Yesterday, to celebrate Valentine’s day, curated NFT marketplace Rarible hosted its first LGBTQIA+ NFT exhibition. Titled “L is for LGBTQIA+ & LOVE”, the drop even had its own metaverse exhibition. Metaverse designer, Benny Or and Cash Labs founder, David Cash curated the exhibition. Cash Labs is an NFT and Blockchain consultancy.
“On the day of love, we want to recognize that it has no limits,” Rarible wrote in a blog post. “That’s why we’re highlighting love with a special curated drop today.”
L is for LGBTQIA+ & LOVE: Rarible’s first LGBTQIA+ NFT exhibition
Rarible’s first LGBTQIA+ NFT exhibition is a “celebration” of the LGBTQIA+ voices in the NFT space. According to Benny, the exhibition explores the “various facets in which love can exist.”
“Valentine’s day has become such a heteronormative ritual in the public sphere,” said David. They are a queer-identifying artist, creator, and collector. “On a day about love, what better a mission than to represent non- “traditional” representations of love?”
Thus, to showcase diverse expressions of love and romance, the team brought together 10 LGBTQIA+ identifying NFT artists. What’s more, each artist offered a unique take on expressing love and sexuality.
“No two artists in this curated drop are at all similar- and this was intentional”, David further said. “From Foodmasku’s surrealist performance art imagery to Mike Ruiz’s stunning editorial photography- we’re exploring a range of queer expressions exploring human connection and identity”.
The NFT collection drop came with two live events. While Rarible hosted a Twitter Spaces session yesterday, a metaverse exhibition was held at The Meeting Place. The latter was pegged as a means to celebrate the day with ones’ significant others or to meet new people.
Meet the featured artists
The LGBTQIA+ NFT exhibition featured artists including SamJ, Foodmasku, Mike Ruiz, Jake Cormack, and Hawkward. The others on the list were Laurel Charleston, Jessica Yatrofsky, Nicole Ruggeiro, and Adam Nathaniel Furman.
SamJ, for instance, is a queer artist whose approach to art, in their own words, is “unapologetic and borderline absurd”. The exhibition featured SamJ’s work, “Drops of Ether”, a performance collaboration between them and Yosnier.
On the other hand, Hawkward’s ‘i’m my valentine’ is an exquisite artwork that celebrates self-love. “i haven’t always loved you the way you deserved i’m glad i do now”, reads the NFT’s description.
‘Eat Gay Love’ is another interesting collection part of the LGBTQIA+ NFT exhibition. Antonius Oki aka foodmasku created the pieces. His pieces stand apart for transforming meals into face masks. Eat Gay Love includes a total of four single edition NFTs costing 0.69 ETH per NFT.
Measures like Rarible’s LGBTQIA+ NFT exhibition is a progressive step towards ensuring inclusivity in the NFT space. In a similar move, last year, French luxury fashion and perfume house Givenchy Parfums launched an NFT collection to celebrate Pride Month. Besides, they donated the proceeds from the sale to Le MAG Jeunes, a French association that supports the LGBTQIA+ young population.
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