Curated Conversations: ALIENQUEEN

Curated Conversations: ALIENQUEEN

“Death” by ALIENQUEEN, 2023. Available on SuperRare July 27

Curated Conversations: ALIENQUEEN

9 months ago

ALIENQUEEN is a contemporary multidisciplinary artist specializing in digital illustration. Influenced by psychedelics, dreams, sex, and death, her art evokes comfort and anxiety simultaneously, handling its subject matter through a layer of acidic haze, normalizing the terrifying and transforming the sweet and mundane into the unsettling. The subjects of her work project a sense of immediacy upon the viewer but also seem entirely suspended in time, lost in worlds of their own making. A Cambodian refugee, living in the United States, her family’s experiences have influenced her work as well, lending specific perspectives on love, mortality, and connection.

SuperRare Labs Senior Curator An interviews ALIENQUEEN about psychedelics, death, and her journey in the NFT space.

“Death” by ALIENQUEEN, 2023. Available on SuperRare July 27

An: Where were the characters in your art originated from? The girl, skull, alien, frog, etc.
ALIENQUEEN: The girl in my artwork represents me, and the skulls can also symbolize either me or another entity, depending on the piece. Since I was a kid, aliens have fascinated me, and now I love drawing them, making them a significant part of my art!

An: How did you decide on your color palettes?
AQ: The colors flow to me impulsively, and I become quite obsessive with them. I’ll modify an illustration multiple times until it feels just right. I suppose I choose my colors based on my emotions and feelings.

An: How important are psychedelics to your art?
AQ: Psychedelics are pretty essential to me and I use psychedelics as a tool to help stimulate my imagination and increase creativity. I feel more open and receptive to new ideas while on a psychedelic trip and I feel a deeper connection to myself.

An: Can you tell us a bit more about this 1/1 you are dropping on SR?
AQ: This piece is about the certainty of death and how it’s an inevitable part of life. Alongside death, there’s also freedom. Death is the ultimate truth we all face, while freedom allows us to live life the way we want. These two ideas are closely connected, reminding us how valuable life is and urging us to live it true to ourselves.

Spirit Walking” by ALIENQUEEN, 2022.

An: Many artists are afraid of dropping 1/1s during the bear market. What made you decide to do it against the current market condition?
AQ: I’ve been working on this piece for a few months, and I’m super excited to share it. It’s different from my usual work but still related. The character (death) is part of my story in some illustrations, making this piece very special to me. I’m not worried about how it will be received in the market; I’m just going with the flow. I enjoy surprises, and whatever happens, I’m okay with it.

An: How is it like to be a female founder of 2 pfp projects?
AQ: It’s really cool and to know that I have a community that loves my art and supports me, is a truly great feeling.

An: What’s your advice to other artists on how to market/promote themselves?
AQ: Be true to yourself and your craft, be authentic, and connect with people who understand and vibe with you. Stay positive, knowing that things happen for a reason. Trust your intuition. When it comes to promoting yourself, focus on creating art with passion, and it will speak for itself.

An: How do you build and maintain relationships with your collectors?
AQ: I connect by becoming friends with them and hanging out in real life whenever possible, especially during NFT events.

Murders and Executions” by ALIENQUEEN, 2022.

An: What’s your favorite thing about the NFT space?
AQ: I deeply value the incredible relationships and connections I’ve formed in this space, along with the amazing knowledge acquired. It’s truly inspiring to gather insights from like-minded artists and collectors who share the same vision for the NFT space and community.

An: You are also one of the co-founders of Art Asylum, tell us a bit more about it!
AQ: Art Asylum is a place where artists and collectors come together, sharing insights and ideas. It’s a lively hub for collaboration, offering support in our artistic journeys. We’re a community of like-minded individuals, connected by our passion for art, NFTs, and exploring the NFT world together.

3

an

Curator @SuperRare

Art

Tech

Curators' Choice

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Weekly top 10 picks by an

An Rong
2 years ago

image caption

Over the last few years, I’ve spent each autumn photographing polar bears in northern Canada. The assignment has been to document their journey from ice to land, then back to ice again. This image, taken from a doors-open helicopter in -60c, was taken my final day of the project. Previous to this, I’d been following this large male for nearly 3 weeks as he tracked up the coastline waiting for big freeze up. Then, following a brutal early winter storm, the ice appeared almost overnight. From land, we watched him through binoculars as he made his first steps onto the floe… and he was gone. The story didn’t end there. We flew back to Churchill, Manitoba and hired a specialist helicopter to find “our guy”. After signing our lives away, we opened the doors and took off. Within 30 minutes we were out 10km into the floe and there he was, fast asleep at the end of a massive ice floe. His footsteps snaked across the frozen landscape, symbolic of his lengthy journey to this point. In that moment, the scene struck me on a personal note: never forget how far you’ve come. From the boy who could’ve only dreamt of photographing polar bears, to actually doing it. —– Climate change is altering this habitat at an increasingly alarming rate. With freeze ups occurring later and melts happening earlier, polar bears in this region are hugely under threat. We need to act together or these footsteps will fade, forever. Through putting “Frozen Footprints” in your collection, you’ll do exactly that. By purchasing this piece, you’ll be contributing to the NFT Conservation Fund. The full details are on my website.

2160 x 2160 – music and visuals by the artist

A gravitational singularity, where all conceptions of time and space catastrophically break down. A combination of a generative code fused with a 3D workspace in blender. 9000 x 10000 pixels

This photograph was taken at the Ballarò Market in 2019. Ballarò is one of the oldest, and liveliest, street markets in Palermo, Sicily. The market is filled with people and, to make a good picture here, one needs to be accustomed to working in crowded spaces. Also, the floor tends to be slippery due to the cobblestones and fresh fish that comes through daily. I had to be careful to not break my neck while making this dynamic and dramatic picture!

Featuring actor and musician Kat Cunning, shot during the the 2020 pandemic. A taste for the theatrical. Dimensions: 5675 x 3192px

“All that you are” is a visual ode to the black woman and her everything.

Black stones, dark alleys, stiff pillars erected to reach the crimson sky, the city of Archedium appeared frozen i a sea of burning lights. Digital hand drawn illustration. jpg 7200×10000 pixels.

I have created numerous whimsical and colorful worlds throughout my career, but this one is special. I wanted to illustrate a story inspired in creation where we see this fantastical Meta-World under development. This place is rich in details and very colorful; It portrays my vision as an artist with a bright eye for the future. I hope you wish you could be in it, even if for a minute! On the right side, we see the creator on the computer and his excitement; outside this “bubble” we see the result, a vibrant and positive world where guests arrive wearing VR sets. The only character without VR sets is probably an actual avatar from another guest somewhere. 2500 x 1406 px

401 N Wabash is a building I’ve enjoyed photographing ever since construction was completed in 2009. A lot of my cityscape and architectural work has prominently featured this tower, and even a print of this photo hangs in the home of Adrian Smith, the architect who designed the building. This photo was taken from the Hancock Observatory while the entire city was being consumed by fog. I waited patiently to capture the tower at the perfect moment so it was the only building poking through the clouds.

I have created numerous whimsical and colorful worlds throughout my career, but this one is special. I wanted to illustrate a story inspired in creation where we see this fantastical Meta-World under development. This place is rich in details and very colorful; It portrays my vision as an artist with a bright eye for the future. I hope you wish you could be in it, even if for a minute! On the right side, we see the creator on the computer and his excitement; outside this “bubble” we see the result, a vibrant and positive world where guests arrive wearing VR sets. The only character without VR sets is probably an actual avatar from another guest somewhere. 2500 x 1406 px

3

an

Curator @SuperRare

Art

Tech

Curators' Choice

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Weekly top 10 picks by an

2 years ago

A hard pill to swallow. Part of my “Vintage Addictions” collection. 1400×1400 seamless loop.

she returns…

“????ℎ????????????, ????ℎ????????????” Gazing upon it, she dotes on its monstrosity and its vulnerability. From Seneca’s genesis collection.

2022 / 1080×1080 / 25 seconds

The man who walks through the streets of an ancient city that slowly sinks into the sand represents the tenacity of mankind in the face of every adversity and its resistance to surrender. Resiliens. Resilience from the Latin resiliens means, in physics, the property of materials to resist shocks without breaking. This is where its human meaning takes its cue. Resiliens, tells the story of the relationship between man and the harshest of the environments, the desert. The ability of man to live, survive and adapt to the extremes of his possibilities. In its simplicity as in its visual impact, the shot is also a reflection of my life, made up of continuous fights and challenges despite adversity and failures, the ability to be scratched and never give up. Resilience as the basis of something greater. Not just resistance but going beyond robustness; not merely withstand a shock but actually improving because of it. The ability to absorb the inclements of life and make them one’s own to thrive through it. Founded in the 13th century as the center of numerous trans-Saharan trade routes, Chinguetti is a ksar in Mauritania, a medieval trading center, today severely threatened by the advance of the desert; part of the city has already been swallowed by it. A world heritage site, the city is locally considered to be the seventh holy city of Islam and is home to five of the oldest still operating libraries on the planet.

During one particular period of my life, I was spending money like I never had money. Truthfully, it was because I never had money. I was eating top ramen and frozen foods every day just so I could buy things to impress people. Stupid right? Well, it worked. I was constantly surrounded by many friends, yet somehow never felt more alone. I couldn’t tell if people cared about me or cared about what I could do for them. One by one, those friendships fell apart because our foundation was built on envy. I met a new group of people who changed my life. It was never about what I could do for them, but rather about what we could do together. They openly shared their knowledge, experiences, and wins with me. They had the type of kindness that empowered me to pass it on. By replacing envy with compassion, my friendships took on a deeper meaning. We had each other’s backs, supported one another, and encouraged each other to pursue our dreams.

Animated loop with audio Signed 1/1 A3 (297 x 420 mm) giclée print on Hahnemühle archival paper included with purchase.

Being perceived by others is a tiring task. To constantly present yourself a certain way – physically and emotionally – is draining. To reflect this, I drew an exhausted mermaid coming home from work to reveal that she is, in fact, a human. In order to find peace of mind, we mustn’t forego our true selves – the core of who we are.

Naturverse is the realm of possibility: VR makes us masters of dimensions, distances, the bath of light and the weight of things. Like dangerous Gods in the metaverse we can shape Nature. A digital city comes to life atop a dune of sand and concrete, where everything vibrates touched by artificial light under our astonished gaze Witnesses to the materialization of our dream landscape Engineers of surreality. So far, every step taken to learn the mysteries of nature, to imitate its wonders, to crack its secrets, has been accompanied by a visceral disregard for its condition, for the conservation of its resources and for a future of coexistence. We have intervened nature at our whim. We have erected iron fantasies to the point of populating the Earth with our artificial sceneries. We have loved nature with the same passion with which he have plundered it. Naturverse is the realm of opportunity. We can become one with nature again or continue down the path of disintegration. Learn or fail. Create or continue to tear down. Consciousness 3.0 * NatureVerse is part of the “MetaVRse” exhibition of @0x_society in Montreal. This exhibit, beginning on February 24th, aims to understand and question how trends in the digital world will impact our lives and explore environmental preservation in the digital age. * SOUND ON! Music by Jos Technical Specs: 3840×2160 px / 30 fps / Loop

The accessibility and democratization of technology have forever changed the world we inhabit, merging the physical universe with the digital one. And as usually happens in these cases, the necessary reflections never occur at the speed at which technology is advancing, dragging us, whether we want it or not, to a transhumanism for which we should
prepare ourselves as a society. In the future we will live in a world where nothing will be
more real than fiction and nothing more fictional than reality. In this new universe, where death does not exist, you will be eternally waiting for a Charon that was never programmed to take you to the bank of a river that was never designed.
////////////////////////////////////
Seamless Loop (web player makes a cut that doesn’t exist in the file that the buyer receives) – 1/1 edition | 1080x1650px | Joseba Elorza (a.k.a. MiraRuido) | 2022.

3

an

Curator @SuperRare

Art

Tech

Curators' Choice

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Source Energy

Weekly top 10 picks by an

An Rong
2 years ago

Flat Rate

Connected to the Source Energy, but Earth is the forgotten beauty. Feeling your body, then suddenly the physical world doesn’t exist anymore. Moon transcending ice. Mother Nature whispers ‘’I see You, do you see Me?’’. In a world where nothing lasts forever, who is the passenger, who is the vessel?

9.14mb 4000 x 6000

In the last few rows of a bus, four passengers look on at a couple engaging in a public display of their adoration. All passengers are in varying states of self-determined sexual orientation and/or gender. The mood in that part of the bus is filled with warmth, with memory and wistfulness and youthful curiosity about what is possible. This piece was created using mainly the oil paint brush in MS Paint 3D, a software I fell in love with because of its accessibility, vibrancy, and texture. All of my work is informed by my reverence for Black queer and trans people. This piece is a study of a form of Black queer and trans intimacy.

When you consider the world, as an explorer, New York stands out as an iconic city. And when you consider New York, the Chrysler building stands out as one of the most iconic landmarks. Perhaps only rivaled by the Empire State Building, Freedom Tower or the Statue of Liberty. Holy grails for urban explorers, instantly recognizable in the skyline. The Chrysler Building was briefly the tallest in the world at 1,046ft (318.8 metres) upon its completion in November 1929. As a last minute trick to beat the Woolworth building as the worlds tallest in “the race to the sky” the building was topped off with a 180ft (55 metre) spire. The spire was hoisted to the top of the building’s dome and lowered into the 66th floor of the building in only 90 minutes. The spire has no pegs or outside structure for climbing, it requires ropes and harnesses to reach the top. We instead set our mission towards the iconic eagles just below the top. Reaching them was no easy feat. We had to return to the building multiple times to find the moment in time where we could accomplish our mission. When we finally reached the south facing eagles there was a sense of wonder and urgency. Me and my climbing partner step out on the heads of one eagle each. We alternative between shooting photos in one moment and looking around us amazement uttering “wow unreal we are really here” in the next moment. We make sure we have some good photos and we make haste to leave. As we do so we run into a problem and we were extremely challenged to get out in one piece. I will let the details of why be known only to the collector of this piece. There is extensive behind the scene footage documenting what it took to accomplish this mission, which can not be shared publicly but the collector of this NFT will be privy to this. Collector will get one exclusive airdrop piece as free nft.

The Master Leonardo DaVinci said “Study the science of art, study the art of science, develop your senses, especially learn how to see. Realize everything connects to everything else.” And so, Sacred Geometry II is an amalgamation of research I have been diving into: mainly the principles of framing, relief sculpture, palettes of the painting masters, and symbology. The pages of history are filled with nourishing elements that we can extract and use to inspire us in the now. We need only open our eyes, our minds & our hearts.

As this leviathan awoke north of Littlefield, Texas, I was awestruck watching it churn and swirl across the horizon. Dusk soon beckoned and the sun’s final light set the structure ablaze as a solitary lightning bolt collided with the plains below. Chasing a low precipitation supercell often feels like pursuing a mythical creature. They can never be truly caught; instead, their likeness is a moment in time suspended by the click of a camera shutter.

Ethereal bouquet of transparent and blue Hydrangeas. This artwork was featured on Vogue Singapore’s 2022 Jan/Feb digital cover as a part of Ikuta’s calendar collection, “12 Months of Afterlife”. With the purchase of each NFT, collectors will also receive a physical signed copy of the Vogue Singapore x Luna Ikuta calendar. To collect your limited edition prints, contact [email protected].

…a place to think…

3

an

Curator @SuperRare

Art

Tech

Curators' Choice

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Weekly top 10 picks by an

Pomegrenade

Weekly top 10 picks by an

2 years ago

Eternity is tenuous when thoughts become reflections of the purest emotion.

Moments like these were never meant to be spent alone.

We will be selling artist MITSUME’s first NFT art piece. Every month, one new NFT art piece will be released on the last day of every month in 2022. As MITSUME will not be releasing many NFT arts aside from SuperRare, so this is a rare NFT art series. A portion of the proceeds from this sale will be donated to Carbon180. Data size 4134×5846 pixel

Pomegrenade is a mixed media painting I created in 2018 (Antwerp, Belgium) as a part of my semi-solo show “Freak Shop” at the gallery Collectiv National and later in 2019 was exhibited at BOZAR Museum (Brussels, Belgium). The artwork is inspired by still life paintings of Renaissance Age and composed with a contemporary surreal approach. The representation of the uncanny fruit includes 38 female portraits; smiling, thinking, sleeping, screaming and gazing into the universe…

Keeping up with the constant pace and expectations of the NFT space. 20 frames 4K GIF

SALT

I drink the elixir of melodie’s Colors fill my lungs, my heart, my mind, my body, and soul Letting the enigma of spectrums lift my wings higher and higher Illuminating my eyes full of boundless tonalities Until I start to fall, dive, and sink back into the blank canvas Unleashing my rainbows left and right Raining down my secret hues onto the gradient filled wonder land of sin-esthesia The land of my third eye A piece dedicated to my third eye. I’m thankful for my synesthesia, and I’m learning to embrace it more. This piece is a tipping point into a new art direction for me, a utilization of multiple musicians to achieve new colors with vibrant gradients throughout. This photograph depicts how sinfully beautiful my synesthesia is, and I’m giving you a taste of it. I can’t wait to show you more. Synesthesia colors inspired by “Realiti” by Grimes “One Last Kiss” by Hikaru Utada, and “Dog Days Are Over” by Florence + The Machine. This NFT includes a signed edition museum grade fine art paper print.

“Kedisan” is the first of three pieces of my genesis series, “Serendipity”. East Bali is famed for its wild volcanic landscapes, lush vegetation, and quaint villages barely touched by modernity. It’s also a place I’ve become incredibly familiar with over the past two years, with kind-hearted and curious faces greeting me at every turn. The global pandemic had a severe impact on Bali’s tourism sector, and led to the vast majority of hospitality workers with little choice but to return to more labour-intensive work in their home villages across the island. For myself, it meant an abrupt halt to my work schedule and an incredibly challenging period of personal growth. I became intrigued by the simplistic beauty of the patterns found in traditional lines of agricultural work, and, influenced by my obsession with RPG games for many years prior, I caught myself progressively engrossed in capturing the wonderful people and places I stumbled upon. It’s the serendipitous moments like this, combined with my deep-rooted love for photography and the outdoors, that ultimately became my therapy.

“Your hand opens and closes, opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed. Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birds’ wings.” – Rumi. Capturing the natural grace & strenght of The Wrestling Champion, was a joyful moment. With kids playing around in the water, the decor that i set up came to life .

Namtar falls into the sky, inverting the order. Profaning the heavens, hacking through chthonic interfaces the ciphers of heights and, taking possession of the streams of ascent, decrypts Nifela, stealing from the cloudy womb the virtual cold of a pure future, baking it in codes of optics to ocularly load into the present.

3

an

Curator @SuperRare

Art

Tech

Curators' Choice