Could an NFT put Memphis back on the ‘global art scene’?
When Beeple sold his digital artwork “Everydays — The First 5000 Days” for $69 million in March, the world was suddenly talking about “NFTS” and if they’re the future of art.
It’s the conversation Anthony Sims of Southaven, Mississippi, has been waiting for.
Like Beeple (aka Mike Winkelmann of South Carolina), the 22-year-old Sims is among a pioneering set of artists creating art for a new, digital age. This new wave of artists is creating digital assets known as “non-fungible tokens,” or NFTS, which are unique files logged on electronically stored databases known as blockchains, allowing them to be bought, sold and traded, usually for cryptocurrency. The blocks of data about the token — who created it, when it’s modified, when it’s sold, etc. — are chained together as they’re formed (hence the term “blockchain”), which makes tracing sales and other changes a quick and easy process. There are a number of blockchains, but one of the most popular — and the one used by both Beeple and Sims — is Ethereum, whose cryptocurrency is known as ETH, a unit of which is currently worth about $2,102.
This brave new world is an online playground for the rich and famous. But it’s more than that: NFTS give artists more control over their art, allowing them to set the terms of sales and even to automatically deduct royalties if the art changes hands again. For artists, and especially struggling artists, that extra control could be a game-changer, Sims said.
“For the most part, it’s really difficult for us not to be screwed over,” Sims said of the way artists are treated in the
industry. “NFTS have given us a platform.”
Not getting screwed over is especially a selling point for Sims, who said his family was left homeless in 2019 after his mother — a single mom of three — lost her job. Sims ended up sleeping on the couch of a friend in Memphis, where he became better acquainted with the art community. He’s created art since high school, but since he started creating NFTS in mid-january he’s earned the equivalent of more than $51,000.
“I think art is the precursor to what it’s actually capable of,” Sims said of blockchain technology. “I feel like it’s the next era of the Internet.”
Sims has been into art and cryptocurrency since high school, but he’s only now starting to marry his two high school sweethearts. In the 10th grade at Lewisburg High in Desoto County, Mississippi, he bought his first Bitcoin for $300 and then sold it for a $50 profit. Later, as a senior, he decided to seriously pursue his art in Memphis. In 2018, a year after he graduated, his art debuted at Stock & Belle, netting him a grand total of $350.
And then he was homeless.
With few options locally, he gathered what money he could and headed to New York, where he met Diana Vachier, who runs the American Pop Art collective of the late Steve Kaufman, a former assistant to artist Andy Warhol. He then moved to Dallas to work as lead robotics technician for Amazon, and in late 2019 was inducted into the collective.
And then COVID-19 began sweeping across the world.
When art shows dried up almost overnight, Sims began searching for a museum that would accept his art into its permanent collection, and eventually got the green light from the Meridian Museum of Arts in Meridian, Mississippi, making him the “youngest artist to be accepted into a museum collection at the age of 21,” he said. Meanwhile, he was working on several other projects, including for rappers Yung Simmie and Issa Gold.
But since learning about NFTS, Sims
has a new goal: creating the first NFT art museum in Memphis. His idea is to show material works of art next to a screen of their NFT versions, and then sell them as a packaged deal, the same way he sells his own art. He’s putting aside 10% of his earnings to make that happen, and has $15,000 set aside.
“The museum is something I’ve been building in my brain for a very long time,” he said.
Sims, who describes himself as Mexican-american, said the culturally rich art being produced by Memphians is “something the world should see.”
“The struggle that I found in Memphis is something that really, really benefited me as an artist because it was a a place I could pull a lot of strife and pain from,” Sims said. “And I feel like Memphis has felt like that for a long time. If we can bring money to the Memphis community, I feel like we can really display that pain to the world and show the rich community that has been brewing for a long time.”
Surviving as an artist in Memphis can be difficult, but Sims is hoping a
much-needed influx of NFT money could help “speed up” the city’s artistic renaissance.
“If Memphis could jump on this, as a community, today, we could be one of the leading places in the art world for NFTS,” said Sims, who has reached out to local art organizations about his idea for an NFT art museum. “I genuinely think this could be the thing to put Memphis back on the global art scene.”
Rhodes College assistant professor Karl Erickson said it’s “kind of hard to imagine” a brick-and-mortar museum dedicated to NFT art, but that one could perhaps work in the right location — on Beale Street, for example, or near Overton Park. But either way, NFTS are probably here to stay, he said.
“They’re not going to replace people doing paintings and physical artwork and galleries and sales, but they’re another piece of the picture and exciting for digital artists,” said Erickson, who has looked into turning his own art into NFTS.
NFTS have their downsides, though, he added. For one, cryptocurrency is a huge energy suck, raising environmental concerns. The art speculation bubble also can’t last. The real long-term value of NFTS could be that they make collaboration on digital artwork easier because people can easily track who does what through the blockchain.
“I think it’s important to think about them not only as a stake in ownership, but about how they can move around the world and different artists can collaborate on them,” he said.
Sims also said he’s convinced NFTS are going to be around long after the bubble pops.
“I think art is the only vessel that makes sense right now,” he said. “But I think the future of NFTS is much greater than just the art world. Art is the catalyst for showing everyone what NFT can be, but I think the future of NFT in general can be how we own any and everything.”
“I don’t think it’s a fad,” he added. “Because I’m not going to not use it.”
Ryan Poe is a columnist and storyteller who writes The 901, a weekly commentary on all things Memphis. Reach him at poe@commercialappeal.com and on Twitter @ryanpoe.