And then suddenly one of the popular photographers I work with breaks through as an NFT artist; the Belgian Nicolas Bets . I heard the grin on his face through the phone. 'It's really crazy, Nicky, but so much fun,' he says in English with a heavy French accent.
Luckily I knew what an NFT was when he called, thanks to one of my teenage sons who had been talking about it for a while. So that has its advantages sometimes ;)
And with my sober thought: 'This is something so intangible and involves such an exorbitant amount of money, it will surely blow over quickly,' I completely missed the mark.
A bit more technical: an NFT (non-fungible token) is a non-fungible proof of ownership of, for example, a digital work of art. These tokens have a unique ID that is registered in the blockchain, a kind of chain of multiple linked databases. This makes the origin of each NFT traceable: the creator, previous owners and what they paid for it. Transparent and unchangeable; you can't just stick a zero behind the value thanks to this blockchain technology.
NFTs are offered on special marketplaces, of which OpenSea is currently the most well-known. Auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's now also have NFT auctions. World stars such as Shawn Mendes and Snoop Dog release NFTs, fashion brands such as Gucci and Burberry make NFTs as well as footballers Frenkie de Jong and Lionel Messi... It really is a huge hype.
From 'my' photographer Nicolas Bets it is a very smart move. The transition to making NFTs is small for a photographer who is already completely at home in digital (photo) art. Moreover, he has already created sufficient support with his work and built up a large fan base.
The good news for anyone who has bought work by Nicolas Bets in the past is that it was a good investment; his entire oeuvre has increased in value. The bad news for anyone who is interested in his work now: his entire oeuvre has increased in value. The photographs by Nicolas Bets are still available at Art & Pictures, in a slightly different price range but Limited Editions, signed and including a certificate, that is.
'About last week'
The tour in the Depot of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen was a great success! What a fun, enthusiastic group! By popular demand, I have reserved a new tour: Friday, July 1 from 2-3 pm. Will you email me if you want to join (again)? nicky@artandpictures.nl
Mafia al Dente: brilliant photo by Nicolas Bets, the longer you look the more you see. Now also available as NFT.
artist Annejole Jacobs - de Jongh will be present at Art & Pictures during Art Laren
Jole (Annejole Jacobs – de Jongh) creates modern mixed-media artworks 'with a story'. As free work and on commission for individuals and companies. Using all kinds of digital images, photos and texts, she creates a design and then puts it on canvas in a mix of print and painting. The backgrounds of the paintings are made up of different layers of digital images, texts and scanned originals that Jole collects about the subject in question. The images she uses come from art, history, music, literature or contemporary times.
There will also be work by artist Barbara Houwers on display at Art & Pictures during Art Laren
Barbara Houwers has been a successful Dutch artist for about 30 years and became known for her paintings of human figures, often painted in subdued earth tones. The human figure dominates Barbara Houwers' oeuvre. This was already the case in her early autonomous works when she made her debut in the early nineties after her education at the HKU Academy. In her paintings from that period we mainly see stylized and isolated human figures. By combining the human figure with shapes and colors, a life story is created in which emotions and experiences from that life are expressed.
