Diverse artists find unique opportunities
Marketing work as digital art allows creators to bypass galleries’ bureaucracies
Digital art is helping to remove many of the barriers diverse artists face when trying to call attention to their work.
“There are so many diverse artists out there who never get a chance because of circumstance. NFTs offer a place where both artist and collector can live,” said Maria Bertrand, a native Montrealer, actress, writer and producer, and maker of NFTs — nonfungible tokens.
Marketing their work as NFTs allows content creators to bypass art galleries’ bureaucracies, which often keep the gate closed to marginalized artists.
A nonfungible token is a unique digital asset. No two NFTs are the same, much like art. They are often compared to digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Dogecoin and Ether. But those currencies hold the same value, whereas NFTs have their own rate tied only to their original asset. They also contain metadata that cannot be altered.
NFTs are usually used to buy digital artwork that can take the form of GIF files, images of physical objects or portraits, video game skins, virtual real estate or just about anything.
Bertrand said the transparency of digital art has resulted in minority artists being able to sell their work in a new way. And that has led to creators of different backgrounds being able to make a living from their creations.
“These platforms provide a place where diverse artists and collectors can collide without the gatekeepers regulating what the collectors see,” she said.
Iris Nevins has used the NFT space to help propel diverse creators to new heights. The art collector co-founded Umba Daima, an NFT studio (formerly an NFT agency) that is creating NFTs and building its own community. One of their projects specifically focuses on supporting Black and African artists.
“The first iteration of Umba Daima was as an e-commerce art store designed to help Black and African artists sell their work online,” she said. “That was inspired by a few trips I made overseas to Haiti, Zimbabwe and Ghana where I would find art from local artists listed at prices that felt really low for the quality of the work.”
Passionate about racial justice and closing the wealth gap for Black artists, Nevins constructed an online store to help artists earn more equitable income. After the Atlanta resident learned about NFTs, she saw a way to lend even more assistance.
“We spent a few months studying the NFT space, and we determined that promotion, visibility and a robust Black NFT community were urgently needed for Black artists to thrive.”
The realization led to the launch of Black NFT Art, a network that helps Black NFT creators build relationships and find collectors.
“Historically, the art industry has been very biased and often explicitly racist,” Nevins said. “Less than one per cent of art in fine art museums is by Black artists.”
Another NFT artist from Montreal also believes there is an opening in the marketplace for diverse artists to be seen.
Lana Denina moved to France from Benin in West Africa when she was two years old before immigrating to Canada in 2002. With respect to her diverse background, Denina says the ability to sell her own work online instead of relying on gallery showcases has been invaluable.
“It was really hard to elevate my career in the traditional sense. There are a lot of steps you need to take and it is very slow. Your work needs to be approved by a jury at a physical gallery. In Quebec, the juries are not really diverse at all. It’s the same people making the same decisions about what is displayed even though none of the artists are the same.”
Her idea is one that is shared. Bertrand says there is a core difference between selling work at a gallery and selling it as an NFT on your own.
“Traditional galleries rely on exclusivity; the idea behind NFTs is all about inclusivity,” Bertrand said.
Denina’s “Mona Lana” collection (a title drawn from combining her name with Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” masterpiece) has been her most successful. The collection features people of colour and she says this has resonated with many in the Black community. This is especially the case for people who don’t see themselves as digital content creators.
“I had a hard time seeing myself in fine art. I had no role model artists that I could look up to. It was sad to see that, while I was studying art history, I only saw the same kind of creator ethnicity. There was no representation. It was challenging to see myself as a professional artist.”
To address that, Denina focused on showcasing different cultures in her work.
“It’s about women. They look really fierce and really beautiful. I wanted to feature women of colour as well. I wanted to make a statement just like the ‘Mona Lisa’ did. I wanted to bring fine art into the collectible and NFT space.”
It has clearly struck a chord. Denina charges two to three ETH (Ethereum, a popular cryptocurrency) for a piece. That is about $10,000, but the number changes hourly. For her Mona Lana collection, she charged 0.09 ETH for each piece. The results speak for themselves. The 24-year-old has made $300,000 in just 10 months. She plans to donate a percentage of her profit to Cyber Baat, a decentralized autonomous organization that supports African artists.
Nevins has experienced similar success. Last year, her company made $140,000 (U.S.) in revenue across all of its brands. This year, they hope to earn even more after rebranding themselves as a studio.
With that said, both believe there is more to be done for true parity to be achieved.
“We live in a world where many of the people who can afford to buy art don’t appreciate Black art,” Nevins said.
“At the same time, many of the people who are curating what collectors see also don’t appreciate Black art. There is a strong sense that Black people in NFTs must band together to support and uplift each other because otherwise they will not get the support they really need.”
We live in a world where many of the people who can afford to buy art don’t appreciate Black art. At the same time, many of the people who are curating what collectors see also don’t appreciate Black art.
IRIS NEVINS CO-FOUNDER OF UMBA DAIMA, AN NFT STUDIO