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Bored Ape NFT Artist Seneca Stays on Her Own Path With “Portraiture”

Posted on the 01 December 2022 by Nftnewspro
Bored Ape NFT artist Seneca stays on her own path With Portraiture

Untethered to Ape mania, All Seeing Seneca discusses her next art auction, the evolution of her bizarre aesthetic, and the significance of royalties.

Yuga Labs rode the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT rocket ship to a $4 billion valuation and ambitious metaverse goals, but it was the pseudonymous artist All Seeing Seneca who was responsible for the original concept of the uninterested Apes. Currently, they are present everywhere.

“It’s wild. I mean, I don’t think you can ever get used to that feeling,” Seneca told Decrypt of Bored Ape mania. “You can’t not talk about the Apes when you talk about Web3, right? You just can’t escape that world. But yeah, it’s great.”

Seneca has gone on to new areas despite the fact that her Ape designs attracted celebrities, entered mainstream culture, and were adopted by NFT owners to build their own projects and products. Portraiture by Seneca, her most recent piece of work, is now for sale through the auction house Phillips through Friday.

Invoke, Emerge, Endure, Persist.
I'm so proud to announce my new body of work.
Portraiture by Seneca@phillipsauction 11.29 – 12.02
Powered by @moonpay pic.twitter.com/uMcnuleo3O

— ෴෴෴ˢᵉⁿᵉᶜᵃסּ ͝סּ ͝סּ ͝ (@allseeingseneca) November 22, 2022

Portraiture by Seneca encompasses three digital animated works issued as Ethereum NFTs as well as her first physical artwork to be auctioned, “Portrait of Invocation,” an acrylic and spray paint composition. The NFTs were issued via HyperMint, a platform developed by MoonPay, a crypto payments business.

Seneca debuted her first original NFT artwork at Art Basel in cooperation with Internet Computer around the same time last year, and the new works expand upon that aesthetic.

Her most recent works depict a woman with enlarged eyes, often with bright flowers and creatures emerging from the sockets. They are dreamlike and surreal pieces with a touch of body horror shock. Seneca told that the works show her ongoing artistic and personal development.

“The reason why I put so much focus into portraiture is because I find that it’s just so effective to convey emotion,” she explained. “I was, in a way, facing myself dealing with my own reality.”

Recently, Seneca tweeted to creators, “Master something, then f**k it up your own way.” While she recognized that the tweet had a “tongue-in-cheek” tone, it is also symbolic of her rise to popularity in the crypto art scene following her schooling as an artist.

Bored Ape NFT artist Seneca stays on her own path With “Portraiture”

“I attended art school, and copying masters’ techniques—that was boring to me,” Seneca admitted. But it helped hone her personal style, too: “In order to create your own style and your own original artwork, you have to mess it up,” she added. “You have to dissect it.”

Although the crypto bear market has slowed momentum, Bored Apes are ubiquitous over Web3. Seneca told that she is thrilled by how NFT owners have leveraged Ape-based IP rights to create their own Ape-based personas and projects. The project’s trading volume has surpassed $2.5 billion to date.

“I really loved how the audience was able to take that character and kind of make it their own,” she explained, “and see themselves through that character—which is something I am aiming for in my own personal work.”

Seneca was the principal artist on the first Ethereum-based collection, designing the Ape’s body art and several of its distinctive characteristics. She told Rolling Stone in January that the lack of acknowledgement for her role in the project was “pretty terrible for an artist,” but she now appears to be more receptive of the Web3 community’s level of appreciation.

“I think that’s an aspect of putting out work that you can’t control, right? So that’s not my goal,” she said of recognition and respect for her Bored Ape contributions. “I’m just there to show the best that I can do, and whatever life that takes from there, so be it.”

Seneca responded that she remains “connected” with Yuga Labs, but that “we have separate paths” when asked if they could potentially work together again or if they are still on good terms.

Seneca, who is now represented by the prominent agency United Talent Agency (UTA), has stated that she is interested in installation work and animation filmmaking.

“Every new project or endeavor that I take on now is going to stand as the next page in the story that I’m trying to tell,” she said. “But first and foremost, the paintings are the foundation to everything I make. So that will always be consistent.”

Seneca is enthusiastic about creator royalties, which have come under criticism in recent months as certain NFT marketplaces no longer require sellers to pay them. OpenSea, a market leader, recently indicated that it will continue to pay creators royalties, contrary to the industry norm.

I think it's time to reintroduce myself.
Hi, I'm Seneca and I'm the original character designer behind the Bored Ape Yacht club.
Yes I drew those monkeys you hold with pride.
My entry here was a hard one, but I decided to advocate for this space because of one thing:

— ෴෴෴ˢᵉⁿᵉᶜᵃסּ ͝סּ ͝סּ ͝ (@allseeingseneca) November 9, 2022

Seneca has been vocal on social media about this issue, stating that markets that do not recognize creator-set royalties — often a 5% to 10% fee on secondary market purchases — “go against why individuals have entered the space.” As a commercial artist, she observed directly how creatives’ efforts are not always acknowledged.

“This is a revolutionary aspect of trading [NFTs]. It’s not just art—it’s selling and owning things in the digital realm,” she said. “Royalties [are] not only a functional tool now to encourage and back great leaders and inspire aspirational entrepreneurs, but also it’s educating a new generation to really respect the creative side of business.”

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