Exhibition “Virtual Niche”
China’s First Cryptoart Exhibition at UCCA
Virtual Niche aims to further concretise the emergence of cryptoart as a legitimate fine art category. The show will feature the 2 main artists to have crossed the chasm between the world of cryptoart and major fine art instutions, name Robert Alice and Beeple. Both artists have recently sold works via auction at Christie's. This will be the first time both artists are featured in China.
The show also places works by 30 other crypto-native and contemporary artists, all in a physical setting. By situating the works physically, the curators hope to foster a deep sense of connection with audiences who are less familiar with the notion of digital scarcity.
The theme of the show revolves around memes. Memes, originally conceived in Richard Dawkin's seminal piece The Selfish Gene, represent units of cultural value. With cryptoart and blockchain technology more broadly, it has been made possible for these units of cultural value to be made scarce and for their ownership to be tracked seamlessly over time. This show aims to surface questions about what it means to own a piece of this emerging digital culture, and lead the audience to question where it might take us.
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Artworks by showcased artists (these artworks will not necessarily be live at the show)
INTO THE ETHER #188/207 – BEEPLE
THE DAY I DECIDED TO FLY – FEWOCIOUS
HAPPY CAMPER – HIPWORTH
FROGS SPAWN – ELLWOOD ART
Full list of artists:
Alida Sun
Alotta Money
Artonomous
Bronwyn Lundberg
Beeple
Tiger Cai
Baoyang Chen
Ellwood
Celyn Bricker
Dabeiyuzhou
deadmau5 and Mad Dog Jones
Fewocious
Hipworth
CryptoZR
June Liu
Maalavidaa
Marble Mannequin
Mario Klingemann
mbsjq
Pak
Refik Anadol
Reva
Robbie Barrat
Robert Alice
Sun Bohan
Suryanto
Sun Yitian
Wu Jianan
Wang Weisi
Misc creators of First Supper
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The exhibition runs from March 26th to April 4th, 2021 UCCA Lab – one of China's premier art institutions – in Beijing will host the country's first cryptoart exhibition. After that, the exhibition will also tour to Shanghai from April 9th to April 11th.
The exhibition is curated by Sun Bohan, CEO of BlockCreateArt (BCA).