Xu Zhen Thinks That NFT Culture is the Future

Interview with Xu Zhen by Snejana Krasteva

Committed to art creation and cutting-edge culture development, XU ZHEN® was founded in 2013 by iconic Chinese artist and curator Xu Zhen (b.1977) as the flagship art brand of MadeIn Company, which he established in Shanghai in 2009. He was also one of the initiators of Art-Ba-Ba (www.art-ba-ba.com) in 2006, a leading online forum for discussion and critique of contemporary art in Shanghai. Xu Zhen has been exhibiting internationally at museums and biennales for more than twenty years.

On the benefits of NFTs for artists

In addition to the well-known benefits, I see NFTs as an alarm, it questions and challenges the very meaning of an artist’s work.

On NFT projects worth highlighting

I am interested in artists and projects that define and reinvent the concept of NFT, like Pak and CryptoPunks.

On NFT-based Art

NFT fits in perfectly with the way art exists in the Internet age: it is dematerialized, fast-spreading, and carries both high-risks and high-rewards.

On CryptoPunks’s artistic value

For me, CryptoPunks are common sense embedded in the Internet world. And these days, common sense is certainly hard to come by.

On art projects influenced by CryptoPunks

I guess all the profile picture NFTs.

On CryptoPunks being legendary

It is legendary in terms of its uncertainty, distribution, future, risk, and so on.

On CryptoPunks making it in the traditional art history

The success of CryptoPunks can be seen as a big step forward in the dematerialization of art.

On CryptoPunks’s future

No matter what the future holds, the implications and effects it has caused are fascinating enough.

On the future of NFT culture

It is the future.