'Our curiosity and passion for innovation means we are actively engaged in the space but more to ensure we understand both NFT's and the wider Web 3.0 landscape and market and the impact,' she continued. 'We have always been focused on what matters to our artists and not been swayed by trends or hype.' 'We show and sell art,' Zia Zareem-Slade, the gallery's Chief Creative Officer, told Ocula Magazine. They're no technophobes, but they are yet to present an NFT project.

Hauser & Wirth has its own high-tech research division, ArtLab, which helped launch their Menorca space in VR at the height of the pandemic. Three works by Ashley Bickerton will be sold in editions of six-each with a price tag of US $10,000-as part of his solo exhibition Seascapes at the End of History at Lehmann Maupin New York. On 11 March 2022, the gallery announced CollectAR, a platform to present NFTs in Augmented Reality (AR), which will launch on 29 March in collaboration with Nifty Gateway, the NFT art platform acquired by Gemini. 'NFTs are no different in that respect, except that the medium is a newer one,' she said.Īnother early mover is Lehmann Maupin, which partnered with the Winklevoss Twins' company Gemini in July 2021 to accept cryptocurrency for artwork sales globally. Tsui-Leung said the work of bringing collectors up to speed on NFTs was analogous to educating European collectors about Chinese artists' techniques and concepts and vice versa. 'The preparation and years of research were vindicated by the enthusiastic response from so many young collectors who came to us to learn about NFTs and to initiate their collection.' 'Art Basel Hong Kong in 2021 proved to be the ideal forum for us to test the waters with our first NFT offerings, created by our artists Peng Jian and Cindy Ng,' she said. 'By 2018, I had moved on from exploring blockchain to investigating the utility, inventive potential and possible security benefits of NFTs.' 'I have been taking a close interest in blockchain since 2014, when I was in the midst of my PhD,' said the gallery's co-founder Henrietta Tsui-Leung. In May last year, Ora-Ora became the first gallery to exhibit an NFT at an Art Basel fair when they showed works by Peng Jian and Cindy Ng in Hong Kong. Accepting fiat as well as crypto had been important to getting curious collectors to purchase NFTs for the first time. Ine-Kimba Boyle said that collectors could see and feel that Pace Verso projects were conceived from 'a native place'. How Will the Art World Inhabit It? Read More (KÖNIG GALERIE's first NFT on Ocula is a work by Austrian absurdist Erwin Wurm.) Renowned artists are always more likely to be a good investment also when holding your NFT long-term.' König said that for established galleries selling NFTs, 'trust and reputation are the most important factors. 'With the COVID pandemic, of course, the urgency for galleries to find new ways to mediate art has increased, which has strongly propelled digitalisation in general.' 'As a gallery, we have always been exploring new developments in the art scene,' said founder Johann König, who had been following NFTs before Beeplemania. The Artist is Online: Digital Paintings and Sculptures in a Virtual World featured works by eight artists including Mario Klingemann and Kenny Schachter. Just two weeks after the Beeple auction, KÖNIG GALERIE held their own NFT auction in Decentraland. While giants such as Gagosian, David Zwirner, and Hauser & Wirth have taken a circumspect approach, others-whose owners and artists were already familiar with the technology-found ways to successfully incorporate NFTs into their programmes. A year later, galleries are still divided when it comes to NFTs.

On 11 March last year, Beeple's NFT Everydays: The First 5,000 Days sold at Christie's for US $69.3 million. Zhang Huan, Celestial Burial of an Artist #2 (2022).

New harmony in art galleries