Beijing's UCCA To Hold the World's First-Ever Crypto Art Exhibition. But What the Hell is Crypto Art?

Beijing is about to become not only the first city in China to host an exhibition dedicated to the cutting-edge and increasingly popular form of art called "crypto art" but also the first city in the entire world.

Titled "Virtual Niche: Have You Ever Seen Memes in the Mirror?" the 30-plus artist show organized by Beijing-based crypto art company and marketplace Block Create Art (BCA) will run from Mar 26 until Apr 4 at the UCCA-adjacent UCCA Lab before heading down for a stint in Shanghai. To understand what the exhibition will entail and what the buzz is all about, we must first understand what crypto art is.

Put in layman's terms (bear with me), crypto art is artwork that is shared and exchanged via blockchain, a means of secure information storage that relies on cryptography (the creation and verification of incredibly complex algorithms) and the sharing of information via a decentralized, peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Blockchain's safety mechanisms make it extremely, if not nigh-impossible to crack or alter the information held within.

Because of their unique, unbreakable nature, blockchain can also be attached to specific pieces of digital information such as a video, image, or gif. These images are then defined as a non-fungible token, or NFT for short, setting them apart from cryptocurrency, which is mutually interchangeable.

This means that even though a piece of crypto art can be shared and replicated ad infinitum via the internet, the original can always be traced by its affixed blockchain, which acts as a signature or provenance would for a tangible painting or sculpture and allows pieces of digital crypto art to be made, sold, and collected just like their real-world counterparts.

What does this mean in real terms? Well, you most likely recognize the image above of a Pop-Tart-wearing kitty riding through space on a rainbow, better known as Nyan Cat. Now a decade old, this beloved gif was recently remastered by its creator Chris Torres, given an NFT for authentication, and auctioned off for the eventual price of 300 Ether (a form of cryptocurrency), which at the time of writing was equivalent to USD 473,871. That's a mindblowing figure when you consider that this image has been disseminated for years at no cost to anyone, except perhaps the artist.

The move to sell digital art can then best be described as "the commodification of memes" and marks an incredibly exciting and potentially explosive challenge to – or merely an expansion of – the traditional art world. As Chris Torres tweeted after the opening of bidding on Nyan Cat, "I hope this inspires future artists to get into #NFT universe so they can get proper recognition for their work!"

Perhaps a more prominent example of how the cryptocurrency-wielding masses can band together and propel virtual unknowns to the top was witnessed with the recent meteoric rise of crypto artist Beeple. Until late last year, the crypto artist, otherwise known by his real name Mike Winkelmann, had only ever sold his work once. Then, in December, he auctioned off over 20 artworks online, each with a starting price of USD 969. Most went on to sell for close to USD 100,000, bagging the artist over 3.5 million dollars in one weekend. In a recent profile of the artist, the New York Times explains how those same pieces are now "selling for more than 1,000 percent of their original price."

Then on Thursday night, Beeple's artwork "The First 5,000 Days" (pictured at top), a digital collage compiled of images Winkelmann has drawn over the past 13 years, sold at Christie's for a whopping USD 69 million, making him “among the top three most valuable living artists,” according to the London auction house. His dark, cartoonish, and apocalyptic works will be just some of those on display in Beijing later this month.

Prior to the groundbreaking exhibition, we spoke to Sun Bohan, curator of "Virtual Niche" and founder of Block Create Art, about what visitors can expect and why they should be excited to witness history in the making.

For the uninitiated, how would you best describe crypto art?
Crypto art is an emerging art trend formed by bridging art and blockchain-based platforms, culture, and technology.

It consists of three main parts: one is the digital artworks displayed and sold on non-fungible token platforms. The second part includes artworks that employ blockchain technology in their artistic creation such as those by CryptoZR (Liu Jiaying). CryptoZR conceptualizes her artwork by exploring and visualizing the idea of smart contracts. Such creative techniques are closely linked to the use of cryptographic technology. Without blockchain technology and this particular context, this work of art cannot be realized. The third category relates to artworks that deal with the theme of blockchain.

In Robert Alice's "Portraits of a Mind" project, the artist created 40 pieces of Bitcoin-themed artworks, each containing a part of Bitcoin's 12.8 million-digit code. When they are put together, they represent a "Satoshi Nakamoto's Spiritual Portrait." [Editor's note: Satoshi Nakamoto is the presumed pseudonym of the unknown person or persons who created Bitcoin.] 

Another example would be the Bitcoin series by BCA studio in-house artists. When the representative works of these three parts are curated in one exhibition, the initial appearance of crypto art is formed.

How did you first get involved in crypto art?
When I was still a graduate student at CAFA, I found myself talking with my professor about crypto art. Both of us agreed that the emergence of digital art will profoundly change the landscape of contemporary art. Stakeholders in the art industry can directly benefit from the [medium's] decentralization, additional transparency, as well as the resale of artworks in the secondary market, suggesting that the integration of art and blockchain technology could be the greatest art movement in the 21st century. So, it all started with this inspiring talk.

What are some of the challenges that you’ve faced in organizing the first-ever exhibition dedicated to crypto art? Is there a way that we the people can “verify” that the artworks hold legitimate NFTs?
As the first large-scale exhibition of crypto art, we faced many problems during the curation process. First of all, from the theoretical point of view, the nature of many NFT artworks doesn't fit into a large-scale offline exhibition. They are designed to spread across the internet and be displayed through private screens (mobile phones, laptops). In the process of planning the exhibition, we needed to make these works rationally exist in a large public space, so that more audiences can view them at the same time, without affecting the viewing experience. 

Another challenge is to arouse the interest of the audience who have no idea about crypto art. BCA organizes different art educational activities to create more space and opportunities for audiences to participate in the crypto art movement while building a basic understanding of what it is. This exhibition is a great start to educating the public about crypto art.

[As for verification of the art,] that's a good question, and it's actually a huge challenge we face. The advent of NFT has accelerated the circulation of digital art in the marketplace. NFT art has also blurred the definition of artwork. When we own or trade an NFT work, what exactly do we own? Is it the work's hash value [its unique "fingerprint"], its visual file, or is it a manifestation as the owner or collector? 

To verify the legitimacy of NFT, the most direct and logical way is to get into direct contact with the collectors and artists whose work is displayed on NFT platforms. At BCA, we usually have written permission from the collectors and artists before displaying their artworks. The future development of crypto art depends on the collective efforts made by NFT platforms, artists, and collectors. BCA is proud to be part of it.

Will the artworks on display be up for sale? If so, how do people buy them?
Some of the works in the exhibition are available for sale on BCAEX. If you are interested in buying the works, please feel free to contact us. 

What do you think the advent of crypto art means for the traditional (real-world) art trade now and in the future? What changes are we likely to see?
The emergence of NFT provides a practical solution for collecting and trading digital works. For many reasons, digital art has not been widely accepted by the traditional art world, not to mention the secondary market. The recent auctions of Beeple and Robert Alice have opened up new possibilities for the future.

Which of the artworks at Virtual Niche are you particularly excited about?
The "Matrix" series by Ellwood. He has great potential as an emerging artist and this series will make its first debut appearance in our exhibition. I definitely recommend everyone to come and see the artwork in person!

UCCA Lab's "Virtual Niche: Have You Ever Seen Memes in the Mirror?" runs between Mar 26-Apr 4. Tickets can be bought via Block Create Art's Weidian here, or you read more about the artists involved via here.

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Images: Christie's, Chris Torres, Beeple, Robert Alice, Block Create Art, Ellwood