PARIS, Feb. 28, 2023 /CNW/ -- When it comes to surfing the internet, we often speak of "falling into a rabbit hole", an allusion to the first chapter in Lewis Carroll's novel Alice in Wonderland, and the same notion is equally appropriate as regards the sometimes bewildering and unbounded experience in the Web3 and crypto-art sphere. To help you navigate in this virtual world, and at a time when the MoMA in New York, the LACMA in Los Angeles, and the Center Pompidou in Paris are opening their collections to digital art, Artprice suggests five ways to discover art that can be transferred from owner to owner in the form of NFTs.

"The crypto-art sphere is often described as operating like a 'community'; the more you invest in a project, the more qualitative information you receive. This is how the Discord platform works, for example, which offers to create different more or less private chat rooms for each project. Some allow everyone to participate in the discussions, but the most interesting chat rooms are those reserved for collectors or founding members."

Despite the many criticisms made of Twitter, Elon Musk's platform remains the royal road of Web3. Not only do digital artists use this channel to present their works as and when they are created, but they also relay the posts in which they – and all those they like – are quoted. Each page, therefore, contains countless dynamic links to other artists and other works, but also to collectors, curators, marketplaces, etc.

To start with, one can follow any of the top performing NFT artists at auction that Artprice lists in its annual reports. The major auction houses are indeed doing valuable work by selecting NFT works that meet the same requirements as the traditional art market. But, as one thing leads to another in the digital world, and one artist leads to another, Twitter then makes it possible to continuously discover new works and new creators, but also to be the first to know about upcoming projects.

The decisions by Christie's, Sotheby's, Phillips, Bonhams but also Fauve, Van Ham, Millon, and many other auction operators to amply include NFT lots in their sales proves – even if it no longer needs to be proved – the seriousness of NFT technology and the artistic creation it allows. The most prestigious galleries, like Pace and Gagosian, have also understood this, yet few media dare to offer any real artistic critique of NFT projects. This work (art criticism), so crucial to art history, would undoubtedly make a better appreciation of the approaches taken by digital artists and of their relationships to Blockchain technology, and to the 'communities' that support them.

Transparency is one of the main credos of the Blockchain and as such, it is possible to consult the collection to which each work belongs, to discover other works that the same entity collects... and so on. True, the real identity of collectors often remains anonymous or hides behind a pseudonym, and yes, NFTs can be transferred from one wallet to another to increase security and cover their tracks, but there is always a way to reconstitute their history.

The most dynamic collectors have also become the true tutelary figures of crypto-art. Until museums and galleries become active in this universe, the major collectors of NFTs still have a very substantial influence, whether by sharing their favorites on social media, collaborating with artists, or exhibiting their collections in virtual universes or physical places as the prestigious Art Basel Miami or by offering them for sale via traditional auction houses.

Crypto-art is now coming to public places, galleries, and museums. From the great hall of the MoMA to Times Square, digital art is gradually investing some of the biggest screens on the planet and some of the most prestigious museums. Advertising spaces and exhibition halls are coming together for the first time in history, no doubt, to show a new type of work, at the crossroads of art and technology, which sometimes looks a whole lot better on a big screen than on a smartphone or a laptop screen.

At the same time, almost everywhere in the world, art fairs offer to investigate this universe more deeply and to experiment with digital creation in the best possible conditions. These events provide opportunities to meet the different players who form a real 'ecosystem' and to meet the 'community' which allows digital artists to largely bypass art galleries, and which brings together entrepreneurs, developers, collectors, and enthusiasts.

However… nothing replaces the experience of a first NFT acquisition. Not only does it force you to find a work that deserves to be purchased among the millions offered on platforms like opensea.io or objkt.com, but this process also requires you to complete an unusual transaction, to say the least. Although some platforms now offer payment in euros or dollars, the vast majority of them require the creation of a (free) electronic wallet, powered by cryptocurrency. This operation may seem complicated, but it is an integral part of the universe on which crypto-art is based and therefore of the experience it offers.

In the absence of galleries, artists organize their own markets, choosing what, when, and how to put their works on sale, at what price, and in what quantity. Unique digital works (1/1) are the most sought-after, but larger editions offer a more affordable opportunity to collect pieces. Among the novelties of the NFT market, the Open Editions are particularly exciting, since these projects put an unlimited number of tokens on sale at a fixed price, but for only a few days or even a few hours...

[https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2023/02/image1-weekly-nft-auction-proceeds-vs-ethereum-price.png]

[https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2023/02/image2-artmarket-top-10-artists-by-nft-auction-turnover-2021-2022.png]

• Don't hesitate to contact our Econometrics Department for your requirements regarding statistics and personalized studies: [email protected]
• Try our services (free demo): https://www.artprice.com/demo
• Subscribe to our services: https://www.artprice.com/subscription

Artmarket with its Artprice department accumulates data on a permanent basis from 6500 Auction Houses and produces key Art Market information for the main press and media agencies (7,200 publications). Its 7.2 million ('members log in'+social media) users have access to ads posted by other members, a network that today represents the leading Global Standardized Marketplace® to buy and sell artworks at a fixed or bid price (auctions regulated by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article L 321.3 of France's Commercial Code).

Discover the alchemy and universe of Artmarket and its artprice department https://www.artprice.com/video headquartered at the famous Organe Contemporary Art Museum "The Abode of Chaos" (dixit The New York Times): https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013