ART: Expanding the definition of ‘artist’

From meme makers to TikTok creators, everyone can now be an artist

Delhi-based sculptor and artist Shovin Bhattacharjee, 45, has been creating digital art since 2002. Among the first Indians to list his work as an NFT, he says, “I have always faced the challenge of limited buyers because the notion still persists that digital art is not authentic art”. The concerns relating to copyright add to buyer hesitation. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are helping change that by enabling creators and collectors to verify authenticity by encrypting an unforgeable signature on the blockchain. Christie’s sale of Everydays: The First 5000 Days by the cryptoartist Beeple made news in March both for its $69 million price tag and the fact that a leading auction house had sold an NFT. “As the portals [such as Ethereum, Flow, and homegrown WazirX] create a unique code for each work, there is a record of ownership. [A new block of immutable code is added each time the artwork changes hands.] So my digital works are now better received and valued,” says Bhattacharjee, who recently sold his first NFT, titled Exploration, a digital print on canvas for 1.4 Ethereum that takes a gentle jibe at artist Subodh Gupta’s milk cans from the early 2000s.