If I wasn’t convinced before about NFTs’ impact in Malaysia, I sure am convinced now. Last week, we talked about an NFT ConFest, M1NTED, that will be held in June at KLPAC. Well, another NFT-related festival is coming to town in September.

But more on that later, as KL isn’t the only city with an active NFT community. Over in Borneo, the digital culture is taking root too.

First NFT exhibition in Kuching and an upcoming fest in KL

The world of NFTs proves to be well and thriving in East Malaysia. Just last week, from April 8 to 10, an NFT exhibition was hosted in Kuching by NFTSWK.

Held in Think & Tink, both physical and digital artwork were on display. Two concepts played hand-in-hand during this event: “Duality in Arts” and “Unite in Arts”. While the duality portion showed how there are two contrasting worlds of art today, the unity portion showed coexistence, whereby no art is inferior.  

Artists featured include Letterhythm, Kelvin Chan Photography, MOAI LAbS, and more. An NFT-related mobile game by Rez Studios called Flow was also showcased. Although it’s still in its development stage, the game aims to promote mindfulness.  

Meanwhile, workshops were held at TEGAS Digital Village. Speakers talked about blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and more throughout the three-day event.

“The objective was to curate and host Sarawak’s first NFT arts exhibition comprising of traditional and modern expressions,” Judith Tela, founder and curator of NFTSWK, told Vulcan Post.

If that sounds like a fun time to you, I have some good news. NFTSWK is part of another upcoming event, BlockFest.my, which is taking place from September 16 to 18 in Sentul Depot, Kuala Lumpur.

As a fintech-hybrid festival, BlockFest.my will focus more on the technical side. It’ll touch on blockchains, crypto, NFTs, hackathons, and more. It’ll also feature live musical performances, exhibitions, as well as an F&B section.

Judith said that the event is to create “awareness to the public that we do have people and talents in this industry here in Malaysia”.

The team hasn’t announced when tickets will be available, so check out their social media to stay tuned.

NFXT hosts minting party, pays tribute to late Malaysian artist

In March, an urban art pioneer in Malaysia, Azhar Oham (better known as Orkibal), passed away. To commemorate his artistic legacy, NFXT, Digital Art Gallery (D.A.G) by Filamen, and Kedai KL have collaborated to host a series of memorial gigs from April 16 to 30.

As a part of this event, NFXT is organising a minting party on April 16 via the NFT.my marketplace. Sales will raise funds for Orkibal’s family.

If you want to join the party, you can sign up through this Google Form. An onboarding event will be held on April 15 at 9PM, where you can learn how to create a Metamask wallet, among other things. On top of the crash course on minting, newcomers will get minting funds provided by NFXT.

According to its website, NFXT is a community of forward-thinking creatives who have come together to play and work towards experimenting, educating, raising awareness, and finding ways to come out with amazing artworks together and for each other.

Throughout the memorial event, the group will be hosting Twitter Spaces to talk about Orkibal’s art life and his involvement in NFTs.

We minted something?

While Vulcan Post won’t be joining NFXT’s minting party, we actually minted something of our own recently…

If that sparked your curiosity, we’ll be sharing our journey soon, so be sure to check back in next week.  

• You can read more NFT content here.

Featured Image Credit: BlockFest.my / NFXT / Letterhythm