SamJ (b. 1998) is a digital artist and performance artist whose practice explores gender, identity and posthumanism.,Drawing on the anthropology of self, their work examines how people express themselves and communicate subconsciously through the boundaries and labels attached to identity. Their work has been featured or collected by Gucci, Givenchy Beauty, the Museum of Crypto Art and Christie's.
SamJ studied graphic design at James Madison University and began selling work as an NFT in 2020 shortly after graduating. They later moved their studio to Amsterdam.In 2022, they were named among that year's artists to watch.That year, they were also included in the inaugural NFT100, an annual list of 100 prominent NFT creators.The artwork Feeling Like An Orchid sold for 6 ETH in early 2022.
In 2022, they were featured in “SuperTrans”, a group exhibition on SuperRare curated by Charleston that highlighted transgender, gender non-conforming and non-binary artists working in NFTs.The following year, their work appeared in Givenchy Beauty's Pride Gallery, a virtual exhibition on Spatial, alongside Vanille Verloës and Edgar Fabián Frías.Later in 2023, SamJ was featured in a MOCA group exhibition of performance artworks curated by OONA, alongside Violet Bond, Edgar Fabián Frías, David Henry Nobody Jr and DADAGAN.That winter, they co-curated “Bitches, Butches and Bears” with OONA.
In February 2024, SamJ and OONA presented “Purity Dolls” at Unit in London, a live performance and NFT project challenging the value placed on female bodies. During the performance, the two artists wore dresses made of 500 painted one-dollar bills that audience members dismantled on stage. The accompanying NFT series Degenerate Sluts, made from lidar scans of the artists' nude bodies, visually degrades with each on-chain transaction and was released in an edition of 24.In May 2025, SamJ created new work for “ATTENDANT ENGAGEMENTS No. 1”, a one-night DMINTI exhibition in Miami exploring identity and memory in dialogue with Laurie Simmons and Peter M. Wheelwright's The Kaleidoscope (…Bigger) House.
