NFTs, non-fungible tokens, are the latest craze for digital and scam artists alike. As the blockchain-fuelled crypto art craze continues to grow, it’s only a matter of time before an NFT art gallery pops up. Oh, God, it’s already here!
STart Art Gallery is Hong Kong's NFT art gallery
Displayed on Twitter, the STart art gallery is the “world’s first physical blockchain art gallery”. Based in Hong Kong's K11 MUSEA retail park, the NFT museum is aims to provide “a safe, fair, and dynamic space for all [who are] interested”.
As NFT art is all purely digital, the gallery displays all content on large screens. Some of the art fits its screen perfectly, others don't match the aspect ratio. One horizontally designed image is displayed on a vertical screen, causing a viewer to tilt their head to see. Selected artwork is displayed on a large, centre screen in the form of a garish looping screensaver or PowerPoint presentation.
That's without touching on the quality of the art. Of course, bad artwork is still art, but the NFT art gallery certainly has some duds. The large centre screen features two images: basic pixel-art portraits and a vector of an engine’s serpentine belt on a white background.
Read More: What are NFTs? Non-fungible tokens explained.
Sorry, not impressed
The general consensus regarding the NFT art gallery is that, frankly, it blows. In response to the initial tweet, many expressed their distaste for the exhibit as well as the art form in general. After all, who wants planet-destroying crypto-art to be displayed in the first place?
Twitter user ExecuteOrder6d6 put it best: “Art, but make it hideously expensive, require the burning of a small forest to create, absolutely shit for artists, and yet another crypto scam benefiting techbros.”
On the other hand, second-place reply winner OtherConnor had a fantastic reply. He simply asked a Bot to play a big, gross fart sound over the original video.
Perfection.
Read More: Racist Facebook AI mislabelled Black men as private