Batsoupyum: Art Obsession, Historical Provenance, and Empowering Creators

Cath Simard is a composite landscape photographer and digital artist. She creates at the intersection of reality and imagination and is quoted as saying, "I don't capture what my eyes see, I capture what my mind imagines." She is patient with her art releases, yet prolific in impact, with accomplishments across Christie's, Sotheby's, AOTM, SuperRare and ExchangeArt, with maybe her most notable work being a one-of-one Creative Commons exploration entitled 'Free Hawaii'. In this interview, we talk about what drives Cath, how she sees art, and not only how she creates, but a few anecdotes from her wilderness exploration.

Niceaunties is an artist inspired by the absurd and endearing behavior of Auntie culture, by Singapore, by food, and much, much more. She's telling a story, one about the growing Auntieverse, and one that is unfolding in chapters. Alejandro Cartagena is an artist and co-founder of Fellowship Trust, Fellowship AI, and Obscura. Via Fellowship, he's collaborating with niceaunties to bring the next chapter of Auntieverse, a milestone release, to life. This interview is packed with gems about creative inspiration, about process, about structure, and so much more. 

Hafftka is an artist with five decades of experience and works represented in a host of museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Museum of Modern Art, and Carnegie Museum of Art. It’s rare to find someone who matches such life experience with boundless energy and clear thought. Yet, that’s Hafftka. I left this conversation inspired. The deep-rooted desire to create, the obstinance needed to navigate art, and the conviction in digital medium, in crypto art, in crypto ownership are a few memorable topics.

Today, we welcome Artie Handz and Frank Manzano. Artie is a longtime collector in the digital art space. He is the founder of Artie Galerie and he's a strong artist advocate. Frank brings a film and photography background into his career as an artist emphasizing AI-assisted video. Artie describes Frank's work as a funhouse mirror merger of a viewer's own memories and the unfamiliar. This interview takes place as the pair are preparing for Artie Galerie's inaugural verse exhibition. We delve not only into the exhibition itself but also how it came together, how it's structured and how it iterated into what is now ready for showtime.

Roope Rainisto is a designer, a creator, a photographer, a screenwriter, and an endless learner, bringing his diversity of life experience to the frontier of artificial intelligence. He is challenging the way we see the world and the way we feel it, through collections like Life In West America with BrainDrops and REWORLD with Fellowship.

Batz is an artist inspired by modern meme-ism with his finger firmly on the pulse of crypto art. In this interview, we go down the rabbit hole of creation, from Pepe inspiration, to Fidenza crossover, to a generative project of his own, to far more.

Today, we welcome David Ariew. David is a digital fine artist and educator fondly referred to as Octane Jesus. He has a background across music and film, has created with people like Madonna, has released at Sotheby's, and he has just returned from Digital Art Fair in Hong Kong. He joins us to recap Quantum Transcendence, discuss 3D tools, immersive portals, and boundary-pushing experiences.

Welcome to episode 3 of In Conversation.

Join Ayla El-Moussa for a fascinating chat with two brilliant artists, Ben Strauss and Michael Sidofsky. Explore their passion for photography, their use of light painting, and their idea for the future of web3. Dive into what keeps their wonder and creativity alive.

Pablo Fraile is a mathematician, an investor, and a digital art patron. He, along with partner Desiree, curates the RFC Collection, an interdisciplinary art collection that champions contemporary digital mediums. The contents of this collection are swiftly becoming historic in nature. Want two examples? One, the co-donation of Unsupervised by Refik Anadol to the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. Two, alongside one of one art, seeing Human One by Beeple in the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Pablo is thoughtful, he is nuanced, he does not shy away from productive debate.

Batsoupyum is a legendary art collector, specializing in tokenized digital art, and he has one of the most recognizable brands in that space. He is a lover of memes. He is part of team 6529. In this interview, we take stock of art, NFTs, how they’re defined, and opportunities for future growth. We deep dive his own collecting origin story, a hash mask, his approach to collecting, and highlights of that journey, including a fortuitous Skull of Luci, first works from Claire Silver, Grant Yun, Alotta Money, the SuperRare Pass, Matt Kane, and more. Enjoy Batsoupyum’s grounded perspective, his deep-rooted experience, and his honesty in reflecting on the journey.