The rise of NFTs have brought great implications in the posthuman era; blurring the boundaries between virtual and reality, humans and technology, and other factors. As NFT world breeds a new generation of Artists and Collectors, what does it have in store for traditional agencies and institutions? And how do we make sure that purpose and creativity is not lost with this new form?
APENFT Foundation, as a leading NFT marketplace with an exclusive digital art collection on its own, recently launched the Art Dream Fund Round II, which encourages potential digital artists around the world to submit their works. Led by Tron Founder H.E. Justin Sun and Director of APENFT Foundation Sydney Xiong, Round II offers up to $100,000 in awards plus guidance and exposure for the winners. In line with the Fund’s theme of ‘Post Human Age’, APENFT partnered with ArtReview, one of the world’s leading contemporary art magazines, to bring a series of panel discussions with globally renowned artists to discuss NFTs in the Post Human age.
On August 9th 2022, the first live panel discussion was held and joined by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle and Sidney Xiong. Led by JJ Charlesworth (Editor at ArtReview), the group discussed topics surrounding the global rise of NFTs — the threats and challenges that they present to artists, collectors and the traditional artworld in general.
Speakers:
Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Gallery
Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle, Global Online Sales Director, Pace Gallery
Sydney Xiong, Director, APENFT and Secretary General, Art Dream Fund
JJ Charlesworth, Editor at ArtReview (moderator)
Initially discussing the influence of NFTs, Christina stressed that despite NFT’s sporadic growth in 2021, it is important to follow artists who work to produce quality art — and not run with the hype. Everyone within the NFT space must work towards maintaining quality, especially with projects that naturally speak to the technology. Working on the gallery side, Christina herself has been witnessing the transformation that is taking place.
Hans shared that artists have always engaged with technology. Speaking from a public institutional standpoint, he and his team have been researching on how NFTs can be a new form of public art. Development of the Metaverse is interesting for the future of Art, but there is always the danger we might get stuck — art has the power to save us from a quantified world.
Sydney discussed how NFTs have allowed a new group of collectors to grow — more than 70% of NFT bidders being new to art, and almost half of them are less than 40 years old. Early NFT collectors have demonstrated a background in the Crypto/Web3 space. NFTs have also greatly opened the space for new artists to display their space, and adds new metrics to evaluate an artist in new ways.
If you’d like to listen to the entire panel discussion, click here to view the recap on the ArtReview website. Thank you to all the speakers and ArtReview for this informative discussion. Stay tuned for the next event!
If you are an artist who is interested in joining the Art Dream Fund, you can visit our website to learn more about the Fund and benefits.
