TOP 10 NFTs of 2022
spotlighting the top 10 NFTS of 2022
This year has seen a new way of thinking about currency, property, and art, and it seems there are quite a few who have embraced this art form. NFT, meaning non-fungible token, is the registration of ownership of a digital object on a blockchain. It can be any type of media, including but not limited to art, videos, music, GIFs, games, tweets, and memes. The non-fungible part means the object is unique, making it irreplaceable.
From a fully-nude Madonna exploring the concept of creation to a reinterpretation of renaissance masterpieces with modern brushstrokes — we continue our annual review of this year’s BIG stories with a look at the TOP 10 NFTs featured on designboom in 2022.
DIGITAL SPACE OF TODAY IS THE OPPOSITE OF FREE SPACE’ – NFT BY ROBERT MONTGOMERY
Artist Robert Montgomery’s first NFT critiques the pervasiveness of the digital world © Robert Montgomery
After recently wowing the world with his solar-powered political billboard at COP26, acclaimed British contemporary artist Robert Montgomery has entered the NFT arena with his signature text-based work, a blade runner-Esque manifesto damning the evils of the digital world. the work was released by New Pavilion, a consulting agency collaborating with some of the world’s most celebrated artists’ estates, contemporary creators, arts foundations, and cultural institutions.
Through this artwork, Montgomery explores the existential sphere of the digital world. Specifically, he looks at how digital communication and devices have become the managers of our time and how tracks of our biographies are now reflected back at us within advertising media. By doing so, he ultimately questions the fate of our intellectual and emotional freedoms, as well as our connection to the natural world.
more on designboom here
MADONNA BIRTHS A TREE, BUTTERFLIES AND CENTIPEDES IN NSFW TRIPTYCH OF NFTS
Mother of Creation, an NFT triptych by Madonna and Beeple
Following a year of work, Madonna and Beeple have released Mother of Creation, an NFT triptych dropping today on SuperRare. The works, which feature animations of a fully-nude Madonna, explore the concept of creation, motherhood, and birth via darkness and light in our modern world. Received with some skepticism, the collaboration has many asking the infamous But Why? question. As artnet states, ‘we live in a dystopia… and I feel nothing.’ It’s for people who live lives so media-saturated and irony-poisoned that nothing feels real.’
‘When Mike (Beeple) and I decided to collaborate on this project a year ago, I was excited to have the opportunity to share my vision of the world as a mother and an artist with Mike’s own unique point of view.’ said Madonna. ‘It’s been an amazing journey building this together from an intellectual idea to an emotional story, giving birth to art. I wanted to investigate the concept of creation, not only the way a child enters the world through a woman’s vagina, but also the way an artist gives birth to creativity. Most importantly, we wanted to use this opportunity to benefit mothers and children who are most in need right now.’
more on designboom here
INTERVIEW: REFIK ANADOL AND HANS ULRICH OBRIST ON ‘NFTS AND PUBLIC ART’ AT NFT ART DAY ZRH
‘NFTs and public art’ at NFT ART DAY ZRH © Refik Anadol Studio
NFT ART DAY ZRH, the first annual NFT and metaverse conference in Switzerland, brought together leading figures from the field of digital arts and the art market for an insightful afternoon of talks. Participants explored different topics related to NFTs, including an introduction to non-fungible tokens and their relationship to the art world, as well as the collecting behavior and various artistic practices around them.
One of the topics of the conference was dedicated to NFTs and Public Art, which was addressed through a conversation between Refik Anadol, media artist, director and pioneer in the aesthetics of data and machine intelligence, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries. The two speakers discussed Refik Anadol’s oeuvre over the past years working with the medium of NFTs, and what it means to employ blockchain technology to create public artworks.
more on designboom here
