While the physical art domain often generates controversy thanks to sky-high prices being paid for artwork (a prime example is a duct-taped banana in Miami that was recently sold for $120,000), there is an emerging art scene that grows by the minute focusing on digital art, and more specifically on cryptoart.
Cryptoart pieces are fundamentally digital art that is registered and distributed through the help of blockchains. A cryptoart piece’s use-case can be as simple as it being an aesthetic collectible. It can also be used as decoration or piece of clothing in VR and digital realms.
The artworld is swiftly taking on crypto and the movement has been growing more successfully than ever before. Cryptoart offers artists the opportunity to own their vision, giving tools to bring it to life. Today the world is entering a new phase that fuses art with cryptocurrencies. For artists and collectors, it is important to understand the current trends that drive the market. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that artists have been utilizing crypto to buy, sell and create art. There are artists who are using crypto as the subject matter and inspiration behind their creations. One of them is Osinachi.
Osinachi is a crypto-passionate artist based in Nigeria. Currently working on the theme of the relationship between Art, Africa, and its cultures, he became passionate about cryptocurrencies and began to use them in his artworks. He is notably the first digital visual artist to affix blockchain to his artwork in Africa. His works can be found in digital auction houses around the world including SuperRare, Open Sea, Rarible and more.
Giving credit to the revolutionary nature of crypto, the world of permissionless digital money and the world of art have, in a sense, always gone concurrently. Osinachi incorporates this unique tie in his works, which feature cultural African tales with modern issues in a compelling fashion.
Seeing as how apparent the growth of cryptoart is and how it is gradually making its way into Africa, we had a discussion with Osinachi about cryptoart, his journey as a digital visual artist and the future of cryptoart in Africa.
Please introduce yourself and tell us about how you got into artistry.
My name is Prince Jacon Osinachi Igwe. I prefer to use only my Igbo name, Osinachi, for my art because I feel it speaks to my heritage and my personal experience, which in turn influences my art.
My journey into visual art, I would say, started with my journey into creativity. I have always been interested in stories; so I read and read a lot of literature while in secondary school. I started writing too. With time, the stories I needed to tell became more urgent. I felt there were way too many rules to follow in writing. This urgency took me back to when I discovered Microsoft Word as a young boy. I used to type my poems and short stories on the word processor, and when I didn’t have much to do I would find myself exploring the drawing tools on it. I had to go back to these drawing tools and I started making sketches. From sketches, I got bolder and started creating nice figures. But I didn’t take all this seriously until 2014 after my undergraduate studies. I guess I suddenly had too much time on my hands and I needed to do something creative. I saw myself creating more and more pieces on Word, and slowly, my artworks moved more and more towards figurative portraiture, which has become my style now.
Can you explain your vision on the intersection of art and crypto? What inspired you to start working with crypto in your practice?
In everything we do in life, the question is always what’s next? Visual art is a lot of things to me, one of which is challenging myself to do more, do better. In other words, the piece I make today has to be an improvement on the piece I made yesterday. The quest for challenge led me to discover cryptoart. As the name says, it is art on the blockchain bought with digital currency. We all see how blockchain technology is changing things for good. Art is also experiencing decentralization. So, the same way collectors buy artworks for thousands or millions of dollars for the perceived value of the piece, that’s the same way collectors in the cryptoart space buy works for their perceived value. The records are there to show that it is not a child’s play. It is real; it is working. This reality made me ask myself if I want to fade away as a digital artist who only makes limited edition prints or if I want to be part of history and sail on the changing tides of time. That was what gave me the courage to enter the cryptoart space in early 2018.
Seeing as how you’re the foremost cryptoartist in Nigeria, possibly Africa, how challenging and how elevating has that been?
I am Africa’s foremost cryptoartist. It is not just Nigeria, but the whole of Africa. While I am honored to hold this high position on the continent, I am happy that I have somehow shown other African artists a path to getting their art acknowledged and appreciated, and being rewarded for their practice.
In the traditional art space, 90% of the time, we see a situation where an artist’s name sells their work instead of the substance of their work. Honestly, I have noticed that this also happens in the cryptoart space. So, when it comes to elevation, I am excited that my work is held in high regard, not because of my position as Africa’s foremost cryptoartist, but for the substance of each piece.
We love how your art tells tales of Nigerian culture and queerness. Is there a story about that? Is it a form of activism?
The title of my upcoming debut solo is “Osinachi – Existence as Protest”. It’s coming up sometime in the first quarter of this year in Switzerland. Through my art, I want to tell authentic stories influenced by my personal experience. One of the things I have experienced as a Nigerian is injustice. Another is inequality. The list goes on. I use my art to highlight these issues. Specifically, in exploring queerness, my art is geared towards presenting the queer body in its most authentic and boldest state, so that the subject in the artwork says to the viewer, “Yes I am real and normal. This is me and there is nothing wrong with me.” The society is filled with these wrong teachings that lead to hatred and bigotry. Teachings like, “This is how a real man is supposed to be and look and act.” My practice is geared towards pointing attention to the other way that a man can also be and look and act; and, by so doing, normalize this otherness. This is me protesting by showing things as they are.
Tell us about your favourite creation and the inspiration behind it?
This is kind of tough. How do I pick a favourite piece of mine? Okay, in this context, I would say ‘Nduka’s Wedding Day’ because it embodies everything I have just finished talking about. It was inspired by androgyny, which is something that most people in Nigeria have been taught to see as abnormal.
What impact has cryptoart had in the art scene, and how do you think crypto is going to revolutionize art in Africa moving forward?
Artists like Kevin Abosch have raised eyebrows, gotten their much-deserved attention and even made history through their engagement with blockchain. While the traditional art world is known to be so rigid that it’s almost impossible to bring in new ideas in collecting art, cryptoart has come to challenge that and show that there’s a viable alternative that is even probably better than what we’ve known for hundreds of years. The current question is if the blockchain is the right solution for auction houses. I think that some of them are already adopting it. Some galleries like the amazing Kate Vass Galerie in Switzerland have made cryptoart a part of their work. So the movement speaks for itself. It is shaking up the art world in a good way and Africa is bound to reap its benefits. But, first of all, African artists need to become a part of the movement. Right now, artists from across the world have an equal platform to take part in this. If African artists should key in and fill the blockchain with authentic visual stories, then I believe that Africa will start getting its own share of what is happening in the global art scene. The disruption and shift will give artists more control over how their artworks go out there. Cryptoart is about decentralization. So, as African artists, we will see we do not necessarily need the age-old art institutions (some of which are rigged against artists from the continent) to make an impact in the art world.
