Black creators embrace selling in the digital sphere, NFTs anyone?
By P. Andrews-Keenan
Black creators are stepping into the world of digital creation and sales. Nonfungible tokens, NFTs, allow artists to create digital works with unique identifiers, that can be purchased with crypto currency that exists on a secure blockchain. Selling your digital masterpiece in this way solves the age-old problem of how to secure your work and stop the pilfering that happens in the public domain.
A NFT is a digital file created using blockchain computer code. This is similar to the code that makes Bitcoin. Blockchain is currently believed to be the most secure way to transfer digital data and offers two distinct advantages within the art world by answering the questions, is the artwork real, and do I have the authority to sell it to you?
Some of the earliest art sold this way goes back to 2014 when the work The Last Bitcoin Supper by French artist Youl, sold dor nearly USD $3000 on eBay. Fast forward to tsday when the The EverLasting Beautiful by FEWOCiOUS sold for $550,000 this year on the digital marketplace Nifty Gateway. It’s important to note that you purchase digital works using a digital currency like ETHs, acquired on the platform Ethereum. There are other platforms and currencies, like the recently hyped Dogecoin, so, beware that when the value of the digital currency is impacted, so is the value of work purchased with it.
What remains to be seen is if more Black artists will jump into the fray. Among those testing the waters now are Ted Ellis, whose work can be found on Rarible, muralist Rahmaan Statik and Charly Palmer. Ellis offers that often when these seismic shifts happen in the art world, Black artists only enter once the time has passed for reaping significant financial rewards. A few Chicago artists are trolling the waters.
Edo Santana “Edo” White is introducing his first “NFT Drop” on June 7th on the platform Spree. Other NFT marketplaces include OpenSea, Rariable, and Atomic Market. White’s Chicago Way Collection includes the works Santana At War, Don’t Be Mad, Black Cat, Hebru, Forevermore, And I Wonder, and The Blessings I’m Allowed to See. As with his painted works, the pieces contain messages he likens to puzzles. They even come with a reference guide. Of his NFT launch, White says, “I started in the digital space and wasn’t taken seriously until I started painting, the NFT craze validates the work I put into my digital pieces.”
Chicago artists Dana Todd Pope, Martha A. Wade and Leslie Honore are showcasing their NFTs at Connect Gallery, as part of an all-female show called Florecer opening June 12th. Their works will be offered on the OpenSeamarketplace.
See links in this newsletter to articles in Vanity Fair and the New York Times to educate yourself on this new form of art creation.
