NFTs and the art world

Starting out as a small niche in the tech world, NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) have recently seen a surge in popularity and are gradually making their way into the mainstream.

Our aim at Affordable Art Fair has always been to make art accessible for everyone, in every form, so we have partnered with Nfinitymark, leader in providing technology solutions for artists, gallerists and collectors, to give you insights into and guide you through the world of NFTs.

We also spoke with Swedish artist and cartoonist Magda Lundberg, who created a few special edition NFTs to celebrate 10 years of Affordable Art Fair Stockholm.

Along with Patrik Arnesson, founder at Forza, Magda joined our panel on NFTs at the 10th instalment of the Stockholm fair, moderated by Nfinitymark’s co-founder Kirsten Hinder. In preparation for the talk, we discussed the ins and outs of NFTs with Nfinitymark’s co-founder Kirsten Hinder.

A Stockholm-based Curator and Contemporary Art Consultant, Kirsten Hinder has degrees Art History, Women’s Studies and Photography, as well as Master’s in International Curating, Management & Law.

Her extensive experience in the art world, including with Moderna Museet, Spritmusem, Couture Galleri and Nordic Stories Contemporary Art, make her the go-to on all things art.

Kirsten co-founded NfinityMark with Champike Munasinghein 2021. Their combined expertise in art and technology has contributed to the success of their venture, making it the ideal partnership with Affordable Art Fair Stockholm.

There is a lot of excitement around digital technology and how it is re-defining several aspects of the art world, as well as its potential to open up a myriad of possibilities in terms of how we manage, experience and share art collections.

Partly this evolution is being driven by a new demographic of artists and collectors – an emerging group of NextGen digital natives who are looking to both create and consume art in a less traditional sense.

What are NFTs?

In very simple terms, NFTs can be described as a unique digital record of information that has a monetary value attached to it.

NFTs can be anything digital, such as music or images.  “Non-fungible” means that they are unique, one-of-a-kind, and can’t be replaced with something else.

When connected to a blockchain – a secure system for storing information on a decentralised digital ledger – the NFT permanently and traceably marks the origin, ownership, and uniqueness of the asset it represents.

NFTs & Art

In the case of digital art, the NFT is the artwork itself. It provides a new way of verifying the authorship of digital artworks that could otherwise be copied indefinitely.

Much like the difference between a print and an original, you can copy a digital file as many times as you want, however NFTs are designed to give you ownership of the work, while the artist can still retain the copyright and reproduction rights.

Within the realm of physical art, the NFT functions as a digital certificate of authenticity, offering a secure way to record ownership of the artwork, to verify its provenance, and to minimise any risk of forgery.

The future

The future of art collecting is becoming increasingly digitised in both the analogue and the digital art worlds, affording new opportunities for artists, art dealers and collectors alike. 

As they continue to gain more traction, all types of digital assets, including NFTs, might well become the norm.

As far as art goes, embracing new technologies is not about abandoning tradition, but rather protecting our art investments and sustaining a future for our most beloved collectables.

Interview with artist Magda Lundberg

Magda Lundberg is a Swedish artist and cartoonist, known for her series “Fåglar” (Birds). Born as a tattoo sketch, the series gained a lot of popularity on Instagram, later turning into the book ‘You are not here to have a good time’. In the autumn of 2021 Magda took over Kent Wisti’s place as a cartoonist in Dagens Nyheters Kultursöndag.

As a newbie to NFTs, Magda will shared her artist perspective during our ‘Art Talk’ during the week of Affordable Art Fair Stockholm 2022.

We caught up with Magda ahead of the fair to discuss her art, her current projects and future plans.

First of all, we have to talk about the birds that are taking over your life! They evolved from a tattoo sketch of a rubber duck and then took on a life of their own, becoming super popular on Instagram due to their very Swedish humour and how relatable they are.

Those ideas were really always there, eager to get out, just in a different kind of voice. I had tried different concepts before, searching for ways in which I felt all of my ideas could come to fruition, and then they finally found their expression in the birds.

It all started with small A7 notepads, which I had bought on a whim – but the notepads turned out to be crucial for the drawings as they came about. They felt like a good format for the tone of the pictures, plus they allowed for the drawings and writing to be spontaneous, and then those two seemingly unrelated qualities made the series what it is today.

So far the strips are in Swedish, but the texts for the special edition NFTs for Affordable Art Fair however are written in English as the audience is international – or at least more so than on my little Instagram birdworld! Since I am well aware that humour does not always translate well (both wording and content), it will be very interesting to see how they will be received by non-Swedes!

What’s your inspiration for the situations you put your birds in?

Mostly the inspiration comes from my close relationships, or maybe more so the troubles I experience in my close relationships, and the rest is just from everyday life.  

Although it’s funny – when I released the book I got asked in an interview: “Do you ever eavesdrop on people’s conversations?”, well I do now!

Before I did that interview I didn’t eavesdrop, but as a consequence of that question I started doing it. So nowadays I will sit in a coffee shop with my headphones, no music on – listening in to people’s conversations and getting new material!

Occasionally you publish images on Instagram and ask your followers to write the text for them – do you like this interactive aspect?

I do like it, but it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. Of course you want control of your own artistry and your own vision, but as an artist I also have to be able to accept that sometimes – although I can be pretty good – someone can do this better than me.

The only reason I started this was out of respect for the picture. Sometimes I feel like I have a really potent picture but I cannot come up with the right text. I can feel there is something there but I can’t seem to find the hidden gem. So normally out of 500 to 700 suggestions I receive for each picture, I will pick out 6 or 7 and have a favourite in mind. Then people will vote and it is super interesting to get an insight into what people think. It’s a really good way to find out more about my audience.

You started off just sketching the birds on your notebook and now this has evolved fully into digital art. You also created a few special edition NFTs to celebrate 10 years of Affordable Art Fair Stockholm. Can you tell us a bit about the process? How did you transition from physical to digital pieces?

From the beginning, the drawings were inseparable from the notepads. I couldn’t take them out of the equation, just because of how it all started and how they were the right tool to get the ideas out and on paper.

In an earlier time, it would have been impossible for me to shift to digital, but now that I’m more comfortable in my expression and I know the core of what I want to tell it’s not quite so important to cling to the notepads anymore!

I am not abandoning the notepad of course, but I got curious about getting the experience of doing it in a different way and trying new things.

Creating the special edition NFTs for Affordable Art Fair Stockholm was a great opportunity for me to try a different approach. I didn’t want to simply translate what I already had and end up with two identical artworks, one in Swedish and one in English – that would have been a boring repetition.

It was a crucial motivation for me to think it is meaningful to translate them, and I found this to be an opportunity to create something new in a way I had not done before. This way the digital artworks are in English, which is another way in which they differ from the ones in Swedish.

Do you intend to continue with digital art?

I am completely open to the possibility!

So far the process of making these digital artworks has been fun and rewarding, but I have no idea how it will feel after it’s launched, and it also depends on how it is going to be received! 

I have always felt like a bad artist for caring so much about how my art is received, but in recent years I’ve become more at peace with the fact that ”Yes!”- it is important to me that there is a recipient who deems what I do relevant enough to consume it – whether its because of humor or aesthetics or whatever. So in short: we’ll see if I continue with NFTs after this.

As well as the special edition NFTs, you will also participate in our Art Talk with Patrik Arnesson and Kirsten Hinder. How did the collaboration come about and how did you get into NFTs?

I am completely new to NFTs, it is such an abstract concept that I am still getting my head around it!

One thing that I appreciate with my artistry is that I don’t very often need to get confused about what art is; I feel I lack the knowledge to have an advanced view of art, and so how I do it is very simple.

I hate change, new stuff and weird stuff and this is one of those things that are so weird and abstract that… I don’t know, I probably had a stroke or something, but I think the reasoning was to challenge myself with keeping an open mind. I don’t want to become an old person hating new technology!

That is why it has been very interesting to think about this, and it is also what will make the Art Talk very balanced. The other participants on the panel are the real experts, so it will be good to listen to what they have to say for people, like myself, who have a limited understanding of NFTs.

What do you think is the future of contemporary art?

Haha, In my lifetime or the next? My guess is that it’s going to go hyper-super-digital and even crazier! If NFT is weird, it’s going to get weirder!

But then I believe things will flip, and then it will be Marcel Duchamp all over again.

Also in parallel with that, I think big paintings will be really big. When digital evolves, the super physical will too, and they will strengthen each other.

…and what do you see ad the future of your own art?

I now realise my previous answer might have been self-serving! Before I started making comics I only did big, large, abstract paintings. The plan was always to do abstract paintings, but now I do hope to have time to do both the abstract paintings and the more figurative art simultaneously. I love to work, so that is probably in the cards!

Discover more of Magda Lundberg’s artwork via her Instagram and check out our latest fairs, filled with interesting talks, activities and, of course, wonderful art!

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