Bodies and Masks as NFTs: where art, blockchain, and capitalism collide

Internationally recognized Canadian artist Brendan Fernandes (b. 1979, Nairobi, Kenya) works at the intersection of dance and visual arts. Brendan’s projects address issues of race, queer culture, migration, protest and other forms of collective movement. Brendan’s projects take on hybrid forms: part ballet, part queer dance party, part politic protest, but always rooted in collaboration and solidarity. Brendan has received the Artadia Award (2019), a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2020) and a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation grant (2019). His projects have shown at the 2019 Whitney Biennial (New York) and the Guggenheim Museum (New York) among many others. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Art Theory and Practice at Northwestern University.

Interdisciplinary artist Dread Scott (b. 1965, Chicago, IL) creates work that encourages viewers to re-examine cohering ideals of American society. In 1989, the US Senate outlawed his artwork and President Bush declared it “disgraceful” because of its transgressive use of the American flag. Dread became part of a landmark Supreme Court case when he and others burned flags on the steps of the Capitol, about which he has presented a TED talk. His art has been exhibited at MoMA/PS1, CAM St. Louis, Kunsthal KAdE (Amersfoort, Netherlands) and many others. In 2021, Scott received the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. This past December, ARTnews named his NFT White Male for Sale a defining artwork of 2021. His studio is in Brooklyn, NY.

Associate professor of visual culture at Montclair State University Charlotte Kent, PhD, has a particular interest in historical frameworks for art practices, with a research focus on contemporary digital culture and the absurd. She writes for assorted magazines and various academic journals. She is an Editor-at-Large for the Brooklyn Rail.