Kenny Schachter on Why the Art World Is Broken, and How Technology Can Fix It

How does one describe the Zelig-like art world force of nature that is Kenny Schachter?

He’s a teacher, lecturer, and writer whose Artnet column—a monthly compendium of art market gossip, intrigue, and provocation that might be the most truthful thing in the whole art world—I had the unique pleasure of editing for years.

He’s a collector who buys far too much work by emerging artists and holds an annual “Hoarder” auction at Sotheby’s to sell off his excess treasures. 

And, most essentially, he’s an artist. In particular, he’s a digital artist, who for decades has been leveraging technological tools to realize his restless visions, harnessing first video, then social media, then NFTs, and now robotics and AI in ways that push the art conversation into new terrain. For Schachter, art is a way of life, an exhaust system, and method for processing the rapidly changing world we inhabit. 

This week, for our 12th live Artwrld conversation—the conclusion of season one—we are pleased to talk to Kenny Schachter about why the art establishment is so slow to evolve, and how NFTs, for all their scamminess and manifold annoyances, point the way to a better art world.