NFT Art Projects: 8 Examples from 2022 with a Positive Impact

Explore exciting NFT projects and learn how artists and collectives use this new technology to explore ideas, innovate the art market, and even change the world

NFTs exploded into art spaces in 2021, but many artists may still be wondering how to use them in their practice. Can digital tokens really make an impact on the world?

Although NFTs aren't without controversy (from environmental concerns to piracy issues), the eight projects below reveal, NFTs can raise money for charity, inspire new collectors to patronize artists, and inspire global collectives. They also allow creatives to raise their voices in a busy market and share personal stories, while earning royalties off their sales.

Learn more about what NFTs are and how they are transforming digital art here.

So, how have artists used the NFT space in 2022?

Here are our picks, to inspire your own ideas of how you might get involved.

1. A project that bridges the gap between physical and digital art: La Collection

La Collection is a French initiative that partners with world-renowned galleries to sell NFTs of artworks from the greats and from newer artists. This platform launched in late 2021 with a Katsushika Hokusai collection, but has gone from strength to strength partnering with The British Museum and the ANNKA KULTYS GALLERY.

“Art needs a new wave of collectors,” their website explains. The goal is to open art collections to wider audiences. Through a process called digital lithography, La Collection creates a digital twin of a physical artwork, and sells them in online “exhibitions”. This year’s collections include Egon Schiele, funds from which will help restore a recently rediscovered painting of his.

2. A project that supports and raises money for women’s charities: Women Rise

Profile picture (or PFP) NFTs are generally square images that portray faces with randomized traits (like different eyes and mouths). Buyers often use them on their social media profiles, hence the nickname. While these projects are fun, they can also have a real-world impact.

Women Rise is a collection of 10,000 generated avatars, by Maliha Abidi. The Pakistani-American artist is passionate about ensuring access to the NFT space for women and marginalized communities. A percentage of primary sales of the NFTs will support charities that uplift girls’ education.

For similar projects, check out Boohoo’s latest fashion avatar launch, and World of Women’s collections.

3. A project that champions digital art in the VR space: REALWORLD

Manuel Rossner is a German artist who designs “digital spaces and virtual worlds”, collaborating with institutions to build surreal structures that are tied to a real-world place, even though they only exist digitally.

REALWORLD is home to Rossner’s artworks and is soon to be a VR app. However, the collection has expanded to include fifty other leading digital artists including Katharina Grosse, Manuel Fernandéz, and Nicolas Sassoon. In 2022, this collection will be added to the app's virtual reality space as a building users can visit.

4. A project that uses AI to capture a sense of place: Dust is hard to breathe.

Linda Dounia is a Lebanese-Senegalese artist who loves imagining sci-fi futures. She used AI to analyze her paintings and generate new work that tells the story of her childhood home Dakar's seasons and dust fogs, which are being transformed by climate change. The ever-shifting video artwork, Dust is hard to breathe., was selected for the Artsy 22 for 2022 auction.

Dounia is also the founder of Cyber Baat DAO, a decentralized autonomous collective of artists of African descent. You can view their gallery here.

And if you want to collaborate with artificial intelligence yourself, we explain the basics of AI art, and tools you’ll need to generate your own.

5. A project that helps the environment with trading cards: Woodies NFT

The Woodies project is a planned web3 franchise that will also cover TV, games, and other media, based around the story of a tree whose companions are cut down, and must embark on an adventure to save them.

They recently launched the Legends of Wondermist trading card collection created by twenty artists, which builds on previous PFP releases. The trading cards will play a role in a future metaverse game.

In one of the largest NFT charitable donations in history, money raised by these collections has gone towards planting 837,000 trees in sub-Saharan Africa, which it's said will store over 30,000 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide in the coming decades.

6. A project by a young artist that established a blazing career in one year: FeWOCiOUS

Thought NFTs couldn’t be taken seriously as “real art”? Tell that to FEWOCiOUS’s collection, which crashed famous auction house Christie’s site.

FEWOCiOUS was born in Las Vegas and was discouraged from pursuing art, so instead turned to the digital world, where he eventually discovered NFTs.

Alongside his enormously successful Christie’s collaboration (a series of five paintings called Hello, I’m Victor FEWOCiOUS and This Is My Life about his experience being a transgender fourteen to eighteen-year-old), he recently held a 24-hour buyathon on Nifty Gateway which generated a staggering $26 million.

7. A project that exhibits digital art on the global stage: The Decentral Art Pavilion

In April to June 2022, NFTs are coming to the Venice Art Biennale! The Decentral Art Pavilion will provide a dedicated space for non-fungible artworks at the festival, starting with an exhibition called “Singularity”. The goal is to track the history and key moments of the movement so far.

According to the website, you can expect art by big names like Beeple, Coldie, Aaron Penne, Studio Drift, Justin Aversano, XCOPY, Raphael Lacoste, Trevor Jones, Michael Yamashita, Annibale Siconolfi, Maxim Zhestkov, Filip Custic, and Matt DesLauriers.

8. A project that breaks the mold and empowers Spanish speakers: Mito

Currently in beta, Mito is a marketplace on the Polygon blockchain with a difference: as opposed to the majority, which are restricted to those who understand English, it champions Spanish-speaking artists. Though still a young platform, it already has some influential NFT creators signed up, such as Javier Arrés, whose “visual toys” (complex and beautiful animated doodles) have strong previous sales.

The platform also claims to recenter humans in the curation process: rather than using algorithms, the human curators closely follow their artists’ careers.

Learn more about creating your own NFT art with these resources

1. Get to grips with the basics by learning what NFTs are in this introduction.

2. Discover five more reasons to make NFT art!

3. Get inspired by the work of these ten female crypto artists.

4. Read ten tips for promoting your NFTs from artists.