NFTs are unique assets that cannot be replaced by any other programs, often checked and stored with blockchain technology. They can incorporate anything from music to a website domain. The current modern craze is all around digital art. This time 360 Magazine attended one of the largest NFT conferences in North America, NFT.NYC. This was a three-day event, featuring more than five hundred speakers from the crypto, blockchain, and NFT communities.
NFT.NYC 2021
NFT.NYC takes place in New York City. This is the third year running for the conference. We are elevated to attend and participate in this technological ceremony which anticipates the future of artistic creation and shopping. This event has gathered thousands of professionals in the field of NFT and had a 3-day commitment for the showcase and seminar. NFT is now being used in a wide range of scenarios, including art, travel, food, game, etc. As a result, the speakers are from all kinds of industries, We met 3LAU, who is a DJ from Las Vegas, Jan Bodden, who is an NFT gamer, and Gary Vee who is the CEO of VaynerX.
Spotlight Speaker: Gary Vee
Gary Vee is a Belarusian-American entrepreneur. He is well known for being the co-founder of the restaurant reservation software company Resy. Now, he is one of the pioneers in promoting and supporting the NFT. He has 2.5 million followers on Twitter, many of whom have been initiated into blockchain and NFT through his NFT – Vee Friends collection. It was a great pleasure to have the opportunity to meet him and hear his opinion on NFT.
While he is one of the earliest figures who has been investing and collecting the NFTs, he says that sometimes the technology can go over his head. Instead of focusing heavily on technology, he is more interested in how NFT will help and change people’s daily life. He is optimistic about the future of NFT, however, he still has his concern. He thinks that people are paying too much attention to the value and financial benefit NFT can bring while they ignore the importance of developing NFT itself as a product.
Alma Jimenez: Women in NFTs
Alma Jimenez is a Mexican American artist based out of New York. Alma recently made her own presentation at NFT NYC. Throughout the presentation, she introduces herself and her journey through the space of NFTs. In 2008, Alma funded the Vj Deliria project which is her longest art project to date. Through the project, Alma explores video art and glitch aesthetics. Alma’s NFTs are a reflection of the traditions that represent her heritage. Through Alma’s long term Vj Deliria project, she has been able to meet with a wide range of artists that have been able to help expand her art. Alma has now begun migrating to the metaverse with a mindset of building community, and specifically bringing the Latin American community with her on these new pursuits.
The first exhibition that Alma did in the metaverse was the Latin American Graffiti exhibition that featured a graffiti artist collective from Mexico City. The opening reception of the exhibition was featured in Clubhouse so that a group of artists could meet up in the metaverse and walk the gallery as one. From this first exhibition alone, Alma gathered over twenty-three artists to participate in this new coming of age metaverse experience.
In the following weeks of this exhibition, Alma was invited by Chile’s Ministry of Culture, Art and Heritage to talk about NFTs and crypto art, and the role that they play as a creative economy. Alma knew that she wanted to share this opportunity with other remarkable artists from Chile that were also creating in the NFT space. This exhibition that featured other distinguished Chilean artists was called Chile Diverso NFT. Following this crucial exhibition, they created an Opensea Collection, Oncyber gallery and Cryptovoxels exhibition. The next exhibition Alma curated is called NFTribu, which also translates to NFTribe. The exhibition is nomadic, and the groups move from galleries between differing metaverses. This unique exhibition showcases NFT art that is inspired by Pre-Columbian cultures, indigenous and native people from Latin America. The exhibition is ongoing, and Alma is always in search of more art to add to the exhibition.
Danny Cole: A Prodigy in Creature World
Danny Cole is a 21 years old American painter and interdisciplinary artist from New York City. He attended the NFT.NYC as one of the youngest artists with his art assembles Creature World. As he said: “The Creature World is this imaginary place that I like to visit and I’d like to give other people the opportunity to visit. There’s a real beauty in entering those alternative states, like dreaming.” He has achieved 26.3k trade-in volume on the biggest NFT trade market Opensea which has a net worth value of over one hundred million dollars. As a result, his works have even been mentioned with the same breath as Keith Haring.
Event-Exclusive: Topps NFTs
An exclusive set of NFTs from Topps was given away at this years NFT.NYC apart of the events Digital Swag Bag. Two special NFTs were crafted to celebrate the one and only Godzilla.
Happy Birthday, Godzilla! (NFT NYC 2021 Topps NFT Exclusive): The first NFT celebrates the November birthday of Godzilla. Along with celebrating The King of Monsters’ birthday, this NFT also acclaims the newest Godzilla Rage Across Time NFT drop. Topps and Toho have worked together to generate this special NFT NYC Exclusive collectible honoring November 3rd.
Godzilla Rage Across Time NFT (NFT NYC 2021 Topps NFT Exclusive): The second NFT was created to commemorate the October release of the 2021 Godzilla Rage Across Time NFT Collection by Topps on ToppsNFTs.com.
While onsite at the annual ceremony, the Curio team was on-site handing out physical cards that would grant recipients another event exclusive NFT from the upcoming Mars Attacks collection, in partnership with Topps. The Mars Attacks collection launches later this month.
Crypto Art Fair
Crypto Art Fair was our focus. All the art programming was provided by INX.com who was an Investors & Blockchain Consultant company that offered custom smart contracts, digital wallets, artist engagements & collaborations. The event was hosted in Times Square on the second day of NFT.NYC by NFT Magazine. We are with great esteem to stand in front of all the digital billboards and witness this splendid congregation. It was the first event that NFT magazine was holding. It took place through over 1.5k sq ft of billboard and have showcased various kind of NFT artwork. The event featured more than seventy artists which including Marc Tudisco, Steven Baltay, Ragdollz, Danny Cole. The event was also featuring the AR experience through the AR platform SuperWorld.
NFT: Merging Verses
The future of fashion is the merging of two verses, the virtual world (metaverse) and the physical world. 360 Magazine this time was delighted to be the media partner of the NFT Project “Merging Verses”. We have launched this NFT at Paradise Club in Times Square Edition. Standing with the idea of women in NFT, we had our after-party featuring our NFT producer Bee Davies who is the founder of Hive Global Media. Paradise Club is an imaginative, chaotic, and highly productive show venue that fits perfectly in Times Square. With its colorful dancefloor and the wonderful performance of DJ RICH GREENE, it was such a huge success, and we were looking forward to our next collaboration! Along with this merge of spaces with NFTS, we are interested to see the trajectory and ultimate impact of NFTs in long-term culture. How will NFTs ultimately influence the way that society consumes food, purchases automobiles or even how we choose to travel? NFTs have already began becoming emerged into our everyday lives and can even change the way we decorate our homes. This integration of NFTs into our society and mainstream culture is something that we are interested in and curious to learn more about.
MORE NFT EVENTS COMING: NFT.LAND
If you have missed the NFT.NYC, there will be another event taking place early next year from March 22-25th. NFT.LAND will be held in the Caesar Forum in Las Vegas. It is an epic conference organized by Tokensmart. More artists, collectors, developers, entrepreneurs, and other like-minded individuals for us to expect next year at NFT.LAND
Article by:
Vaughn Lowery, McKinley Franklin, Conan Zhang, Armon Hayes
