NFT.NYC, which opened on June 20 with over 15,000 visitors, has announced the finalists and winners of its second annual NFT awards, one of the most highly anticipated NFT events, organized in partnership with OpenSea, ApeNFT and NFT.Kred.
The NFT Awards honors and shares remarkable NFT projects, infrustructures and distinguished creators selected by the community. This year, the event received 12,353 nominations and 18,456 votes covering more than 30 categories in areas from visual art to gaming to fashion. Takashi Murakami won the “Greatest Common Artist-Turned-NFT-Artist” category, Beeple was named “Best Established NFT Artist” and RTFKT was crowned as having the “Best Fashion NFT Project.”
Finalists at the NFT.NYC Awards in 2022. Image courtesy of DigitalArt4Climate.
DigitalArt4Climate ranked in the top five of the “Best Environmental Initiative from an NFT Project” category, while Exquisite Workers, the major creative partner of the initiative, became the finalist in the “Best NFT Project for Creators” and “Diversity Award” categories.
The Filipino digital artist Bricx Martillo Dumas, the first-prize winner of 2021’s DigitalArt4Climate and a leading artist at Exquisite Workers, is an ambassador of both initiatives.
On June 30, 2022, Dumas’ message about the climate emergency and NFT art as a pathway for young digital artists to partner up with the United Nations’ system and communities will be shared at the biggest Polkadot event of the year, Polkadot Decoded.
About Bricx Martillo Dumas
After witnessing the devastation of super typhoon Yolanda, Dumas committed himself to a life of education, cycling and eco-activism. In November 2021, he submitted the digital artwork “Nexus” to the DigitalArt4Climate art competition founded by GloCha in partnership with UN-Habitat, Unique Network, Exquisite Workers and Social Alpha Foundation.
As well as receiving a formal letter from the House of Representatives of Philippines congratulating Dumas on his initiatives, he has made appearances on a number of stages such as ArtGence 3D gallery, CNN Philippines, ANC 24/7, WSJ for at Iconic Mints, the collective art creation “Digital Exquisite Corpse” at Geneva Forum, and Seattle NFT Museum.
“DigitalArt4Climate aims to inspire artists and pave the path for others to follow and contribute to solve the biggest challenge of our era. And NFT.NYC is the Leading Annual NFT Event and an international forum to provide visibility for it and show an example for the global community to follow,” said Irina Karagyaur, head of metaverse growth at Unique Network.
When Miroslav Polzer, the founder of DigitalArt4Climate, received news of his NFT.NYC nomination, he shared his gratitude: “Success is all about people. We have invested a lot of time and effort into building partnerships with very special people/friends and colleagues in the UN system, with the global climate action community, creative community and blockchain solution providers. We are delighted to see that these efforts have been recognized as one of the world’s leading environmental NFT project initiatives by NFT.NYC. This gives us confidence and energy to continue our work for a climate-safe future.”
Nokma 2021 by Bricx in the collective chain of art “Digital Exquisite Corpse” of over 2,500 artworks by Exquisite Workers. Image courtesy of Exquisite Workers.
About GloCha
The International Association for the Advancement of Innovative Approaches to Global Challenges (GloCha) is a United Nations-accredited civil society organization based in Klagenfurt am Wortheersee, Austria.
About Unique Network
Unique Network is an infrastructure for the next generation of NFTs. The first NFT chain for Kusama and Polkadot, Unique Network offers developers independence from high network transaction fees, dense upgrades and siloed NFTs. It is responsible for Polkadot’s first NFTs, Substrapunks.
About Exquisite Workers
Known for their groundbreaking collective artwork inspired by the surrealist game Exquisite Corpse, Exquisite Workers is a new-gen online platform and NFT ecosystem for artists. Over the last two years, Exquisite Workers has created over 2,500 interconnected digital artworks dedicated to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
About UN-Habitat Program
The United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) is a UN program for human settlements and sustainable urban development. It was established in 1978 as an outcome of the first United Nations Conference on Human Settlements and Sustainable Urban Development, held in Vancouver, Canada in 1976.