In the decentralized Web3 world, content is not centralized in the same way as in the Web2 world. Decentralization brings resistance to censorship and buys more freedom for individuals to play. However, for the viewer, it also brings inconvenience. As in the case of NFT, people are dazzled by the vast amount of NFT and cannot appreciate it as seriously as if they were in a traditional art museum.
Therefore, curators play a very important role in the Web3 world.
Just as online literature has impacted the literary publishing industry, Web3 and NFT are having an unprecedented impact on the traditional curatorial industry.
The most obvious impact is the lowering of the threshold for curation, as everyone can build their own galleries and showrooms in the metaverse and become a Web3 curator.
In the Web3 world, we have many curatorial platforms to choose from. If you are a skilled 3D modeler, you can choose to spend a month at Decentraland or OnCyber building your own 3D gallery of your or your collaborator's collection of NFT artwork.
However, just as online literature has moved towards the presentation of simpler e-books. For more casual users, they opt for a simpler and more straightforward form of curation.
JPG is one such platform. It allows everyone to create NFT exhibitions regardless of what they own. Flexible layouts allow users to bring attention and value to NFTs through context, focused viewing experiences, and new, complementary meanings.
If we are curators, we can share their knowledge by spotlighting important works and creating relational meanings, while establishing a record of their work.
For example, one of my favorite JPG exhibition is [JPG x CryptoArg], curated by William M. Peaster.
CryptoArg is an Argentinean artist collective that JPG collaborated with to host a Twitter Space and curate this exhibition.
You can find it here:
[https://jpg.space/William M. Peaster/exhibition/JPG-x-CryptoArg](https://jpg.space/William M. Peaster/exhibition/JPG-x-CryptoArg)
The pages of the exhibition looks like both an exhibition and like an illustrated art magazine.
In a very short time, I learned about the history and members of CryptoArg, admired their work, and knew there was a JPG-sponsored event I could go to.
However, in reality, curating an exhibition in Singapore for a Spanish art group would be expensive and cumbersome. Even if I were an audience member, I would need to make time to attend the lectures and look carefully at each work in the gallery to get the same effect.
The second JPG exhibition that I really like is The Others, curated by @shibboleth and @mikeywoodbridge.
Another nice feature of JPG, by the way, is that you can click on a curator's name to see how many previous exhibitions they have curated and what art NFTs they hold, again something that would be difficult to do in a real-world exhibition.
If I admire a curator very much, I can use this feature to discover more artworks that I might like and collect them earlier.
As mentioned in this exhibition，zaphodok, a legendary CryptoArt collector, recognized early on the power of many artists who went on to become major figures in the field.
If I really like a collection in an exhibition, I can simply click to see more information about it, such as when and how much it is traded on the chain, and jump to the trading market to choose whether to buy it.
As John Berger says in Ways of Seeing, "Seeing precedes language in the construction of the world, a world in which power permeates, and mastery of seeing is a great power.”
When we view on a Web3 curatorial platform like JPG, we have more power to make a direct connection to the work.
The third JPG exhibition that I love is Cutility: Finiliar Speedrun, curated by @trente.
According to the introduction of the exhibition, Finiliars were first conceived by contemporary artist Ed Fornieles in 2016 with emotions tied to the prices of fiat currencies, embodying global macroeconomic forces in adorable little creatures with lovable mood swings. Applying this to NFTs, linking these creatures to coin prices utilizing oracles, is not only a natural extension, but actually enhances and strengthens many of the original concepts.
Although I had not known the artist before, just looking at the work, I think it would be difficult to show this style of work in some conservative countries' art museums. They seem to belong to the Web3 and metaverse by nature. It also means that they belong to the future ;)
I look forward to seeing more exhibitions like this at JPG and hope I can try to be a curator at JPG. ❤