Alternative #NFTart Marketplace: NFT Showroom
This marketplace didn’t make our not-so-comprehensive list of NFT art platforms last week, so we wanted to go ahead and add it here.
NFT Showroom is a tighter-knit art-focused community of creators. The support amongst users runs much deeper than I’ve experienced elsewhere and if you have any questions people like Limn Digital are willing to give you exhaustive how-to descriptions on social media. Overall, this is a great place for new artists to safely explore their own style and potential. Creators often buy each other’s work and they seem to promote each other often. In general, bigger investors haven’t quite flooded the site yet.
What currency do you need?
NFT Showroom runs on hive coin, and you’ll need the hive keychain app specifically. This is a bit of a pain because you can’t directly transfer from any of the other wallets commonly used on marketplaces (formatic, metamask) to keychain. Even worse is that fact that some countries don’t support the purchase of hive, so third party apps like MoonPay may or may not allow you to purchase hive using your irl money/credit card.
For me to set up my hive wallet, I needed to do all of the following over a 24 hour period: create a keychain account, use BlockTrades to transfer from my ETH wallet to my hive wallet, email BlockTrades support when the money was removed from my ETH wallet but not deposited into my hive wallet, wait 12 hours for them to respond, finally start looking at NFT Showroom.
In the end, I got it set up, but I’m not looking forward to the transfer back to ETH in the end since I don’t use hive for anything other than this website. On the flip side, I also attempted minting a piece, which was relatively easy after the hassle of the hive setup/purchase/transfer, but more on that to come soon.
The good news? Hive allows transactions to be done cheap. No ridiculous gas fees mean artists can easily mint work, and people who may not have the money to post on platforms like Rarible and Opensea, are able to do so here. You’ll also see sales of $2-$10 USD being transacted in hive regularly, so you can enter the world of NFT art collecting with little more than pocket change.
What’s the art like?
Because the startup fees are lower, there’s a wider spread of talent. If you’re looking for up-and-coming, newbie artists who have a bright future in front of them, this is your platform. If you’re looking for an already established creator who is currently making money elsewhere and has a massive following already, this is probably not the best platform for you.
Low prices mean you have more room for growth if an artist hits it big. It also means you’ll have more art that never increases in value (from an investor perspective).
You can also purchase unique pieces from artists you may never have seen before, unlike the usual rotating top 20 on the big sites. The downside is that you’ll have to weed through a lot of mediocre work to find what you like.
Who are some of the best creators?
Fortunately, we’ve already done the weeding, so you can just view the flowers.
Here are some of our favorite picks if you want to give this platform a try. NFT Showroom doesn’t have much in the way of bio pages, so the most I can do is post the best finds based on skill and collections alone. Keep that in mind when you’re looking at the tiny little descriptions below.
*in no particular order, click each name for gallery links*
1. feoluwart
She only has three pieces so far, but we can’t wait for more. These black and white images are absolutely beautiful. I do wish there was more description for most of the work posted to this marketplace. Is this a photograph that’s been edited? Is it a complete digital creation? We’ll never know (unless feoluwart chimes in).
2. despero-narciso
This is one of the more consistently talented artists on this marketplace and seems to be one of the more popular as well. Make sure to click on “all created art” when looking at this gallery (most of the pieces have already sold, so you’ll need to include past works).
Frustratingly for me writing this post, NFT Showroom uses a default rectangular crop for all images regardless of size. Because of that, “Other Reclined Boy” looks like it might be just another character drawing. You’ll need to click on it to see the whole detailed piece:
3. ignash
I’ve never seen inanimate objects be animated into life is such a wonky, adorable way. Also, I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m pretty sure he posts his work on other platforms as well. Someone let me know if that’s the case!
4. anafae
This artist posts delightful, colorful illustrations that are testament to the affordability of this platform. “In The Back-Room” (which we love for it’s whimsy) sold for 55 hive, which is about $20 as of the time of writing. Find me a similarly cheerful piece on Makersplace or SuperRare for under $100 and I’ll gladly eat my words.
5. glogurl
This artist has a very clear sense of who she is and what she’s creating. Rather than a comprehensive gallery of all her work, this feels more like a single, cohesive collection she created. Each of these digital portraits are full of African imagery and deep, earthy colors.
6. nemosun
Originally made with sharpies on cardboard, these animations are immensely satisfying to watch. Just the pictures below do not do them justice.
6. thisnewgirl
When you click on “all created art” this artist is still finding her specific style. She has a little bit of everything from comic book style characters, to crypto art, to more traditional digital paintings. It’s definitely worth a look if you want to pick an artist who has the potential to develop into a really great creator.
While we’re sure we’ve missed some talented artists in our initial sweep of the site, we hope this helps all of you get started if you’d like to brave the hive ecosystem and pick up a few pieces on this platform.
