Newforum is a community podcast inviting visionaries, creators, and investors to spark accessible conversations on the topics of crypto, the Metaverse, NFT, and everything web3.
Owo Anietie, the incredible creator of AfroDroids, an Artist who creates visually provoking art inspired by African Culture, representing West Africa, Nigeria, join us on this episode.
Owo shared the meaning and vision behind AfroDroids; he also talked about his experiences as a Web3 artist from the emerging market, defined Aro-futurism, and discussed the benefits of NFTs in developing countries.
Owo Anietie is a Nigerian 3D Afrofuturism artist. Afrofuturism is a cultural philosophy of science and history that explores the developing intersection of African Diaspora Culture with technology.
Owo’s career in art began in 2009 as a traditional artist — doing portrait paintings and drawings for commissions. He transitioned to motion design, animation, and digital illustration in 2012, with the desired future.
Owo’s vision is to create and release one art piece-a-day, for 50 years.
“I got this growing desire to reach a larger audience because I was painting on canvas, and back then, you just put it on a wall, and someone buys it and just puts it on their wall, and it was also limited to my location, only Nigerians and people in particular states in Nigeria could collect my work…” — Owo
Owo wanted to learn other skills, so he took a course in advertising — Art Direction and later worked in that field for a couple of years.
Owo made a bold move, quitting his job and taking a plunge into Web3 as an artist.
“Coming to the space, I never thought it was for me because I didn’t see a lot of people who looked like me, talked like me with a funny accent put up their work on as NFTs..” — Owo
One thing led to another in his incredibly fascinating story of falling down the Web3 rabbit hole as an artist in the emerging market explained in his full interview.
He also talked about the narrative and meaning behind his art.
In his interview, Owo answered this question from a Nigerian perspective, sharing his personal and his fellow artists’ struggles with the onboarding process while discussing the Nigerian government’s role in that whole equation.
“There were all these regulations, and people were getting their accounts blocked for quoting Crypto as a description in their bank transfers. It was crazy, and the way it is with the emerging market is that they find ways to adapt, but for a while, people were stuck and couldn’t move their money around; most of the Crypto exchanges….” — Owo
Owo added that aside from dealing with the regulations around Crypto in his country and more, another issue was the struggle to get Crypto, and second was the expensive gas fees, especially with Ethereum transaction fees.
Although Owo is a success story from Nigeria, he still remembers how he started and tries to support upcoming artists entering the space with gas fees and other resources as much as possible.
We love this about Owo!
Speaking of the power of DAOs, Owo and a few other artist friends came together to form a DAO to support artists in Nigeria venturing into the space who needed support with gas fees and other resources.
Owo shared how it all went down and why DAOs matter from his perspective.
He also discussed how DAOs benefit or impact NFTs and how the emerging markets are benefiting the most from NFTs in the interview.
Every AfroDroid pays homage to his African heritage as depicted in the earrings, beads, and other indigenous traits. He believes in the power of storytelling, and Web3 tools empower everyone to tell their story and share their culture with the world. Owo also further described what inspired his vision and mission and how he hopes to play his role in making the world a better place through AfroDroids.
Enjoy stepping into Owo’s world in this insightful and thoughtful episode of NewForum!
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✨Follow Owo Anietie! Twitter: @OwoAnietie | @afrodroids @Linktree: Afrodroidsbyowo
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