Aemea_xi’s art reveals a number of key themes and influences that instantly attracted me to it. The image above clearly reflects a love of Anime and popular culture and the video footage reveals the characters eyes opening to stare at the viewer intently. The blend of bright primary colours and characters juxtapose wonderfully with the messages and skull and crossbones. The effect is one that is both reminiscent of endearing Anime characters and a more hard-edged street culture.
The following image takes this darker edge much further. Like a character out of ‘The Grudge’ or indeed Junji Ito’s horror manga, ‘Fig.007‘ brings a primal paranormal horror and displays it in an expressionistic style that is deeply unsettling. Again, the use of the third eye is employed to disrupt our sense of ‘normality’ … this is an unnatural creature that will haunt and disturb anyone who comes across it.
The final piece, and a piece of work that really caught my eye when I first became aware of this artist’s work, is a wonderfully rendered interior scene with crisp lines and wonderful colouring and shadow. Entitled ‘Thesea Project’, the artist describes them as “plants that feed on emotion”. Their organic shapes contrast beautifully with the harsh straight lines of the small box.
The following interview with Aemea_xi reveals an artist who puts a lot of her energy into each piece of work. I’d encourage anyone to start supporting this new artist to the NFT art landscape as there is so much to appreciate in her work.
Name or alias
aemea_xi
Social media links and website profiles
https://twitter.com/aeme_xi
Objkt.com
https://linktr.ee/aeme_xi
What is your background as an artist in general?
Well, I studied visual arts in Mérida- Venezuela and always wanted to draw and create for a living. Since I migrated I have had many ups and downs, and I wasn’t doing any personal creative outcomes till nfts happened and that’s pretty cool .
What is your overall process in generating art?
I start with an idea and start evolving the aesthetic around it, sometimes i write a story or develop each character personality, their characteristics, fears, tastes etc that help me a lot.
I’m very anxious and get sad and frustrated because I cannot do much more quantity and generate a burst of amazing pieces, so I have to remind constantly to myself that I need to keep it up at my pace. Each work takes me weeks, and the nft market moves amazingly fast.
How would you describe your art in your own words?
It’s a mix of dark pop culture, japanese pop culture, terror tales, and emo glimpses. Anime is something that’s very rooted in me, it was like my first school and reference.
Favourite artists / influences?
Nature, a lot of fantastical futuristic art and shows, sentai shows… to name some artists: Masamune Shirow, Trevor Brown, aya takano (recently), junji ito drawings and stories are mesmerizing to me too.
80’s and 90’s anime and manga from people like Ikeno Koi, Naoko Takeuchi, Wataru Yoshizumi and people like tyler okonma, grimes, yeule, stan lee and kirby bc X-men. Yoshitaka Amano, Hikari Shimoda, curisaris….and a lot of new artists that I follow on instagram too hehe…. etc….
How did you discover the new blockchain world of Crypto Art and NFTs in general?
On the internet and a friend told me what was that about starting 2021, and then HEN happened to me.
What are the biggest challenges for artists in the NFT space?
Competition … there is a lot of competition a lot of amazing artists out there haha, and everything moves incredibly fast!
oh the scammers too they suck, there’s a bunch of them.
Also there is a matter of luck to get to the people that would like your stuff enough to buy it, and get a lot of sales to live out of this or at least to make a significant profit, cuz creating art takes time and energy.
What are the some of the biggest opportunites for artists in the NFT space?
To create and get paid!!! and with cryptocurrencies, that’s awesome! Also, to connect with a very cool community too. Also trading art it’s a great aspect for people to get profit from and everyone wins, the creator and the collector. Some artists are even able to update their hardware with the money they make from selling nfts. In some places that’s very hard to do cuz equipment is expensive.
How would you like the field of cryptoart and nfts to evolve over time?
Strongly, full of trade, and opportunities.
