Sharjah’s House of Wisdom in the United Arab Emirates will hold its first non-fungible token (NFT) exhibition from March 1st to April 15th. It will feature 60 international artists and 15 artists from the United Arab Emirates.
Director of the House of Wisdom Marwa Al Aqroubi said the event serves two primary purposes. The first is to provide artists the opportunity to harness the nascent, innovative NFT technology for more success. The second is to “enhance” the House’s position in the art world as a leading destination for emerging art trends.
The exhibition, titled “Gateway to the Metaverse,” has not announced the names of the participating artists yet. Still, reports suggest that they will come from the MENA region, Europe, Asia, the USA, and the United Arab Emirates.
Alongside the exhibition, Sharjah’s House of Wisdom will host a two-day seminar introducing artists to NFT technology and the inclusive metaverse. One workshop will inform artists on how to use the technology for professional gain.
The event seeks to target various types of individuals and entities, including artists, cultural institutions, tech enthusiasts, and art collectives. It also will attempt to promote dialogue across interested parties about the metaverse and NFT technology.
NFT Art Has Exploded Since Beeple’s $69.4 Million Sale
Although many NFT projects launched before 2021, it wasn’t until March of that year that NFT art rose to prominence. During that month, an artist by the name of Beeple sold a single artwork for $69.4 million, a record price for a digital artwork at the time.
Since then, many artists have crossed over into the world of non-fungible tokens, selling their art pieces on some of the best NFT art marketplaces like Nifty Gateway, Foundation, and SuperRare. Popular 1/1 artists include Dario de Siena, Pak, TylerXHobbs, and XCOPY.
NFTs, one-of-a-kind digital items stored on blockchains, offer a different utility for digital artists. Because of the technology, collectors have an actual record saying they own the work, art historians can prove the provenance of a digital piece, and scarcity can lead to sales.
NFTs turn on its head the ubiquitous digital model that saw pieces of art “owned” by Big Tech companies or shared with abandon on social media. Art has proven to be one of NFTs’ first use cases, a movement still taking place in 2022.