Leading online art gallery Saatchi Art announces Visions of the Future, a new jury-curated NFT auction featuring works by 50 fine art photographers, opening this August. The project follows on the heels of the gallery’s first NFT collection, The Other Avatars, which sold out to the public in just 20 minutes earlier this year. Inspired by the massive changes society has undergone in the last decade since the online gallery’s founding, the new exhibition looks to artists to envision and explore what the future might look like—near or far, utopian or dystopian.
“Artists have always been at the forefront of cultural and technological shifts. In this time of rapid evolution and uncertainty, we wanted to highlight work by members of the photographic arts community who are imagining a future beyond traditional artistic boundaries,” said Capucine Jenkins, Senior Manager of Digital Art and NFTs at Saatchi Art.
Saatchi Art has tapped a panel of world-class creatives and thought-leaders in the fine art photography and NFT space to select works by 50 artists to be included in the auction. Jury members include Jenkins, as well as Monty Preston, curator and creative director behind The Other Avatars. Ryan Stanier, founder of The Other Art Fair; artist and activist Akosua Adu-Sanyah; co-founder and director of the Museum of Crypto Art, Colborn Bell; and fine art photographer Miss Aniela make up the rest of the panel.
As part of the project, NFT collectors will be offered a first-of-its-kind “phygital”—physical and digital—art experience. Each work selected for the auction will be produced in a physical limited edition of 3, by Saatchi Art on behalf of the artists. 1 edition will be redeemable by the auction winner; the other 2 editions may be redeemed through the end of 2022 by any subsequent holders of tokens bought on the secondary market.
“As one of the only online art galleries selling both physical and digital art, we are uniquely positioned to present a project like Visions of the Future,” said Wayne Chang, General Manager of Saatchi Art. “By integrating both physical and digital elements, we’re enriching the collecting experience for both traditional art lovers and NFT natives in a way that only Saatchi Art could achieve.”
The photographs will live on the Ethereum blockchain as ERC-721 tokens and the underlying artwork will be hosted on IPFS (Interplanetary File System). The limited edition museum-quality prints will be produced and framed by Bay Photo. The auction will be previewed first to token holders of The Other Avatars. A list of featured artists will be forthcoming.
About Saatchi Art
Leading online art gallery Saatchi Art features one of the world’s largest selections of original art and helps people all over the world find art and artists they love. The online art gallery offers original paintings, drawings, sculptures and photographs by over 100,000 emerging artists from over 100 countries. Saatchi Art is redefining the experience of buying and selling art by providing art lovers with free art advisory services and an expertly curated selection of art, while giving artists a convenient and welcoming environment in which to exhibit and sell their work.
Photo by Alvan Nee on Unsplash
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