Diana Sinclair is transforming art on the blockchain

On September 28, Christie’s presents Diana Sinclair: Phases, the first sale at Christie’s 3.0. It is a pivotal moment for the 18-year-old artist who works across photography, video and multimedia creation. One of the creators at the forefront of the 2021 NFT photography boom, she has distinguished herself as a champion for black artists on the blockchain—from curating Digital Diaspora, a Juneteenth NFT art exhibit and auction, to collaborating with the Whitney E. Houston Foundation on a unique, multi-generational digital artwork.

On view at Christie’s New York, Phases marks Sinclair’s first solo exhibition, concurrent with an online auction at Christie’s 3.0 through October 11. The show takes the form of an immersive multimedia installation that combines digital and physical works – including scrims that act as shimmering screens for projected images – to explore a timeless theme: transformation. “This series has been about trying to live with the art as I’ve made it,” Sinclair says, “being fluid and just existing in the present.”

Sinclair is one of the most exciting and formally innovative artists working in the NFT space today, and the works in Phases extend the rigor and complexity of her experimentation. The river over the stonea digital artwork that explores how our perception of memories changes over time, is a year-long work of duration, where the image resource is transformed by artificial intelligence and updated every week.

“A collective brain is essentially reimagining this artwork over time,” says Sinclair. “It starts with a picture of two people. But when you get to the final image, it almost looks like balls of energy.’

Complementing the series of weekly images are songs composed by multi-instrumentalist and producer Reuel Williams. Williams originally wrote two songs, which he then ran through a computer program he created that analyzes the pixel content of the images, with each color assigned a musical component, such as speed or pitch. The result is a suite of 52 pieces of music that respond to the transforming images.

“Blockchain opens up unique opportunities to create works that are modifiable and interactive,” says Sinclair, “which I hope will generate more positive criticism of digital art, and show the use cases for communicating really intense and complicated concepts. There’s so much more that can be done in this space.’

On set, Sinclair fosters a collaborative and open environment with the models, makeup artists, musicians and other creative artists she works with, shifting fluidly between the Polaroid, video camera and digital camera to capture as much of the moment as possible.

“I let things happen as they do, and often when something doesn’t work out the way I intended, the end result is better than I could have imagined,” she explains. “I’ve learned to embrace it.”

“It feels very safe,” Williams says of the atmosphere onstage at Sinclair’s shoot. “You can suggest things or share a laugh. There is such a bond between the people she works with. It doesn’t feel high stakes, and yet you can feel like you’re part of something historic.’

Before becoming a phenomenon in the crypto-art world, Sinclair grew up in an artistic and tech-savvy household – her mother is a writer, and her father is an artist and software developer, and they encouraged her to experiment with different mediums. From an early age, Sinclair began drawing on an iPad. During the two years she visited online art communities, and created digital characters through the social app Draw Something.

At the age of 13, she began drawing and painting in more traditional media – charcoal, watercolor and acrylic, before turning to photography and filmmaking. She was named a 2021 National Finalist in Photography by YoungArts, the largest art competition in the country for high school students. In early 2021, Sinclair befriended a community of 3D and digital artists, many of whom ran NFTs.

Among them was Itzel Yard, the Afro-Caribbean artist known as IX Shells, who became the top-selling female NFT artist of 2021, when her artwork Dreaming in the twilight sold for $2 million. IX Shells encouraged Sinclair to begin imprinting her photography on the blockchain, a relatively uncommon phenomenon for art photographers at the time.

“I thought NFTs were only for 3D artists or illustrators,” Sinclair recalls. “I didn’t see a lot of photography. But when I tried it, I wanted to bring more photographers and more black women into the NFT world, which really increased my personal investment in the space.’

Sinclair became an influential tastemaker on Instagram and Twitter, shares threads of favorite digital artists and uses her platform to highlight the work of black creatives. In June 2021, she became one of the youngest curators of digital art with Digital Diaspora, a Juneteenth art exhibit and NFT auction celebrating the work of black artists.

That July, Fortune named her one of the 50 most influential people in NFTs. In September 2021, Sinclair’s work was featured in TIME’s first NFT drop, the Genesis Collection. That winter, the 17-year-old Sinclair worked with the Whitney E. Houston Foundation on an NFT featuring art and videos by the digital artist that accompanied an unreleased track Houston had recorded when she was 17. It sold for $999,999, more than five times the most sold NFT on the Tezos blockchain at the time.

While Sinclair is judicious about how she spends her ETH, she collects select NFTs of artists who inspire her. She was recently excited to acquire a digital work by Niall Ashley, a self-taught British painter who creates colourful, expressive works about authority, classism and racial identity.

Sinclair, along with photographer Isaac ‘Drifter Shoots’ Wright, reproduced Digital Diaspora in June, bringing over 2,000 visitors to the in-person event in New York City. “Every type of person was represented and welcomed in that space,” Sinclair says, “which made me very happy because I want to celebrate the arts in a way that’s inclusive of everyone.” There are plans for a new Digital Diaspora event in Miami Basel in December.

When asked what advice she has for young creators curious about creating their own NFTs, her response resonated with the themes of her recent work: let go of fear and stay present. “Don’t be afraid to put yourself and your work out there,” she says. “I wouldn’t have had access to the opportunities I have if I didn’t first take that leap of faith.”