Shurooq Amin: How Did Kuwaiti Inspiring Figure Enter NFT World?

The past period witnessed the joining of Arab artists to the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) field in conjunction with its prosperity over the past two years. Among these artists is the Kuwaiti plastic artist Shurooq Amin. She was selected as one of the inspiring figures in Kuwait. 

In the coming line, we will review details of Amin’s journey to be one of the famous NFT figures. 

Amin’s Birth 

Amin was born to a Kuwaiti father and a Syrian mother in 1967. She graduated from Kuwait University with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. She received a master’s degree in literature from the University of Kent in 1989, then a Ph.D. in creative writing from Warrenburg College in 2007. 

Throughout her educational career, she was keen on integrating plastic art with poetry to fulfill her childhood dream, which is to become a plastic artist. 

A 30-Year-Old Artistic Career 

Amin started her career in plastic art 30 years ago as she organized her first individual exhibition in 1992. She presented several paintings, in which she addressed topics related to sex, violence, religious and social hypocrisy, theft, and betrayal. 

She was subjected to harassment in her country because of the topics she expressed in her drawings as several exhibitions of her were closed. As a result, she showcased her paintings in the UAE, Italy, France, Britain, and the United States. 

She received many local and international titles, the most important of which was the title of artist of the year by the Arab Women Awards in 2013. She was also chosen as one of Kuwait’s 46 Inspirational People in Sheikha Intisar Al-Sabah’s book The Alchemy of Wisdom. 

Amin is the first Kuwaiti female artist to be auctioned at Christie’s auction house. She was a guest on the popular BBC program HARDTalk, which hosts heads of state and inspiring figures.

Entering NFT World

Amin decided to enter the NFT world almost two years ago, especially during the COVID-19 period. While all stayed at home, she searched for a way to showcase her artworks remotely, so she discovered the NFTs. 

She saw in this technology to overcome restrictions imposed by the pandemic on one hand and express her art freely without any harassment or restrictions on the other hand. As she is a plastic artist, she turned a number of drawings into NFTs and offered them for sale as digital assets. 

Amin succeeded in selling her first NFT in March 2021. One of her most significant artworks was “They Wanted Camels, I Gave Them Camels” collection, which includes a set of digital paintings embedded with the skull of a camel, as a symbol of the animal of the Gulf region.

Now, she sold about 25 NFTs with prices ranging from $700 to $900 for each NFT. Earlier, she announced donating 50% of her sales of NFTs to the Give fundraising group. 

Now, she is working on organizing and sponsoring the first IRL NFT exhibition in Kuwait, under the title WAGMI. 

In 2021, she cooperated with several platforms which are specialized in cryptocurrency trading, the latest of which was UPYO, which is the first platform for buying, selling, and trading non-fungible tokens in the Arab world.

In light of her great success, Amin advises artists to shift to NFTs as they will be a main part of any artist’s journey in the future. 

You can follow Amin’s official accounts on social media via these links: 

• LinkedIn
• Instagram
• Twitter