Xin Li-Cohen, Christie’s Deputy Chairman, Co-founds Her Own NFT Platform

There are things and then there is art. The art market is booming despite the pandemic and the worldwide lockdown as investors and collectors are undertaking the great migration from good old-fashioned real-world artwork to its digital counterpart. The advent of the digital arts market has only been augmented by the inevitable afterbirth of decentralized technologies in the form of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) that are now being leveraged as an accessible and applicable medium for bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds.

Stellar examples of the value-building qualities of digital assets representing art can be found in the characteristics of such works. Unlike typical digital formats, works of art supported by NFTs cannot be copy-pasted or replicated, thanks to the inherent immutability and ownership-guaranteeing qualities of the underlying blockchain system. NFTs cannot be forged, unlike traditional works of art, nor can they be pirated – a major issue for artists in the music, gaming and other industries.

These reasons, and the innovative medium factor, are playing in favour of the development of NFT artwork, which is wooing to the appeal of collectors worldwide thanks to its broad availability, and the recognition of artists by virtue of benefits it provides to them as entrepreneurs monetizing their creations.

TR Lab is one of the newest platforms taking advantage of the growing popularity of NFT art. Co-founded by Christie’s Deputy Chairman Xin Li-Cohen, TR Lab provides the curation, discovery, and collecting of NFT-based fine works of art created by internationally renowned artists. The platform has already attracted the support of such renowned names among the institutional partners audience as Artsy, Rockbund Art Museum, Dragonfly Capital, and the ART021 Asian Art Fair – the largest of its kind in the region.

The founder of TR Lab is not shying away from announcing the desire to leverage her wealth of connections in the art world to popularize the platform and turn it into the principal showroom of NFT art worldwide. The intention is certainly noble and worthy of admiration, considering the rising popularity of digital forms of art, and the underlying capabilities of NFT technologies, for supporting artists – both young and established.

Li-Cohen, who has been integral to the success of the renowned Christie’s auction house since 2010, and has outstanding relationships with both esteemed artists and passionate art collectors, has recently onboarded a dedicated production team for working with artists and helping them issue digital works of art in NFT format. An additional concierge service has also been hired for ushering and supporting both communities and collectors along their client journey through the innovative digital collectibles market.

Esteemed artists and passionate art collectors alike are likely to flock to TR Lab, as both branches of the art world see the untapped potential of NFTs and the platforms making them available to broader audiences of viewers and buyers. Such recognition and popularization of NFT-based art is also likely to boost the valuation of artwork created in the digital medium, as the value of a piece is derived from the praise it receives from admirers and the price tag buyers are willing to satisfy from their pockets to own it.

Criticism of NFT art has also been rising, but it is serving the same purpose that TR Lab is pursuing – popularizing such forms of art, raising awareness and building interest towards creations that would otherwise have gone unnoticed and undervalued. Rightly so, as the upheaval of the NFT market has yet again accentuated the fact that art cannot be limited to “classical” forms, as innovation cannot stand still on par with human creativity that transcends the boundaries between technology, imagination and markets.

NFTs have revolutionized the concept of art ownership and forms of media, washing away the adage that artwork belongs in a museum showcase, or is destined to be locked away in a vault alongside grandma’s pearls. The technology can assign immutable, undisputed ownership to a collector, while leaving the artwork available to be enjoyed by millions. That is exactly what TR Lab strives to support, as its goal is to ultimately become the premier NFT art marketplace and showroom in the world thanks to its uncontested credibility and vision.