Milestone: First Digital Painting Sale

Fascinated by the socio-economic potential of blockchains (see below for more info), I started exploring this subject through geometric minimalism. With digital hand-painted sketches, I visually interpret the concept of blockchain architecture in preparation for my larger works on paper.

In the past few weeks, I was accepted by two pioneering blockchain online art galleries based in Manchester, UK (KnownOrigin.io) and Brooklyn, NY (SuperRare.co). After uploading the first digital studies, I am excited to have sold my first digital asset this week:

“Transaction Block” just found a new owner and home through SuperRare.co. With the ownership of the digital painting comes the right to download and print a high-resolution version of the painting.

Interestingly, SuperRare is at the same time a platform for secondary markets, meaning one can bid to buy the artwork from the collector and owner.

Below you will find some other studies listed on SuperRare (based in Brooklyn, NY):

and KnownOrigin.io (based in Manchester, UK):

Are you new to the world of Blockchain Technology?

Here’s a little description I put together as background information.

During the past months, I dived deep into cryptocurrencies and their underlying technology: the blockchain. While its impact on our society is expected to be profound (experts say it will be as transformative as the internet [1]), the technology itself offers unprecedented opportunities for the art world.

In a nutshell, the blockchain is a public and decentralized ledger of information. It is decentralized since the blockchain is saved and maintained by thousands of computers around the world. This makes the information on the blockchain immutable as it is no longer controlled by one organization or company. New information is added in new blocks to the blockchain. Since no data is replaced or overwritten, the blockchain becomes a permanent, anonymized yet public record of information.

This year the art world is starting to be interested in blockchain technology. Conferences and expert panels were held at the 2018 Art Basel fair as well as at Christie’s auction house, discussing with entrepreneurs and artists the tremendous potential and real-world applications [2]. Proof of provenance and tracking of the ownership history of artworks are just a few examples of upcoming uses for this technology.

One of the ground-breaking innovations for the art world in terms of this new technology is the ownership and scarcity of digital assets such as digital paintings, photographs and videos. Being able to own, trade and transfer the ownership of digital assets transforms them into valuable collectibles, and therefore makes them attractive as artistic mediums.

Sources:

1) Comments and review on the impact of blockchain technology:

• Marr, Bernard (2018, July 16th). Here Are 10 Industries Blockchain Is Likely To Disrupt. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/07/16/here-are-10-industries-blockchain-is-likely-to-disrupt/#6f60edaab5a2
• Altman, Ian (2018, June 29th). How Blockchain Will Transform Business And The Law. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/ianaltman/2018/06/29/blockchain-changes-business-law/#34976d5e5cb9
• Iansiti, Marco & Lakhani, Karim R. (2018, January 15th). The Truth About Blockchain. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/01/the-truth-about-blockchain
• Harvard Business Review (2017, October 27th). How Blockchain Will Accelerate Business Performance and Power the Smart Economy. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/sponsored/2017/10/how-blockchain-will-accelerate-business-performance-and-power-the-smart-economy

2) Conferences by art world institutions on blockchain technology:

• Botz, Anneli (2018, July 13th). Art Basel: Is blockchain the future of art? Four experts weigh in. Retrieved from https://www.artbasel.com/news/blockchain-artworld-cryptocurrency-cryptokitties
• Christie’s (2018, April 30th). Christie’s Art+Tech Summit: Exploring Blockchain — Is the Art World Ready For Consensus?. Retrieved from https://www.christies.com/exhibitions/2018/art-and-tech-summit-exploring-blockchain