Every single day more and more traditional artists are joining in on the NFTs space. The space was primarily for digital artist when things all started on the Ethereum network (the second largest cryptocurrency, currently housing the most popular and largest selection of NFT/Non Fungible Tokens.
As traditional artists slowly began to see the advantages of NFTs and how they will disrupt the modern day art market, artists began to really take note. Digital artists are rightfully unique in the their own way, most them primarily stick to only digital art. Traditional artist didn't really dabble in digital art and if they did it was very minimal.
What NFTs did though is create an incentive for both digital and traditional artists to create digital art on the blockchain. Some artist are even beginning to sell or auction off some of their artwork accepting cryptocurrency as payment (primarily Bitcoin and Ethereum), but that's a whole other topic.
JR announces his first NFT with Heni
The likes of Cleon Peterson, JR, and Shepard Fairey are just a few of the many traditional artists embracing the NFT space in full arms and taking advantage of what this new technology has to offer to artists all over the world. There's three different ways traditional artist can utilize NFTs towards their work, some may strictly produce a piece of work that is digital. If you aren't familiar with how NFT's work, I invite you to learn more here.
Others may produce a physical piece of artwork that also comes with a digital form of that exact piece. And the last, some artists are creating artwork and they allow buyers to choose to have either a physical copy of the artwork or a digital copy. Depending on which form the buyer chooses, the other form of the same piece of art will be burned.
Damien Hirst did just that with his creation titled The Currency, a collection of 10,000 NFTs, also known as Tenders. Which correspond to 10,000 unique physical artworks by Damien Hirst. There was an open application of one week, from 14 - 21 July 2021, with successful applicants able to buy an NFT for $2,000 USD or the physical copy of course.
Credit: HENI
NFTs Advantages over Traditional Physical Art
Macro economics investor Raoul Paul in an interview said "The analog version of something will always be more valuable than the physical version". Now some may say NFT's are just a trend and an absolute bubble, but when you look at it .. most investments in today's world are "bubbles". Whatever your opinion may be on NFT's, they're here to stay and they're being adopted by the masses. The free market is continuing to validate them.
World On Fire - Cleon Peterson via NIFTYGATEWAY
I myself, being an art collector do prefer physical art, I enjoy seeing the physical form in my home and being able to gaze at my collection in person. But despite preferring physical art myself, I will admit NFTs have many more advantages over physical art.
Here's a quick and short description list on why NFTS are so much more superior than Physical Art.
- NFT's don't need to be stored in your home or storage, so you don't have to bother with purchasing a frame and you don't have to worry about storing them correctly, like you do with physical artwork
- Theft, physical artwork can be stolen from you, this is why Picasso's are sitting in heavily secured warehouses in Switzerland. NFT's sit on the blockchain
- Authentication, I'm sure you're aware of fake art being produced all over the world. NFT's cannot be faked, they're on the blockchain associated with a token and the blockchain is visible for all to see --- If someone is the rightful owner an NFT, they're able to move/send that token to you in the transaction. So when purchasing, you will never have to worry about authentication.
- Artist's are treated fairly when it comes to compensation for their artwork. NFT's are smart contracts, they're programable meaning you control them ---- For example, an artist could implement into the code that every time their artwork resells they get 20% of a sale. This means artist's are not only making money in the initial sale of their work but they're able to make money after
- Your investment is more liquid, meaning it's easier to buy or sell on the market. Physical artwork you need to find a buyer for through various platforms or galleries, a more challenging task then selling your NFT
- NFTs are valued in Ethereum an overall appreciating asset, unlike traditional artwork which tends to be valued in government currency, primarily the USD
And NO, screenshooting an NFT does not mean that you know "own it". The owner claims rights to the token and is able to move that token as they please.
I'm going to say it again because I think it's important to look into and know. "The analog version of something will always be more valuable than the physical version" - Raoul Paul
