Andy Valmorbida is the founder of Untitled-1, the sole owner of the copyright for Richard Hambleton’s original collection of art, and a legendary art entrepreneur. With a reputation for creatively pushing the envelope, it should come as no surprise that Valmorbida is very excited about the new NFT movement. With a mind towards reinvigorating a conversation around the late revolutionary street artist, Valmorbida has big plans to use the Hambleton copyright to create unique NFTs based on the artist’s shocking work.
While some in the art world either don’t understand the value of NFTs or are resisting the new technology, Valmorbida himself is embracing this cutting-edge technological opportunity that is changing the art industry.
NFT, which stands for ‘Non-Fungible Token,’ is a new type of digital asset enabled by blockchain technology. Utilizing blockchain’s completely transparent ledger infrastructure, digital artists and digital art entrepreneurs have been able to create a highly engaging and lucrative market for digital art.
This exciting new technology allows artists, buyers, and sellers to create a digital stamp of authenticity, proving ownership, for their digital artworks. The ability to transparently verify authenticity, ownership, and previous sales — enabled by blockchain — has turned digital art into a true asset with a vibrant and growing marketplace. Further, the technology is increasingly popular for artists and entrepreneurs as the blockchain allows the original artist and any previous owners to be paid a percentage of each subsequent sale of the NFT.
As mentioned, Valmorbida and Untitled-1 are specifically planning to use the Hambleton copyright they acquired to get into the NFT game. Valmorbida and Untitled-1 are in the process of making small digital alterations to the avant-garde street artist’s work in order to create multiple unique NFTs. The NFTs will, of course, keep the spirit of the revolutionary artist’s original work while incorporating the style and norms of the cutting-edge world of NFTs like pixelization.
As Hambleton was focused on pushing art culture forward during his lifetime, using innovative new styles and forms in his art, Hambleton would have surely embraced NFTs if he were alive today. Similar to the way Hambleton decided to use sidewalks, streets, and buildings as his canvas to create minimalist yet shocking art, artists today can use their computers to create a wide variety of multimedia enabled (graphic design, moving image, video, photograph, etc..) NFT art. Hambleton would have loved the way NFT art is pushing art culture forward in terms of form, style, and economics.
Regardless of what the establishment art world thinks, NFTs are clearly here to stay as the market has a total volume of $7 billion in 2021 so far. While the NFT market is continuing to grow, we fully expect executors of artists’ estates as well as any owners of artist copyrights to follow Valmorbida into the NFT world. Of course, other living artists are already getting into the space as Damien Hirst, JR, and Jeff Koons have recently created original NFTs.
In line with decisions made by both Damien Hirst and JR, Valmorbida and Untitled-1 plan to use an eco-friendly NFT platform to mint their Hambleton NFTS
