We helped the Estonian art association Kanvas.ai, which offers different technical solutions for artists, collectors and galleries, open its Web3 platform Nft.kanvas.ai, creating a lot of new opportunities for art.
First of its kind in the region
Kanvas.ai is the first art platform in the Nordic and Baltic countries to offer an art environment based on Tezos blockchain technology, as well as a secondary market for NFT art.
Although there are a number of similar blockchain-based buy-and-sell environments in the world, such as OpenSea, the Kanvas.ai platform is distinguished primarily by protecting copyright.
“The NFT platforms on the market right now concentrate only on digital art and most of them lack curators as well as respectable user agreements that would also protect the authors” stated Astrid Laupmaa, co-founder and CEO of Kanvas.ai.
“Our environment provides both artists and galleries with blockchain technology that allows artists to create NFTs themselves, which creates a lot of new opportunities for art. The NFT can be an independent virtual artwork, a certificate for a physical artwork, a video file, an AI artwork, or a ticket that guarantees access to the artist’s new exhibition. Artists have the option, for example, to choose whether they want to give an NFT, a physical print or work. How artists link this technology to their current work or not is their own choice. Only imagination sets limits on how blockchain technology can be used in the art world” said Laupmaa.
First NFT Projects
In Kanvas.ai’s new art environment, Nft.kanvas.ai can learn about the first projects that showcase ways to link blockchain technology to art. One of the projects is the Estonian art collective MA+KE lab’s NFT collection “Endless Ocean.”
According to Martin Tõnts, the designer of the MA+KE lab, NFTs provide a good opportunity to invest in the traditional field in a novel way and to shape people’s mentality – for example, to focus on making more informed choices through art and also to give the work a social and financial dimension. “The first objective, of course, is to do something that suits you and simply gives you pleasure, but at the same time a novel situation has arisen in connection with Web3. This directly creates financial value for the values that hold our nature and the opportunity to do something practical in this way,” Tõnts said.
In addition, an animation created based on the analogue photo “Speed” by the Estonian sports photographer Isi Trapido can be accessed, where the son of the author of the work, Toomas Trapido, gives a physical photo print with a signature on the NFTs. Isi Trapido’s original work was sold at an auction house in London.
Our services and client team
We helped the Kanvas.ai team to draw up new terms of use for the web environment, which covers both physical and digital art. Such conditions of use are not very common on the market and allow artists to stand up for their rights and ensure the safety of their works.
Our client team includes partner Mihkel Miidla, counsel Kärt Anna Maire Kelder and associate Helery Maidlas.
In cooperation with the Kanvas.ai team, we have also conducted a webinar on copyright and tax issues related to digital art. A recording of the seminar can be found here (in English).
