Conversations | The New Patrons: NFT Collectors and Supporters
Art Basel in Basel 2022, June 16
Why collect and support NFTs? To invest in or build a community? Anonymously or openly? In this new field based on decentralized principles, does identity and gender matter? The crypto community offers the chance to hold several roles at once – investor, collector, supporter, artist and curator – something that is challenging fixed notions of identity. In this talk we will hear from pioneering NFT collectors and supporters about their journey, their interests and concerns, and their vision for the field.
‣ B (@beautyandpunk), collector and co-founder, Rise DAO (remote)
‣ Fanny Lakoubay, collector and founder, LAL ART Advisory
‣ Sarah Meyohas, artist and investor
‣ Kate Vass, founder, curator Kate Vass Galerie
‣ Moderator: Anny Shaw, The Art Newspaper
‣ B (@beautyandpunk) is the founder of a web3 startup and of RiseDAO. RiseDAO aims to onboard women artists and train women developers from developing economies to the web3 environment. B started her NFT journey in 2017, when she claimed her Cryptopunks. She has been collecting art for many years, and the transition to NFTs was the obvious move forward.
‣ Fanny Lakoubay is a French-born, New-York-based digital art collector, advisor and curator with 14 years of experience in art, technology and finance. Since 2018, she has been advising NFT projects, artists and collectors via LAL ART. She is also involved in many Web3 initiatives, including GreenNFT, RadicalxChange Foundation, WAC Fellowship (Web3 for Arts and Culture), and BAD (The Blockchain Art Directory). She writes about NFTs in the press, speaks about the intersection of art and tech at conferences around the world, and teaches at Sotheby's Institute of Art in New York City.
‣ Sarah Meyohas (b. 1991, New York) is a conceptual artist and pioneer in the field of crypto art. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including solo shows at 303 Gallery, New York and Red Bull Arts, New York. Meyohas is also a venture partner at Spark Capital. In 2015, Meyohas created Bitchcoin, a cryptocurrency-as-artwork inspired by Bitcoin, which was backed by her physical artwork, effectively making it a “proto-NFT.” Today, Meyohas continues to investigate emerging technologies with familiar emblems of biological life: soaring birds, created using augmented-reality software, flock in unison with the frenetic variations of the stock market; rose petals, aggregately identical but individually unique, comprise the dataset for their AI-created equivalents.
‣ Kate Vass is a founder and creative director of Kate Vass Galerie (KVG), headquartered in Zurich, focusing on generative art. KVG is the first physical gallery globally hosted the first blockchain art show introducing NFTs in 2018 & various early historical exhibitions around A.I., generative art & NFTs. Vass has worked with private & corporate collectors in top tier international banks for more than 15 years & advised on wealth planning &alternative asset investments (art, crypto), followed by the opening of her advisory firm F.A.R.E. Consulting in 2016, specializing in finance, art, innovation strategies, as well as consulting fintech & art tech startups.
Vass created #womensupportingwomen foundation supporting women in art & tech introduced at the Vancouver Biennale in 2020 and regularly writes about art & tech & speaks at the panels & conferences. KVG has hosted various educational events to promote & advise on new emerging technology &art and the complexity of collecting art in the digital era. All her businesses support gender & racial equality & sustainability.
‣ Anny Shaw is a contributing editor for The Art Newspaper, reporting on auctions, art fairs and market news globally since 2011, and is also a regular contributor to the Financial Times. Before that Anny trained as a journalist, working on the news desk at the Daily Mail Online. She has a first-class BA in Art History from the Courtauld Institute of Art and an MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London.
The Art Basel 2022 Conversations program is curated by Emily Butler.
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