Welcome to the Art Angle, a podcast from Artnet News that delves into the places where the art world meets the real world, bringing each week’s biggest story down to earth. Join host Andrew Goldstein every week for an in-depth look at what matters most in museums, the art market, and much more with input from our own writers and editors as well as artists, curators, and other top experts in the field.

Last month, a new name entered the art discussion when a suite of five digital artworks sold in a special sale at Christie’s auction house in New York for $2.1 million.

And it’s a name you might not expect: Fewocious.

That’s the nom de art of Victor Langlois, an 18-year-old Seattle artist, originally from a family of Salvadoran immigrants in Las Vegas. Sold during Pride month, the opus is titled “Hello, i’m Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life,” and tells a very personal story.

FEWOCiOUS, Year 5, Age 18 – I Taught Myself How To Fly (2021). Courtesy of Christie’s Images, Ltd.

Via Fewocious’s signature bright colors, graffiti-like text, and distorted faces, the work is about, as Christie’s advertised it, “the journey through Fewocious’s teen years so far, growing up as a transgender male in an abusive household.” In fact, it turns out that the works served as Victor’s coming out as trans to the NFT world, at the same time making him the youngest artist ever to be sold at Christie’s.

Just a year ago, Fewocious was selling paintings for $95 online and just beginning to experiment with NFTs. Now, he’s made a reported $16 million, and is the talk of the town. Artnet News’s art critic Ben Davis caught up with Fewocious about what has been a remarkable journey on many levels.

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