Young artist earns over $350,000 in just ten months with NFT images
After feeling lost for a while, the 24-year-old Canadian criticizes the art scene and celebrates blockchain technology.
This year, Lana Denina has already earned $350,000 from her paintings. Not in an art gallery, but in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT).
Fortunately for Denina, blockchain technology, which is powered daily by Bitgap crypto robots on the exchange platforms, has opened up a new horizon for her – which she has been able to exploit very well.
She acquired the knowledge for this within a few weeks, she now says in an interview.
No witchcraft, just art
“I had no idea about blockchain,” the young woman tells “CNBC.” But when she started looking into the subject, she was immediately hooked.
The ability to assign an owner to digital photos was “revolutionary” to her, she says. The ability to set the price of their own images, or even make money when they are resold, also felt right to the artist.
“Traditional art galleries feel like being part of an old and irrelevant world, partly because there is little diversity there,” explains Denina. “I never felt comfortable there as a woman of color.”
She also wants her work and her path to be an inspiration to other artists who are ready to step into the world of technology, she says.
At first, the Montreal woman sold the paintings individually, but later she made entire collections. Her latest collection, called Mona Lana, sold out within weeks.
Fight for equality
With her work, she also fights for black culture, which according to the artist was very well received in the NFT scene.
She also often hears of clients investing in an NFT for the first time because of her work, which makes her especially happy.
After Denina earned more than 100 ETH from the Mona Lana collection alone, which at today’s exchange rate would equate to around $356,000, she gave some of it away to the platform Cyber Baat, which describes itself as a “playground for artists of African descent in the metaverse.”
On Cyber Baat’s websiteone can read that artists on the platform have already earned over 158 million dollars via the Ethereum Blockchain.
“This here is the opportunity to build a real community that encourages and supports each other, and everything within NFT,” writes one of the users there.
Denina also sees herself understood by the new scene and wants to continue working here. “As a young woman of color, I’m sure it was 100 times more difficult to be respected and seen as an equal in this field,” she writes in a tweet.
“At the same time, I have been able to meet an incredible amount of supportive, very intelligent and talented people.”
NFT on the way up
While many industries are flirting with the technology, NFTs have quickly established themselves, especially in the art scene.
This year, for example, the annual art ranking published by the British magazine Art Review was topped by NFTs for the first time. One reason for this is that the protection of digital originals is an alternative to conventional marketing channels for artists.
Despite the hype around digital investment objects, according to a study, only a small group of investors have speculated in this new art form so far. The market must therefore still be described as unknown territory – even in the art scene.
Conclusion
Perhaps it is too early to say that art is currently living in a new era that will be studied later in the history books.
Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that the security of the blockchain technology and the current NFT boom leaves unknown artists and those who want to meet them indifferent. Because blockchain, throughout its short existence, has proven to be a gateway for many artistic minds.
Perhaps there are some members of our society who still want to turn their backs on this technology or “fad”. But until then, we can be proud of what artists like Denina achieve. Perhaps she will be part of the first movement of 100% virtual artists.
