Credit: Courtesy of SuperRare
Nate Mohler’s “Grunge City,” 2021, 57 seconds. Edition of 1. Part of the “Painted Cities” series. Mohler, a UCLA design media arts alumnus, has released 12 artworks as NFTs, and nine have sold.
The challenge that digital artists, curators and collectors have faced for decades has been how to sell artwork that is by nature infinitely reproducible. Unlike a painting or sculpture, digital artworks can be reduced to a series of 0s and 1s, or an algorithm that can easily be copied.
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, offer a technological solution. They work as public ledgers, using blockchain technology to track digital transactions. When a collector buys an NFT, they’re essentially acquiring a tamper-proof digital receipt. That also allows the artist to retain a percentage of the revenue each time their work is sold.