NFTs offer functionality that can enrich the experience of creating, owning and exchanging an asset. These quiet new features inspire entirely new product lines and categories, and change could arrive quickly. Recently, with the introduction of NFTs to the crypto world, the NFT hype is felt widely among the adventurers in the field. More people are visiting NFT gallery spaces inside real-world destinations due to the interest caused by the upcoming market. It represents an example of metaverse, in which virtual and IRL lines combine deeply. During the second half of 2021, several galleries and museums has opened and plan to provide service to NFT lovers till the end of the year. Here we introduce some of the best galleries and museums exhibiting NFTs in Australia, Europe and the United States.
1. The Museum of Art and Philosophy: Hobart, Australia
The Museum of Art and Philosophy is an NFT-focused gallery in Australia which aims to showcase artists who were originally published in museum’s print magazines New Philosopher and Womankind. Since the curators in the museum showed interest in examining the NFT boom, they decided that a physical gallery would be a fantastic way to present NFTs to lets people come and experience the world of NFTs in person.
The opening coincided with Hobart’s “Dark Mofo” festival, inclusively inviting everyone to come and see the amazing NTF collections.
2. Underground Museum: Moscow, Russia
This museum is located in Zaryadye Park in Moscow and the visitors to the museum can see works from contemporary Russian artists along with a few features from Russian NFT artists. The pieces and exhibition are set to be replaced with newer NFT artworks at least every two weeks, and the NFTs showcased in this gallery are put up for auction on Rarible.
The prominent NFT video “Waves” by Fayaz Azizov from the second “Sovrisk #Onstream” exhibition, was exhibited as one of the most brilliant NFT works by Russian artists.
3. Hermitage Museum: St. Petersburg, Russia
Although little is known about the actual opening of Hermitage Museum, this world-renowned museum is not only looking to open a gallery showcasing and exploring NFT art, but also hosting seminars presented by speakers from ITMO University and museum staff and curators. This project plans to be the first exhibition in Russia to explore the new world of NFTs, examine just how their work and how they may challenge traditional copyright control and ownership.
4. Kiwie Space: Riga, Latvia
The Kiwi Space showroom, hosted by Kiwie 1001, turns to the home to introduce many different NFT artists and their contributions to the NFT space. The gallery is located in the 100-plus-year-old Galerija Centrs and provides public exhibition showcases up-and-coming NFT artists and all that is fresh in the digital art space, which has been acknowledged by Kiwie 1001’s Discord users themselves. The exhibition started in early June and will be there till the end of the year, if you wish to support rising artists and a promising industry.
5. Francisco Carolinum Linz: Linz, Austria
The “Proof of Art” exhibition is taking place at Francisco Carolinum Linz and is advertised as one of the world’s first exhibitions to NFT artwork: the history, the applications, future predictions and the impacts that non-fungible tokens will have on the art world.
The museum is mainly focused on educating its visitors on the world of NFTs, and aims to ensur that the public gets aware of what is actually happening with NFTs and how they all work. To bring the excitement to the museum, Francisco Carolinum Linz has also constructed its museum online in the Ethereum-based Cryptovoxels, ensuring that all of those who want to get some experience on NFTs can get it in a comfortable environment.
6. Museum of Modern African Art: Amsterdam, Netherlands
The first NFT exhibition in Museum of Modern African art in Amsterdam was hold in July and showcased NFT portraits of African kings and queens. Known as the “The Portraitist,” this artist’s exhibition of NFTs of African kings was displayed at MoMAA as one of the first exhibitions to proudly represent African art and history on the blockchain and in the NFT community.
7. Blackdove: Miami, FL
Miami is quickly becoming the hotspot for all everything related to blockchain, and the Blackdove gallery sure does not miss the chance to hit the spot in attempting to change the way people see NFTs. Considering the collective effort of over 50 international artists contributing more than 100 NFT art pieces, this gallery also aims to catch its share from the wave with the crypto community.
Blackdove further provides its viewers also with the option to buy an NFT on the spot, allowing visitors to directly support artists, as well as giving people the chance to own their own piece of this new contemporary, digital art.
8. ImnotArt: Chicago, IL
After having the opportunity to develope their own online NFT gallery, the creators of the imnotArt metaverse decided to bloom up their art into the streets of Chicago with the first brick-and-mortar NFT gallery in the city.
They ran their gallery on June 3, coining it “not a pop-up.” The creators of the gallery are planning to establish a new way to combine the physical reality and the Metaverse together, creating an environment that is unlike anything else in its nature. The team invite people to get educated about the upcoming art!
9. Bright Moments: Venice Beach, CA
People should have the opportunity to enjoy NFT world everywhere. So, as a way of welcoming beachgoers to the world of NFTs, Venice Beach gallery Bright Moments offers the opportunity to display NFTs and bringing the virtual world into reality. Moreover, art shows, speakers and other events related to NFT world are scheduled in the gallery, and more are invited to be booked, educating visitors and providing an entertaining, fresh environment for NFT enthusiasts and skeptics alike.
10. National Museum Liverpool
The National Museum of Liverpool started an online exhibition called Crypto-Connections in 2018. It aimed to give an early opportunity to its visitors to get experienced with NFT concept. Participants were invited to choose a personal possession and museum object based on their personal connection. Each image from the exhibition was transformed into an NFT using a specially devised decentralised gallery called ‘The Possession Gallery’. Any token created using this smart contract would appear in both this decentralised gallery and the new owner’s digital wallet. NFT works created though the process are still exhibited in the museum.
11. Venice Beach, CA
Venice Beach has invested on a new way to even more entertain its tourists. Venice Beach Gallery Bright Moments is planning to display NFTs and turn the virtual world into reality. The gallery schedules not only art shows but also talks and similar events. Bright Moments also has plans for using NFTs in order to both educate and entertain NFT enthusiasts in a fresh environment. The gallery aims to create a gallery DAO which provides a tokenized network including related sites to NFT.
12. Museum of the future, Dubai
As a landmark in Dubai, the Museum of the Future (MOTF) was founded by the Dubai Future Foundation. It was launched on February 22, 2022. The museum aims to show how society gets evolved and gets along with rapid changes coming up with latest science and technology.
At the day of opening, there was a talk on cryptocurrencies by founder and chief executive of Binance. The museum main mission is to create a platform for collaboration of the brightest minds in the world in order to design innovative solutions. This museum also follows its goal to introduce digital world and digital assets to people who look for the future.
NFT Galleries are facing a revolution?
Although much has been done to physically introduce NFTs around the world, for sure, all these events barely scratch the surface of the NFT gallery revolution. If you keep a regular eye on news, you will notice that many of these involve news on NFT gallery spaces.
Though virtual world is the birth place to non-fungible tokens, its representation in the real world through showcases in museums and galleries brings up the chance to combine virtual and real world and provide information and experiment to people and make them ready for the future of art.
Very interesting and will take a closer look at this