Back to the Future: NFTs and African Art

“With NFTs, there’s no limit to what you can do” says Inatimi Nathus with such humility that you could almost miss it. The Nigerian founder of AfroTroves describes his work as “a tribute to African art of old [made] new” as he collects artwork from across Africa, adds layers of digital texture and sells as non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The world of NFTs has taken on epic proportions, valued at USD41bn last year, enabling content creators, particularly artists, to sell their work in the virtual world as unique collectors’ items with cryptocurrencies, and to authenticate ownership using blockchain. As interest in contemporary African art rises, estimated to be worth USD15bn, more and more artists will be turning to the digital world through marketplaces like QkweQkwe to connect directly with buyers globally, using NFTs, enabling buyers to show to the world that they have their hands on an original.

For Nathus, he shared with us how he became interested in NFTs in his quest to unearth art from his Ijaw community which he said is not ‘mainstream’, yet the only places he would find it was at far flung auction houses/galleries, so he began to collect them, in the hope of “bringing back” African art. His ethos and work seem to be motivated less by gifting "bragging rights"  and more by “nostalgic-futurism” as he reaches into his Ijaw heritage to unearth artifacts, blend with a modern twist and project into a non-time-bound future using blockchain technology.

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