Miami Art Week 2022: NFTs and Web-3 Deepen their roots

by · December 12, 2022

Miami Art Week 2022: NFTs and Web-3 Deepen their roots

Art Basel, now 20 years old, has made itself a home for digital art and the wider crypto communities; they entered a festival that focused mostly on contemporary art and art.

Web3, NFTs and Metaverse took over the many convention halls, art rooms and music venues in the city of Miami – there was even an NFT wedding.

Here’s a look at what happened at Art Basel 2022, the cornerstone of Miami Art Week, where thousands of artists, brands, content creators, and digital fashion houses gathered to support the digital landscape, and of course, display their artwork—some in NFTs and some in physical shape.

Number of participants in the Art Basel Doubles

Nearly 80,000 attendees attended — double the number compared to 2021 — including Miami’s crypto-friendly mayor, Francis Suarez, who attended Keith Grossman’s dinner to celebrate his departure from Time Magazine to become president of crypto payment service MoonPay.

Mayor Suarez also had a few words for the over 100 attendees at the dinner:

“When we make, there are going to be car accidents. But it’s wonderful to have a network of people who are here to support you, who have incredible knowledge of this emerging technology, and who are going to pave the way for the future.”

There were a large number of Web3-related events at Art Basel, which luckily saw a high number of crypto enthusiasts, showing a positive sign of high morale in the community despite the crypto winter.

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TIMEPieces, a web3 community and initiative of TIME Magazine, created a gallery of physical artworks by some of their supported artists at Art Basel. The gallery of over 100 photographers was curated by John Knopf, an Emmy-nominated photographer and NFT enthusiast.

Digital fashion also had a role at Art Basel with the Metaverse Fashion Week brunch, hosted by Megan Kaspar, director of crypto investment firm Firstlight and founder of fashion house Red DAO.

Metaverse Fashion Week Brunch

What made Art Basel different this year?

Simple: eccentric NFTs and degenerate holders who made fortunes buying and selling overpriced Bored Apes were not the main center of attention.

Compared to last year, we can now fully see the greater collision and acceptance of the two worlds: the digital and the traditional art world, both mixed in a single cultural conversation and space. And what reinforced this acceptance was the much more professional tone of web3 and NFT related events.

Instead, agreements were made. Alo Yoga, the casual wear brand, set up an all-convenience facility where the biggest names in the Web2 and Web3 industries did business.

Overall, the interest was not strongly shifted towards the latest NFT projects and artworks showcased in the galleries, but more towards the usefulness of NFTs and the current state of Web3 and what is currently the roadmap for the industry.

NFTs have expanded the spectrum of utility rather than simply representing ownership of monkeys and pixelated punks. We can now see them in action IRL as real apartments sold as NFTsorganizers and promoters tokenizing tickets, NFTs in healthcare — the list goes on, and it’s all thanks to the immutable technology of blockchain.

The Gateway: A Web3 Metropolis

Speaking of MoonPay, the company also ran The Gateway 2022 edition – the first ever Web3 metropolis hosted by NFT Now and Mana Common. The 5-day event took over 12 buildings and 2 city blocks in downtown Miami to host leading NFT artists, collectors, influencers and Web3 builders gathered to support and discuss the current state and future of all things crypto.

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Gateway’s speaker lineup was a mix of artists, influencers, executives and web3 developers, including Roger Dickerman, founder of ARTIFEX, and Raf Grassetti, Studio Art Director at Sony SMS, known for developing the God of War video game series.

“Without royalties, we trust institutions”

The Gateway panel focused not only on the logistics and utility of real-life NFTs, but also on how it can provide new opportunities for visionary artists to launch their projects through NFT royalties.

Joining The Gateway panel was Julie Pacino, a filmmaker who bankrolled $1 million for her film –I live here now— using an NFT project called “Keepers of the Inn”, consisting of 3356 images taken during the rehearsal process. This allowed Pacino to finally launch her film, which was a raw representation of the realities of the Colombian city of Medellin across 16 municipalities.

Furthermore, royalties were talked about as a way for artists to better connect with the public and defend their work. Aussie NFT artist Betty, Fsub-leader of the NFT project Deadfellaz, put together with Matt Medved, co-founder and CEO of NFT Now. She stated that without royalties, artists would have to rely on institutions again.

“It disempowers us, which disproportionately affects marginalized creators. I am here to protect these people and champion these people.”

Rug Radio Drops NFT Collection for Its Loved Community

Rug Radio, a decentralized social media platform with the motto “own the narrative” made his presence known at the event, hosted a party and made a few community announcements, with Rug Radio founder Farokh unveiling a new PFP collection featuring art by NFT content creator Cory Van Lew.

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When asked what inspired him to launch the collection, Farokh said, “for me this is just to give something to our holders. I want to think that people are proud to be part of our community.”

DCentral 2022 takes over Miami Art Week with ten discussion panels

DCentral, one of the largest Web3 events held in Miami, had to book double capacity to accommodate over 10,000 attendees compared to last year.

The event took place on November 29 during Miami Art Week, with ten talks and panels to cover several stages, including Web3, NFTs, DeFi and digital fashion. To say the speaker lineup this year was interesting is an understatement. It included Web3 executives, NFT artists, crypto influencers and even rappers, NBA players and UFC fighters.

DCentral’s Speaker Selection 2022.

One of the big announcements came from American record producer Timbaland with his upcoming NFT project TimboLand.

Final Thoughts: Despite the market downturn, NFT morale is high

Current events surrounding the crypto market have caused investors, traders and the general public to lose confidence and faith in the industry. Nevertheless, morale is still high, which is proven by double the number of participants at the three events.

This year was filled with speakers from all backgrounds: executives, artists, content creators, musicians and fashion designers exploring and supporting the next roadmap for the Web3 industry. But what really set the tone higher is the professional tone set by NFT and Web3 organizers with multiple stages talking about the future of the industry, rather than overpriced and hyped projects taking over the stage.

Overall, we can say that NFTs have reached a point of maturity, evolving into something much more useful, and therefore more valuable than just extravagant works of art.

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