Clara, you come from a traditional art background and have a Master’s in Art History. What first attracted you to NFTs?

“I majored in Economics in my undergraduate studies and have been interested in the art market and the complicated relationship that art shares with money since. In 2017, I interned at Christie’s, where I first saw how the art market works. A year later, I interned at the Economic Development Board, where I was tasked to research potential global art market disruptors and began learning about start-ups looking into how blockchain technology could be utilised in the arts. Later, when I pursued my Master’s in Art History, I began gravitating towards digital and new media practices and artists like Cao Fei and Ye Funa. Through their works, I discovered more about how artists work with emerging technologies and cyberfeminist theories, which prompted me to look further into digital art. In February 2021, I was invited to write an article on NFTs and Southeast Asia. As I began to dial into the discourse, it clicked within me that this technology – and the kind of media environment that surrounded it at the time – has prompted a paradigm shift in how we understand digital media and culture. I started to get excited thinking about how I could contribute to building this alternative ecosystem.”

What prompted you to start NFT Asia?

“In February and March 2021, I worked on a piece on Southeast Asia and NFTs for (the online art publication) Art and Market. At the time, it seemed that many discussions surrounding art and NFTs were focused on the US and Europe. In researching for the article, I came across several regional artists who had been learning about or were beginning to work with blockchain and NFTs – names like Jonathan Liu, Speak Cryptic and Ernest Wu. I decided to bring these different conversations into one Discord server for us to have a shared platform to learn about and navigate the space together. Artist Shavonne Wong, who had already been active in the NFT space, mentioned that many other Asian artists she had come across would appreciate being a part of the community. We thus decided to open up the server and welcome anyone and everyone to join us. From there, NFT Asia has grown into one of the largest artist collectives in the Web 3.0 and digital art ecosystem.”

The NFT Asia website states that it’s a platform that wants to “uplift” Asian artists and creatives. Could you elaborate more?

“At its core, NFT Asia is about supporting Asian and Asia-based artists on their individual journeys and amplifying the amazing work they are doing. We have grown into a core collective of 11 artists and curators worldwide and focus our efforts on three main pillars. Firstly, we think about building collective resources and mutual sharing to support the learning and growth of artists within our community… Secondly, we look to create exhibitions and showcase opportunities for the community. This year alone, we participated in Art Dubai; organised an exhibition in New York (pictured); and curated showcases in Bangkok, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Taipei. We also work closely with partners that share our mission and connect them to talented artists, such as our recent collaboration with Sotheby’s to include four artists from NFT Asia in a digital art auction. Lastly, NFT Asia aims to push for longer-term discourse and ensure that Asian artists are not left out of NFT art history and its narrative, as everyone is rushing now to claim the space for themselves.”

NFTs are, at their most basic level, digital certificates of authenticity. So why have they seemingly upended the art world?

“Computer art, media art and digital art have been around for decades, but it has always been challenging for artists working with nonmaterial mediums to sell their works. NFTs offer a digital-native way to do so with on-chain authentication, closing the digital loop. In addition, many of those who were the earliest to embrace art and NFTs – whether the artists or the collectors – tend to sit outside the traditional art world and are interested in artistic practices and visual languages that are not often celebrated in contemporary art. This phenomenon has brought attention and visibility to these alternative practices and opened up conversations about what our current art world can look like.”

In what ways have NFTs disrupted the traditional structures of the art world?

“Beyond NFTs, I think the blockchain ecosystem and the spirit of experimentation and building new infrastructure and protocols have pushed forward new or renewed examinations of how we can shift and evolve our current ways of working. Artists (such as the popular American digital artist Beeple, whose work ALIVE is pictured here) now have another channel to sell and present their ways on a digital platform. We are seeing more and more digital platforms and galleries focusing purely on digital sales channels and marketing or renting pop-up spaces for showcases, moving away from the old brick-and-mortar model. Decentralised Autonomous Organisations (or DAOs – groups that take a non-hierarchical, bottom-up management approach) also present an example of how collectives and communities can organise themselves with a more lateral structure, which might be interesting for artist collectives or independent spaces to explore. There are also collector DAOs that focus on building a strong collection among their members, driven by ideas of shared ownership. It’s important to note that since the mid-2010s and especially during COVID-19, many artists, collectors, galleries and art market actors have already been shifting more and more of their interactions online, but NFTs have helped to further cement that.”

What does this all mean for artists and the general public who might be interested in art?

What are some common misconceptions about NFTs?

“A lot of the conversations surrounding NFTs have been about money and trading. Since NFTs are fundamentally linked to cryptocurrencies, it isn’t easy to talk about NFTs as a technology without addressing the wider crypto market. The issue is that people often dismiss NFTs as just a tool for wash trading when many artists are genuinely trying to utilise this technology to build a sustainable way to support their independent practices… I have also found that people often expect artworks minted as NFTs to look a certain way, and they are often surprised to find out that there are a lot of different kinds of artworks and art practices that can use NFTs (such as Most Everyone’s Mad Here by Sarah Zucker, pictured here, which was one of the works shown at Right Click + Save – Singapore’s first large-scale NFT exhibition launched in November 2021). Just because an artwork has been minted into an NFT does not automatically make it any less valid or any more commercial.”

What’s your advice for those looking to get started in NFTs?

“Learn about blockchain and cryptocurrencies alongside NFTs to get a fuller grasp of the ecosystem within which this technology operates. Whether you are interested in NFTs or find yourself completely against them, it’s important to be well-informed and aware of the space before fully embracing or rejecting something. I also believe that since the industry is still so nascent, there are opportunities for us to build its culture and infrastructure into something that could be more open and transparent, carving out spaces that could better serve artists and sustain innovation and experimentation.”

How has the recent crash in cryptocurrencies impacted NFTs?

“The NFT market has cooled off since last year’s high, but I would say that many artists and art communities have persisted.”

So NFTs are not a passing trend?

Who are some emerging artists working in the NFT space to keep an eye on?

“It is hard to name just a few artists, especially considering how vast the NFT space can be. I am currently working with five artists – Rimbawan Gerilya, Billie Sng, Jo Ho, Ninaad Kothawade and Chong Yan Chuah – for an upcoming exhibition and I’m really excited because I am interested in all of their individual practices and glad to have the opportunity to share their work with an audience. I am also curating an exhibition featuring artists like Shavonne Wong, Lenne Chai, Sarah Friend, Leander Herzog, Sarah Meyohas and Steve Pikelny, whose works I admire. I would also like to mention fellow Southeast Asian curators like Kathleen Ditzig, Chris Fussner and Rafi Abdullah, who are also researching and engaging with the NFT and blockchain space and thinking of how this interacts with our wider art histories.”

What projects can we expect from you in 2023?

“In my role at Appetite, I am curating Proof of Concept, which looks at artists experimenting with blockchain infrastructure and exploring new modes of image-making. It opens on Jan 6 and builds on Right Click + Save (pictured), an exhibition I curated in November 2021 (billed as Singapore’s first large-scale NFT exhibition). Another exhibition I’ve been working on is Generating / Iterating, which will focus on five artists experimenting with artificial intelligence tools. This show opens on Jan 9 and is commissioned by The Upside Space (a new curator-led digital art platform that spotlights works from Southeast Asia, South Asia and the Middle East). And in March, I will be at Art Dubai 2023 as I am the curator for the digital section. This is my first time working on an art fair and I am excited to see how it will all come together.”

This article is adapted from a story that first appeared in the Jan/Feb 2023 Art & Music Edition of FEMALE