|
The First Art Newspaper on the Net |
|
Established in 1996 |
|
Saturday, November 23, 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
France submits the baguette for UNESCO heritage status
Patricia Fleming Gallery opens Christian Newby's 'The drum, the chime, the scrape, the splash, the jerk'
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
National Book Critics Circle names 2020 award winners
Can you autograph a playbill through your screen?
Olympia Auctions partners with institutions for fundraising initiative
Exhibition explores human relationships between buildings, landscape and wellbeing
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
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, . |
|
|
|
Royalville Communications, Inc produces:
|
|
|
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
|
|