New City Gas NFT Gallery Opens in Bazart Rebrand

A New City Gas NFT gallery space had opened inside the sprawling events, eating, and drinking destination, now branded Bazart. The exhibition space is hosted by 0x Society, and claims to be “the first of its kind in Canada.”

The gallery itself has been billed as an ‘anti-gallery’, where visitors can lounge around and grab a drink while learning about the work on show. Currently, each piece has been created by a local video game designers and graphic artists. Prices range from $4,000 to $17,000.

In total there are seven NFT artworks on display in the building. Five have already been sold. And, as Time Out reports, work will change every two months. This is the latest example of non-fungible work being placed in a physical building, an increasingly common practice.

“Digital art has been a thing since the 90s, but artists couldn’t prove which file was the original,” Yannick Folla, co-founder of the gallery, told Time Out. “We’re a gallery, but we’re much closer to a museum experience. We want people to leave with a passion for digital, or at least an understanding that this medium should be considered as important as contemporary art.”

What is New City Gas?

It’s important to note the New City Gas NFT gallery is just one part of a vast complex. The industrial building was first constructed in 1863, when it was used to convert coal into gas. Hence the name.

Today, or rather pre-COVID-19, the address is a mammoth nightclub in the Griffintown area of the city. Suffice to say, with dancing still banned by the local government, and bars limited to 12AM curfews, the space needed a new direction.

With this in mind, it’s great to see things now seem to be on the right course again. Not least in the Mediterranean restaurant. Meanwhile, visitors can also find boutique shopping and an outdoor gallery exhibiting framed pictures, murals, and more curated by Station 16 Éditions and Galerie S16.