Such tech will be hard to avoid in Miami this week as artists and brands that were relatively unknown in 2019 make their presence felt. Within the fair, the curator-dealer turned non-fungible token (NFT) artist Kenny Schachter has joined forces with Galerie Nagel Draxler to bring a 14-foot-high digital booth display designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Its crypto artists on view include Kevin Abosch, Olive Allen and Rhea Myers. Schachter worked with the same gallery at Art Basel’s Swiss fair in September, but, he says, that was a “teeny kiosk” compared to what will be in the Miami fair: “This week will be the coming out party for NFTs within the traditional art world.”
Just outside the fair, new sponsor Tezos — a blockchain platform — will have a display of NFTs, plus the opportunity for visitors to create and mint a self-portrait on site, courtesy of the German artist Mario Klingemann. Another platform, SuperRare, will have large-scale augmented reality works in the Convention Center, with an auction due to take place during the fair. And of course, Beeple (aka Mike Winklemann), the artist who shot to fame when his NFT sold at Christie’s for $69m in March, is in town. He participates in a talk called “15 Minutes or Forever? Art in the Age of the NFT” at The Bass museum on December 1.
Marc Spiegler, director of Art Basel, downplays the impact of technology on the look and feel of the in-person Miami fair. He acknowledges, though, that the “kinetic energy in town is much higher than it was in 2019”, and says there will be “dozens, if not hundreds, more potential collectors who can now drive rather than fly to the fair . . . This may be the first fair where we see the outlines of the impact of the digital shift catalysed by the pandemic.”
*This is an excerpt. Click here to read the complete article directly on the Financial Times website