How Expressions NFT Marketplace aims to uplift global communities
Next week, NFT platform Expressions – a marketplace dedicated to supporting underrepresented global art communities in the Web3 will launch its genesis art project – Origins & Ancestries. The drop is the first of ten that will take place over the next year and will showcase 1,000 artworks from 12 Caribbean artists, including Sofía Maldonado-Suárez (Puerto Rico), Edward Bowen (Trinidad), Carlos Davila Rinaldi (Puerto Rico ), Isabel Berenos (Curaçao) and more.
Expressions were created with an expansive goal in mind; Web3, for all its open-access rhetoric, remains frustratingly Western-focused, with North American and European artists dominating trends and headlines. To better shed light on efforts to expand the horizons of the NFT ecosystem, we spoke with JD Lasica, co-founder of Amberfi, the technology solutions platform behind Expressions, and Amberfi’s director of marketing and community, Milena Rimassa, to talk about Expressions’ ambitions. and why the NFT ecosystem must ensure that all boats rise with the tide.
Expressions: a platform for global communities
Like misperceptions of the gender imbalance in Web3, the stereotype of the white male crypto art space is an unfortunately persistent caricature. Similarly, the Black community in Web3 is doing amazing work in the space, with artists and founders alike helping to carry the culturally diverse torch forward.
Lasica and Rimassa are well aware of this fact and aim to prevent the recurrence of inequalities so common in the traditional art world.
“We really feel that the Web3 space needs more diversity,” Lasica told nft now. “Not enough women are involved, not enough artists and creatives from underserved, unheard art environments are involved. Why can’t we make our ownership economy work in a way that benefits everyone?”
“There are so many artists across this planet who were underrepresented in previous iterations of the art world,” Rimassa said while speaking to nft now. “And there’s a lot of art that exists out there that can finally monetize ways to provide a sustainable life for others for marginalized groups.”
The artists participating in Expression’s first promotion, Origins & Ancestors, also believe that Web3 can and should encapsulate a much wider range of artists and cultures than it does today.
“As an artist from Curaçao, it is exciting to share my work alongside talented creators who explore themes of identity, culture and heritage,” Berenos said in a press release shared with nft now. “Being a part of this project means more than just showcasing my art. It’s about contributing to a larger conversation about who we are and our origins.”
Build with artists in mind
Lasica and the Amberfi team have spent the past year talking to “thousands of creatives” around the world to better understand what they want out of Web3 and how they want to engage with it. Most people, he says, feel that the big NFT marketplaces out there don’t meet their needs around intellectual property protection and ease of use. Expressions was built with these artists not only in mind, but also on board, and Lasica said they regularly invite artists to Zoom calls and Slack channels to “build the platform together.”
The platform will contain a one percent marketplace fee for sellers and a 1.9 percent fee for sellers for each NFT sold. Lasica and the team try to keep things relatively affordable on the market, while adding value in the form of curation and opportunities for artists to establish themselves in Web3. Benefits to creatives and collectors will include free coin, enforceable royalties, USD pegged pricing (paid via ETH, MATIC or credit card), private workspaces for creators and more.
Expression’s season two release comes in July and will feature 12 artists from the African continent. In the future, members of the Expressions community will be able to vote on the next geographic region the platform will focus on, with options including South Asia, South America, Aboriginal communities in Australia, First Nations and more. For those interested in getting early access to the site, head over to the platform’s Discord to learn more.
