Institut, the first art world-led platform for NFTs, is proud to present NFTism: No Fear in Trying - curated by Kenny Schachter - physically at Unit London and virtually via Arium from September 11th - 25th, 2021. The exhibition brings together 100 artists including XCOPY, Rewind Collective, Marco Brambilla, Krista Kim, Olive Allen, Vhils, and IX Shells.
The physical exhibition at Unit London in Covent Garden offers a bridge between the digital and physical worlds, with visitors able to view NFTs on screens. Accessed via new metaverse technology from Arium, the exhibition invites viewers to navigate a browser-based virtual space with 3D video chat, allowing art lovers from across the world to visit the exhibition remotely.
NFTism: No Fear in Trying will include a range of interactive works enjoyed through a variety of means, including augmented reality, VR headsets, and digital screens. London-based Italian video artist Marco Brambilla will present a hypervision work, consisting of a hologram projected throughout Unit London’s gallery space. Brambilla recontextualizes old histories by fusing them with references to pop culture, thereby challenging traditional art norms.
Toronto-based contemporary artist Krista Kim, an early pioneer of crypto and NFTs, will present 8x8 XR (2021). Conceived as an antidote to relentless distraction and surveillance capitalism and using large LED walls to create a meditative art installation through the frequencies of color, light, and healing sound, 8x8 XR will be shown via VR headsets. Her Mars House—the first NFT digital house designed specifically for the metaverse which sold for over $500,000 on NFT marketplace SuperRare—will also be recreated via Arium. Kim is the founder of the Techism movement, promoting the confluence of art and technology, and the role of technology as a tool to further the development of ‘digital humanism.’ She is shown here alongside New York-based artist Olive Allen, who draws on her background in both fine arts and technology to create media art that captures the internet culture of the new age and exposes systems of value. A cryptocurrency early adopter, Allen is considered a pioneer of the NFT space.
Also on show are works by Iranian-born, Brooklyn-based digital artist Marjan Moghaddam. Moghaddam uses digital technology such as computer animation, 3-D modeling, and texture mapping in prints, videos, and installations. In her most well-known works, she builds three-dimensional characters and environments that resemble the landscapes of video games or virtual reality to comment on the politics of innovation, communication, and warfare.
Alongside NFTs, Institut will also offer physical artwork collectibles and editions, acting as a gateway for traditional art world collectors to enter the NFT market. Showing artists and artworks from both the “traditional” and digital worlds, the exhibition reflects Institut’s work towards driving new perspectives in the art world.
Exhibition curator Kenny Schachter said: It’s a human defense mechanism to reject the unfamiliar without giving it a chance; change is hard to stomach, something that unsettles the status quo. Human nature pushes back at first blush rather than learn about and accept something new for what it is—a potential advance and step forward. NFTs are just such a transformative phenomenon, a potential revolution in the history of art and its dissemination into the collective stream of consciousness, and commerce! This show will attempt to do what no one has done before; FOCUS ON THE ART, art from a wide, diverse universe of talent from all walks of life.
