who wanted the collective to enter the NFT space. These artists – whom Sabb calls ‘early adopters of NFT’ – began to ask Felt for sales representation and ‘crypto art exhibitions’.

Now the collective sees the success directly in the recent NFT art boom: month-on-month sales volume has risen by 500% since mid-December 2020, Sabb told Insider.

Felt also embraces the idea of ​​traditional art galleries and applies it to the online community by creating digital galleries and museums to showcase his artists’ work.

This is a ‘new way to experience this art’, says Sabb.

Feel Zine

However, Sabb does not expect galleries to lapse if they do not turn to this NFT boom due to the inherent differences in business models. Many collectors are also still collecting traditional and NFT art, which according to Sabb will grow.

“I think artists who feel empowered can change the relationship with some galleries, similar to the way streaming has affected the music industry, for better or worse,” Sabb said. “But in the end, we’re probably looking at a reality where we have a thriving NFT space, while the traditional art galleries still sell art as it always has.”

Sabb also notes that some art can be seen better in a typical gallery, while others perform better in a digital gallery. However, he still has his concerns.

“I think there is a reality where the NFT space can create more pressure for galleries to increasingly control the artists they represent if we are not careful,” Sabb said. “So yes, it can be liberating, but we have to work on it on purpose.”