Metaverses, NFTs, and the future of art
Canvas and oil paintings? While these are classic mediums used by artists to this day, the future of art is now in Metaverses and NFTs. Or at least, that’s what cryptoartist Eloh alluded to during the opening event for his latest collection.
Physical art isn’t going anywhere; however, it can now be represented and authenticated through digital non-fungible tokens. This is a great development in the art world. It allows creators to continue enjoying traditional mediums like canvas, oil paintings, or even street art, with the added benefit of authenticating it on the blockchain. NFTs present an endless variety of applications and can be issued for anything and everything, from digital artworks to physical murals.
Nowadays, gallery openings happen online, in Metaverses, parallel realities of sorts. Somnium Space is one of these virtual realities. Allowing creators to buy or rent virtual parcels and land, Somnium Space presents users with blockchain-based real estate. In Eloh’s case, a space to host his gallery opening event.
Blockchain technology has opened up a whole new world of possibilities before developers to create virtual and augmented realities, where people can meet and interact. Metaverses are gaining popularity among artists because of the opportunity to design a gallery space from scratch, giving creators the chance to personalize the whole experience. While traditionally gallery openings have been regarded as events limited to a select few, today, Metaverses open up access to such events for anyone, wherever in the world they might be.
Presenting in front of an audience of at least fifty people, Eloh and Artur, a driving force behind Somnium Space, talked about all things cryptoart.
Eloh on NFTs
The event centered around introducing nine unique NFT artworks, capturing Eloh’s journey through exploring his creativity. He explained that getting into NFTs is an adventure. His artistic career began right after high school when he met his first mentor, a tattoo artist. Talking about his progress from oil paintings, through graphic design for the video game industry, to NFTs, Eloh emphasized that art isn’t simply a visually pleasing artifact but rather the artists’ interpretation of their own mind and reality.
When it comes to NFTs, Eloh shared that he first got into the blockchain space in 2017, when he came across the works of cryptoartist Stellabelle. What impressed him back then was the power of building entire artistic communities thanks to NFT art. Communication between an artist and their fans is what makes art magical, while NFTs make cryptoart accessible and global.
When Eloh sold his first piece of NFT art in 2020, he still was not convinced that this was the way to go. He was looking for a way to integrate blockchain authentication in his physical works, which wasn’t yet widely available. Today, thanks to the rise in popularity of NFTs and the development of platforms like OpenSea, SuperRare, and Minty.Art, Eloh is more than excited to be minting NFTs for both digital and physical works.
Eloh on cryptoart marketplaces
While Eloh admits that cryptoart marketplaces have developed greatly since 2018, he still has concerns, especially with NFTs entering the mainstream.
One of the most important areas of improvement for cryptoart marketplaces would be to ensure that artworks are original and owned by the people presenting them. An example he gave was that it is extremely easy to take someone else’s artwork and alter a small detail, add a tiny Ethereum logo to it, and then present this piece as an original. Despite that, Eloh encouraged artists to get in on cryptoart, as marketplaces continue to grow and develop, introducing more vigilant vetting processes to their workflow. At Minty.Art, we know how important authenticity is, which is why our onboarding and vetting processes are optimized to ensure the originality of artworks presented on our marketplace.
Concluding the official opening event, Eloh answered questions from the crowd and touched upon the most important steps for artists to enter the cryptoart space. For him, creating a community of true fans, patrons, and dedicated supporters of your art is an essential step to becoming a successful cryptoartist. NFTs present a great opportunity to do that, but successfully fostering a connection with collectors and fans is up to the artist. His advice? Be active on social media, share and talk with your community, and attract organic attention to your work.
Today, there are numerous social media channels where artists can create communities. However, one of the biggest pitfalls creators face is managing all these communities. This is why Minty.Art brings everything together in a single platform, where artists, patrons, and collectors interact with each other every step of the way. Minty.Art allows artists to concentrate their efforts in a single social space while connecting with their communities in both the real and virtual worlds.
Minty.Art and Somnium Space
We are constantly looking for revolutionary approaches to art, and Somnium Space is definitely opening up opportunities.
Virtual realities are now gaining traction, which is why Minty.Art is actively working on creating a dedicated space on Somnium. If you have ideas about the design and structure of the Minty.Art parcel on Somnium Space, please reach out at VR@minty.art!