Q1. Space name / team name:
NFT Asia
Q2. Name of primary contact:
Willea Zwey
Q3. Names of additional Space admins:
JonSaysRelax, Shavonnewong, Ernest Wu, Zenavi, SpeakCryptic
Q4. SuperRare username(s) of everyone who will be a Space admin:
JonSaysRelax, Shavonnewong, WillZwey, ArtByNafay, Zenavi, SpeakCryptic, Eriharigai, Nightjarr, Ernestwu, Rociel, Claracxw
Q5. Short bio of you and/or your team:
NFT Asia is an open and inclusive community centered on uplifting Asian and Asia-based artists and creatives. Founded by a team of artists and arts workers sitting across the traditional and digital art worlds, we are focused on sharing resources, creating opportunities and fostering close connections. Since we started in March 2021, we now have around 3700 members on Discord and nearly 13,000 followers on Twitter, growing exponentially everyday.
Q6. Website & Social Media Links:
Discord: discord.gg/nftasia
Twitter: https://twitter.com/nft_asia
Instagram: Login ⢠Instagram
Q7. Summary/manifesto of your Space. What is the unique value prop / elevator pitch? What type of art will you focus on? How will your Space stand out among the crowd?
NFT Asiaâs Space will be the premier NFT destination for Asian and Asia-based artists to showcase the highest standards of art that is not only aesthetic but responds to the cultural zeitgeist. Through our strong engagement and access to artists who are in different stages of their career including those that are emerging and looking for a premier platform to showcase and mint their work, the Space will be uniquely positioned to raise awareness by highlighting the underrepresented and also present the diversity of art styles and themes within the community.
Q8. Describe you/your teamâs experience curating and promoting artwork:
As a team, NFT Asia has been organising community events and Twitter campaigns regularly since March 2021 to promote artists and artworks. We have supported numerous drop parties, artist talks, working closely with individual collectors within the Discord to advise on their private exhibitions.
And lately we have been actively branching into IRL events - we have been invited by curator Chris Fussner to apply for Art Dubai 2022 and was successful in our application! We also successfully conducted a fundraiser which was executed entirely by the core team and have raised funds for covering the expense of the participation of the event as well as initiating our community treasury.
Beyond conventional modes of exhibition, we have demonstrated our curatorial efforts through various artist spotlight sessions that have directly and indirectly resulted in artwork sales. In the past two months, our team member, Ninaad Kothawade, has led weekly campaigns for our Twitter and Discord, selecting artworks based on our online submissions to feature emerging artistsâ works on our sites. Speak Cryptic, another member of the team, has been building an independent resource, NFT Asia Directory, which features talented artists active within the community. The Directory is developed specifically with the aim of highlighting committed and promising artists to collectors and connoisseurs.
We have been actively promoting artwork sales of our members through various initiatives, such as working with Try Showtime on a weekly campaign to highlight Asian artists. We curated a list of artists from Singapore/Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Indian/Pakistan, Rest of Asia (and beyond) to spotlight talented artists from these locations. These included Twitter campaigns and artists talks.
https://twitter.com/tryShowtime/status/1436289545876742144?s=20 https://twitter.com/nft_asia/status/1438082118559567882?s=20
Through our strong engagement with the community, we hold regular Twitter Spaces on âUnspoken Rules in NFTsâ, we hold pitch sessions for artists to practice and build confidence, we also conduct workshops on various topics such as âHow to Write About Your Artâ, specifically aimed to empower artists. Thus, we are often the first stop for emerging artists to dip their toes into NFTs, and a valuable space that successful artists also continuously return to.
Q9. Describe you/your teamâs experience organizing exhibitions, making art sales, running auctions, networking with collectors, etc.
Our effort to promote and spotlight asian artists comes in various ways: as NFT Asia and members of the team, we participate in global events, both physical and online. As one of the invited participants in this yearâs Art Dubai Fair, we have been actively working on an exhibition curated by our core team. We also have supported several collector exhibitions such as @Bittm and @ArchanNairâs Horizon exhibition through facilitating the selection process and providing curatorial advice. We also work with platforms like Tryshowtime to highlight artists from selected regions across Asia and the rest of the world.
Clara, one of the team members leading the Space, leads a robust art programme and is the main curator for a contemporary art space in Singapore. In her role, she curates exhibitions, manages artist and collector relations, brokers artwork sales in partnership with commercial galleries, and provides arts consultancy services for HNW individuals. She is also working on a premier physical NFT exhibition, exhibiting the works of Robert Alice, Tyler Hobbs, and more. She has worked at the 58th Venice Biennale and Christieâs New York.
While we have yet to officially broker artwork sales, we have worked closely to advise collectors and investors with whom we have close relationships, introducing them to talented artists within our Discord and Twitter community. Collectors have regularly approached us to collaborate or to invest in artists within the NFT Asia community, thanks to the genuine connections and relationships we have built with stakeholders across the ecosystem. A fellow team member, Zenavi, is part of the Collectors Roundtable on Twitter Spaces and is also an illustrator, lecturer and communications specialist. JonSaysRelax is a visual artist who has organised independent art shows as well as being a lecturer in a Singaporean Arts College. Many other members such as Speak Cryptic, an artist who has exhibited all over the world are also part of the team who are active practitioners with many years of experience in the various sectors of the arts.
Q10. Are there new artists youâd like to bring into the Space in the first six months? What is your relationship to them?
Yes, we are constantly making connections with new talented artists, as the central ecosystem for NFT artists in Asia. Our members are also well connected in traditional arts ecosystems across many countries, such as Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, Japan,South Korea, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and more. We would like to collaborate with traditional galleries and work with them to bring on more artists from the traditional art space, harnessing our connections in that space. NFT Asia has also grown rapidly and we have been assisting community members who are either new artists or traditional artists who might be curious about the NFT Space. We have provided resources for onboarding onto various platforms as well as shared our experience through resource channels and panel discussions. In the first few months we are planning to bring on a group of selected up-and-coming asian artists whose art has distinguished styles from both of the traditional and digital art worlds.
Q11. Are there any artists already in the CryptoArt space that you are planning to work with for this Space? Have they committed to participating yet?
We have many talented emerging and established artists in the NFT Asia community who seek for and deserve exposure and spotlight in the NFT space, with whom we would especially like to work with and onboard onto our Space. We are establishing strategies for the onboarding process and will communicate with a group of artists we have in mind once our application of space is coming through.We have received a lot of interests from our community members for working together - for our first season of curation, we look forward to go through a list of artists and have a roaster for each future exhibition according to the curated themes.
Q12. Please provide any additional details you can about how you plan to operate this Space; e.g. cadence of exhibitions, auction strategy, number of artworks, other ideas for promoting your art and artists, etc.
We plan to organise several exhibitions of the artists in our Space throughout the year featuring different themes and critical or aesthetical explorations. We aim to bring on a new group of artists every season and our team will host promotional events and discussions surrounding the works that will be minted. These could be panels on Twitter Spaces that can boost the awareness and exposure for the artists. Details such as the number of artworks and auction strategies will be established differently in every exhibition to be specific with the theme and to customise it for the artists during each event.
Q13. How do you plan to structure commission rates for the artists who release in your Space?
Our team will take a 10% commission fee, and a part of that will go to a public fund that reinvests back into our community.
Q14. To you, what is the importance of NFTs as a medium/technology? Where do you see the NFT and CryptoArt space in five years?
NFTs have introduced an important paradigm shift to the global arts and cultural economy. It has created a digital-native ecosystem for artists and independent creators to be able to claim proper ownership over their artworks through smart contracts, and with it, introducing programme scarcity that enables an active market surrounding digital art. Whether one is a skeptic or a staunch supporter of NFTs, it is impossible to deny that NFTs have changed the way we look at JPEGs forever.
With this, we are very bullish on the future of NFTs and believe that the economy will only continue to grow as mainstream adoption accelerates. And we will continue to be a welcoming space for NFT artists to be introduced to the community, build skills and resources and form lasting relationships with fellow artists, creatives and collectors. We aim to foster trust within a trustless system, filled with care and empathy for each other that is sorely needed. To also look at how we can create new ways of seeing when it comes to creating and collecting artworks.
Q15. If your Space were a cocktail or a dish, what would it be and why?
A stew with a little bit of everything in it. We consider our focus on diversity our main selling point that makes us extremely delicious. You never know what flavours you might experience and fall in love with next.
Q16. Anything else youâd like the community to consider?
We are working towards building a gallery space in the metaverse to showcase our exhibitions simultaneously. We believe it will not only drive traffic for the Space but also provides an elevated viewing experience for our artists, collectors and audiences.
