Diana Sinclair is Black queer visual artist, curator and activist working in New York City. She first entered the crypto space in February 2021 with a mission to address the underrepresentation of Black artists. Since then, she has been called one of the fastest rising stars of the NFT space.
Sinclair’s work as an artist spans photography, video and digital drawing, and at times utilises artificial intelligence. It embraces the intersection of art and technology and explores self-identity, social justice and society’s relationship with the internet.
She has been included in a collection of 40 inspiring NFT artists compiled by Time magazine and featured in Teen Vogue. She was also awarded a place on Fortune magazine’s list ‘NFTy 50: The 50 most influential people in NFTs.’
In June 2021, aged only 17, she curated the exhibition Digital Diaspora: Liberating Black Creativity at Superchief Gallery NFT — the world’s first dedicated physical NFT gallery, which is in New York. ‘We are working towards Afrofuturism,’ the artist told The Guardian newspaper on the eve of the exhibition’s opening. ‘The goal for this exhibition is equity. And equity will help feed into our liberation.’
Sinclair donated a portion of the proceeds from the exhibition to Herstory DAO, a collective the artist cofounded that is ‘dedicated to preserving and incubating the stories of under-represented crypto creators.’
The following December, Sinclair created a video project paired with an unreleased Whitney Houston demo track. The work contained archival photographs of the late singer and was made in collaboration with Houston’s foundation. The song and NFT sold together at auction for $1 million.
In September 2022, Sinclair was selected as the first artist to have their work auctioned on Christie’s 3.0 . The works’ unveiling at Christie’s in New York also marked her first solo show. The auction was 100% sold, totalling 66.77 ETH.