Why Is NFT Art So Ugly?

I came across this entertaining essay about NFTs (digital certificates of authenticity traded in a speculative asset bubble, aka "non-fungible tokens"), not from a financial, technological or environmental perspective, but instead from an art-criticism perspective.

As soon as you actually try to talk about this art as art the whole thing sort of falls apart, it just absolutely cannot stand up to the scrutiny. Doing so is about as cringy for the writer and the reader as it is for the viewer of the art itself, which I have to think is why the entire art world seems committed to talking only about the technology, the transmission mechanism, the great great value, all the swirling bullshit AROUND NFTs rather than, god forbid, the amateurish nonsense itself.

Plenty of social and environmental issues with NFTs too, of course, but those have been discussed to death by people more knowledgeable than me.

Edit: the follow-up essay "Why is NFT art so lazy?" is also good, focussing more on procgen in and out of NFTs.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *