Black artists tend to be left out of the mainstream art world, but are getting their art exposed, and sold, through non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. NFTs are becoming part of the digital art world — and Black artists selling NFTs are starting to benefit.
On the art global market, just 1.2 percent is artwork, according to September 2018 data. NFTs are opening Black art to the international marketplace, say NFT proponents.
What Are NFTs?
NFTs are digital assets that represent real-world items such as art, music and videos. Bought and sold online, most often with cryptocurrency, NFTs can be anything from drawings to Internet memes.
How Do You Buy and Sell NFTs?
People can buy NFTs from marketplaces like OpenSea or Nifty Gateway. There are also sites for specific NFTs like valuables that even sell tweets.
How Do Black Artists Benefit from NFTs?
By October 2021, 73,000 art NFTs were sold, according to Statista. While Medium notes that the average price of an NFT sold is $100, African-American artists can still benefit from selling their art as NFTs. According to crypto gallery ONE/OFF, 58 Black crypto artists sold 513 pieces of digital artwork for $736,000 from January to November 2020.
“The fact that there is a public record of ownership that’s easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection makes the challenge of proving authenticity almost non-existent,” he said, adding that digital currency always allows artists to protect their intellectual property while cutting down middle-man costs,” Herman Marigny, founder of ONE/OFF gallery, told Business Insider.
Read more about how to buy Black art NFTs here.
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