Jay, Ivan, Jamie and Leyla sit down with Adam Berninger of Tender and Heft Gallery to dive into Heft's opening, the realities of opening a physical space, artist-gallery relationships, the culture casino and institutional vs influencer gatekeeping.  

01:38 - Welcome Adam Berninger 

03:50 - The relationship between Tender and Heft 

07:49 - What inspired the move to a physical gallery model 

12:30 - Connecting in person and object-hood 

16:00 - The power of a digital community 

18:55 - How digital ownership is understood from outside the space 

20:40 - The financial pressures of a physical gallery 

25:45 - Galvanising the New York digital art scene 

27:40 - Artist-gallery relationships 

37:20 - Heft's upcoming program 

39:41 - Keeping a balance of blockchain-based and physical works 

44:20 - Showcasing the digital art community to people outside 

46:30 - The challenges of onboarding and making it sticky 

48:02 - What's in Verse's pipeline, working with different galleries and voices 

54:30 - Heft's site, Verse white labelling and potential opportunities 

59:50 - An expanding gallery presence for digital art in New York 

01:01:39 - Meeting and working with Edward Burtynsky 

01:07:00 - Fx(hash) airdrop announcement 

01:09:51 - Artworks being sold as coins, fractionalisation and editions 

01:17:02 - Turning culture into a casino 

01:22:10 - Everything is a simulacrum 

01:25:41 - Reacting to market conditions and competition 

01:32:20 - The bell curve meme takes on gatekeeping 

01:40:10 - The issue with the lack of institutional knowledge 

01:44:15 - The issue with lack of influencer knowledge 

01:50:56 - Artist Highlights 

01:56:31 - Verse rundown

Adam Berninger: https://x.com/adamberninger 

Heft: https://x.com/heft_gallery

Skomra: https://x.com/skomra 

Pipi universal: https://x.com/pipiuniversel

LEGIO_X: https://x.com/legio_x

YuriJJJJ: https://x.com/yuri_jjjj

Mika Ben Amar: https://x.com/100o111 

Orkhan: https://x.com/orkhan_art