Contemporary Conversations: The Power of Avatars

10 December 2021
In case you missed it, enjoy this insightful conversation about the power of NFT avatars and trends in the crypto world that have permeated pop culture. Samantha Hissong, Digital Culture Editor at Rolling Stone, GMoney, NFT investor and collector, Kenny Schachter, artist, writer, lecturer and curator and Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby's Co-Head of Digital Art Sales shed light on concepts around the ownership economy, self-expression, and communities within the space as well as creator royalties. The panel also discusses Sotheby's recently launched Queen+Kings by Hackatao, which aims to encourage crypto collectors and the NFT community to express themselves creatively through active participation and engagement.

Meet the Panel

Gmoney, NFT Thought Leader

Gmoney is an investor with 15+ years of experience primarily in the traditional finance sector. A futurist who used his time during the pandemic as a catalyst to understand blockchain technologies, capitalizing on them, which made him become a thought leader in the space. Gmoney is one of the largest collectors of NFT's in the world and has one of the most prized collections. He sold Visa and Galaxy Digital the CryptoPunks that they purchased, was listed in the inaugural list of Fortune's NFTy 50 of the 50 most influential people in NFT's, and has advised major corporations around the world on their NFT strategy. The most recent was his partnership with Adidas.


Kenny Schachter, Artist, Writer, Lecturer and Collector

Kenny Schachter has been curating contemporary art exhibits in museums and galleries and teaching (art history and economics) for more than thirty years; presently in the graduate department of the University of Zurich (appointed to advisory board January 2021) professorships at the School of Visual Arts (NY) and New York University. He recently staged the first phygital NFT group exhibit at Nagel-Draxler Gallery in Cologne, and participated in a two-person show with Eva Beresin at Galerie Charim in Vienna (both in May 2021) Schachter will participate in Art Basel 2021 with Nagel Draxler Gallery. In addition, another one person show is scheduled at Blum & Poe Gallery in Tokyo in 2022. Schachter is presently the subject of a documentary being produced and directed by Chris Smith (Tiger King/Fyre Festival), and a Hulu/ABC NFT film. After having made digital art for decades, Schachter has spearheaded the traditional art world’s adaptation of Non Fungible Tokens in 2021 by lecturing from Yale to the Hirschhorn Museum and written 12 feature articles for Artnet on the subject. He has curated wide-ranging NFTism exhibitions (which term he trademarked) at Nagel Draxler in Cologne, Institut in London and Nagel Draxler’s booth in Art Basel Switzerland and Miami. Kenny is currently based in New York.


Michael Bouhanna, Co-Head of Digital Art Sales, Sotheby's

Michael Bouhanna joined Sotheby’s London team as a Contemporary Art Specialist in 2017, following his time at the company’s Paris office where he headed up the Contemporary Art Sales. In his time at Sotheby’s, Michael has been involved in many of the most prestigious auctions, including the sale of the collections of David Bowie in London, as well as Daniel Cordier and Marianne and Pierre Nahon in Paris. In addition to his specialism in the young and emerging art market, Michael was recently appointed to Co-Head of Digital Art Sales, where he is driving the strategy and the curation of the NFT auctions at Sotheby’s.


Samantha Hissong, Digital Culture Editor at Rolling Stone

Samantha Hissong is a digital culture reporter at Rolling Stone, where she writes about everything from the strange corners of social media and the ongoing evolution of creator rights to artificial intelligence, virtual and mixed reality, the metaverse, and NFTs. Following six-plus years as a trade journalist in the music industry, she started at the legendary magazine as an entertainment business reporter — and she pivoted to her current role after becoming a key voice in bringing an understanding of blockchain to the mainstream with her article, A Field Guide to Music’s Potential Crypto Boom. Since then, she has continued to cover the future-tech space with intensity. Based in Los Angeles, Hissong consistently studies consumer trends and the “utopia versus dystopia” debate.

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