Dubai News: Digital works take center stage at Dubai’s largest art fair as NFTs go on display

Dubai: Art DubaiThe largest annual contemporary art fair in the Middle East, showing digital works for the first time, as the wealthy Gulf emirate seeks to position itself as a crypto asset hub.

This year, in its 15th edition, the three-day show attracted more than 100 local and foreign art dealers, with an entire showroom made up of 17 galleries and platforms dedicated to the display and sale of NFTs or non-fungible tokens.

NFT The sales platform uses the blockchain technology behind cryptocurrencies to transform anything from illustrations to memes into virtual collectibles that cannot be replicated.

Art Dubai executive director Benedetta Ghione said NFTs, which went mainstream last year and traded at major auction houses, have attracted a lot of attention in the United Arab Emirates, which is already a leisure and business hub.

The increased interest and Dubai’s “unique position” as a “growing crypto hub” have prompted the organizers of the show to set up a new digital section specifically, she told AFP at the launch on Friday.

“We thought it was the perfect time and the perfect place,” she said.

Dubai — one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates — last week introduced a new virtual asset law and regulator overseeing the industry after signing a deal with Binance, the world’s most traded cryptocurrency exchange, in December .

‘Exponentially growing’

Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum tweeted that the move “establishes the UAE’s position in the field” and aims to “ensure maximum transparency and safety for investors. sex”.

Local NFT platforms welcomed the move as being good for business, with cryptocurrency holders increasingly interested in digital art as a form of investment.

“The crypto community is growing exponentially,” said Jennifer Stelco of Morrow Collective, an NFT curation platform that featured around 20 pieces of digital art at the fair, almost all from UAE-based artists.

These include work by renowned Finnish mixed-media artist Vesa from Dubai, whose work combines paintings and digitally retouched images for 50 ether (the cryptocurrency), or about $127,000 at Sunday’s prices.

Stelco says a piece by Lebanese artist Magda Malkoun mainly depicts her hometown Beirutsold for three ETH.

The global NFT craze, with American artist Beeple selling a piece of art for a record $69 million last year, has prompted Emergeast, the Middle East’s first online platform, to pivot to digital art.

Founded in 2014 to serve emerging artists from the region, Emergeast sees NFTs as an opportunity for artists to “really expand” their audience, covering collectors and non-collectors alike, Co-Founder Nikki Mefta Tell
AFP.

“The good thing is that all artists get royalties from every sale,” she added.

In the face of the NFT hype, Emirati sculptor and painter Aisha Juma started re-drawing some sketches on a tablet a few months ago, though she stressed the importance of the artistic message in the medium.

“It’s complicated because now people are interested in media…in technology,” she said.

“This technology is very valuable. It gives me a platform to express more and use more tools, I don’t deny that, but I also want people to see the art and see what I’m saying.”