NFT Art in Africa boomer – ARTnews.com

In November last year, Art X Lagos, West Africa’s largest art fair, teamed up with the leading NFT platform SuperRare to host Reloading…, one of the first NFT exhibitions for African artists. Featuring artists from Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa, Senegal and elsewhere, the show has been described by those in the West African scene as an important milestone that draws international attention to what African digital artists are doing.

The show “brings so much freedom and independence to the artists, and really only opens up their possibilities,” said Tokini Peterside, founder of Art X Lagos, Reuters at the time.

Meanwhile, in March, the Center for Contemporary Art Lagos held an introductory digital workshop on NFTs, moderated by Tomiwa Lasebikan, co-founder of Buy Coins Africa. One month later, the African Digital Art Network launched the NFT marketplace Nandi for, as co-founder Chinedu Enekwe told Decrypt, “build an ecosystem “that can” help brands and creators get paid. “

The buzzing around Reloading… and these other initiatives reflect the fact that cryptocurrencies and digital art already have a large presence in Nigeria and across Africa. And it’s just getting bigger.

Between July 2020 and June 2021, Africa received $ 105.6 billion in cryptocurrency payments, an increase of about 1200 percent from the previous year, according to a March report of the blockchain data platform Chainalysis. Meanwhile, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa were all ranked among the top ten countries for crypto use.

But despite this seemingly broad crypto adoption, African digital art still has challenges to overcome.

Early last year, the Nigerian government banned banks and financial institutions from using cryptocurrencies, prompting many Nigerians to empty their cryptocurrencies in a wave of panic. Mens Nigeria announced new rules earlier this month to ease the restrictions, across a dozen African countries still has a full ban – including Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

The bans have weakened the digital art ecosystems in these countries. While several technology-savvy Nigerians managed to circumvent the ban, Victor Ekwealor, a Nigerian technology journalist, said it prevented most people from investing in crypto art in the months that followed.

“Many African artists market to me directly because there are not enough collectors to buy their art,” said Daliso Ngoma, a South African NFT collector and founder of African Technopreneurs.

Similarly, Rodney Asikhia, the owner of Tribes Art Africa, a gallery of contemporary art in Lagosobserved, “The percentage of protection of NFTs by African artists is relatively low compared to the protection of works by artists from elsewhere.”

This problem arises because most collectors of digital art by African artists are Africans. And Africa simply does not have enough investors with high net worth to gather NFTs at competitive international prices that can sustain the larger ecosystem. More global acceptance and protection of the works of these artists by international collectors would lead to greater growth of digital art on the continent.

Another obstacle to the ecosystem is the weak economies of African countries. The embossing of an NFT can cost anywhere from a few dollars up to several hundred, depending on gas fees – the varying processing fee for crypto transactions – and the platform on which the digital work is embossed. However, even Just initializing your account will cost about $ 60-70 on most platforms, according to The Verge. In countries like Nigeria or Kenya, where the minimum wage is about $ 100 – 130 per month, many artists struggle to earn enough to impress their works.

Artists like Osinachi, Young Kev, Kevin Kamau and others agree that giving artists the means to shape their first NFTs will increase participation in the crypto room. Some artists have even undertaken to do so on an informal person-to-person basis, and have played their part in making this field of blockchain assets expansive and inclusive.

But while artists have supported each other, Africa’s NFT sector needs infrastructure comparable to the traditional art world. In the self-sustaining ecosystem, artists create work, gallery owners and art dealers market and promote it, and collectors buy it. In the meantime, art institutions exist to support, develop and maintain artists as well as facilitate the growth and promotion of art. Introducing this high level of organization and function to the digital art space will help more interested people, along with the experienced actors, to grow and promote digital art across Africa.

To this end, Charles Mbata, a digital art collector and curator, and Chuma Anagbado, an artist and entrepreneur, bring together artists, enthusiasts and cultural figures to build a crypto-art community in Nigeria.

One of their initiatives is the Nigeria NFT Community, which organizes programs and promotes collaboration between artists in space to gain recognition from a wider, more global audience. Through a collection that Monkey of Lagos, the community aimed to put the spotlight on African artists creating NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. They also organized 3rd dimension, a virtual reality exhibition for Nigerian digital creators. A similar upcoming exhibition is Metanoia, which will be held in New York, Nairobi and Lagos. Other communities such as the Africa NFT Community, Black NFT Art and the Network of African NFT artists have filled similar roles, helping artists gain more sales, exhibitions and critical engagement. These environments have also facilitated training and dissemination of information to artists and other creatives interested in NFTs.

People have often talked about how NFT mania is driven by money and not the quality of art. There is a certain validity in that view. It is undeniable that Beeple’s NFT sales for $ 69.3 million on Christie’s and Osinachi’s NFTs achieve prices of $ 80,000 has created investment interest for collectors and hope for a gold rush for artists.

But there are African creatives who are interested in doing serious work with NFTs. Nigerian graphic designer Mayowa Alabi, also known as Shutabug, in an interview earlier this year that he wants his digital art to tell a bigger story. Johannesburg-based art director Fahtuwani Mukheli believes NFTs are leveling the playing field and giving African artists access to audiences they might not otherwise have had access to. In a interview with TRT Worldhe said that NFTs «create us [African artists] compete completely with everyone at the same time in the world. ”

This expanded approach and reach has convinced many African artists and professionals in the art world that it is therefore important to take into account the kind of art they put out into the world – art that seriously engages with African reality and identity.

The digital art ecosystem in Africa can still experience more growth if more is done to overcome the challenges it faces.

While there may not be immediate solutions to difficult home economies or unfavorable cryptocurrencies, we can provide education to expand understanding of space, develop onboard infrastructure and diversify collectors, and to train artists in how to position their work forever. developing market, while improving their artistic vision.