Artist Spotlight: Baka Arts
Artist Spotlight: Baka Arts
From Youtube to Etherea.
Baka Arts, also known as Darius Puia is a German artist who is renowned for his 3D and sci-fi style. He specializes in Surreal, Cyberpunk and Sci-Fi art and has been creating for over 15 years. He has also created his own story comprised of 6 artworks that are brought to life even further through an immersive narrative, set in a dystopian and futuristic world.
But where did his journey begin and how do you find out more? Check out this exclusive interview below that details everything about his career so far!
For Baka, his journey began on Youtube, photo manipulations were the building blocks that took him to where he is today. Like many other artists, he started small, eventually finding his way with more proficient software. From here, the door opened up to 3D digital art, something which has become his staple and his identity. He loves separating colours and in particular the shape of circles which feature continuously throughout his art.
Since his plunge into the NFT scene in early February, he quickly became one of the most renowned artists, establishing himself as the top seller on Super Rare. However his journey was not so simple, from posting aimlessly on Instagram, he believed his work was undervalued. However, after hearing about the NFT space he transferred to Twitter which saw him garner over 3000 followers within a single week. He met friends, established collaborations, and began to earn a stable income. This is certainly a testament to the propensity of the NFT space, and its potential to change lives!
Baka’s first Super Rare post currently features as an artwork in his story, The Ether Tales. After a high-intensity bidding war, an avid collector and Crypto Punk SeedPhrase won the auction with a final bid of 6.78Ξ ($12,496).
Since then, Baka’s artwork has continued to elevate, from modern & colorful styles of artwork to darker and grittier themes. Every artwork that Baka creates is brought to life in its own magical way. To date, his highest sold 1/1 artwork, Judgement was sold to cryptopolitan for 22.777Ξ ($71,979). Again this further reinforces the extent to which the NFT art world has exploded, and for Baka, this was life-changing. From struggling with his motivation to having his work financially valued by collectors from across the world, he relished the opportunity to create, and his motivation catalyzed into new ideas and plans, including the Ether Tales and his collection Surrogates.
The Ether Tales and Surrogates
The collection, the Ether Tales launched at the back end of February, a sci-fi world where humans escaped the planet and ventured to Mars. The collection is comprised of 6 artworks that were listed on Superare, and additionally, they each come with their own story to tell. The world was brought together by the NFT writer and world builder Ricgalbraith, who has since worked with Beeple, Loopify, and more creators to help world build and craft immersive tales. The universe of Etherea will eventually be formatted into a physical graphic novel that will include the writing, illustrations and credits. Baka has promised to hand print this himself, with the experience that he has acquired working part-time at a printing company, as well as reaching out personally to every single collector for believing in his own slice of fantasy and imagination.
In March, Baka created his first character collection “The Surrogates” characters that came from The Ether Tales. The first four were revealed out of 50, and garnered widespread attention from the NFT scene. After weeks of work, the collection was finally revealed, and Baka proposed his interesting drop mechanic. Each character would be open to bidding for 24 hours, after this Baka would accept all bids over 1 ETH, and those that fell under this were set to a 1 ETH buy now. Within the first day, every single Surrogate had received a bid and opened the 24-hour auction.
By the 28th March, Baka had sold out the Surrogate collection, and reached #1 on Rarible, cementing himself as one of the most influential artists in the NFT space! But the journey did not end there, Baka sold out his second series, and his collection became verified on Opensea! In addition to this, the collection has just partnered with Nifty Gateway, a digital online auction platform.
The collection has gained support from some of the most influential collectors in the NFT scene, notably crypto888crypto who purchased the genesis #1 surrogate. Furthermore, within a week of opening his Surrogates NFT Twitter account, he has amassed over 1000 followers already. Today is the day of his season 3 surrogates drop which began at 5pm CET. The series three drop will include 3 drops a day for 15 days, 24-hour auctions, as well as a whitelist for owners for generative surrogates!
This season we should expect to see some exotic characters, with traits that no other surrogates have so far. Baka is certainly preparing for the most creative season so far!
Community
Just recently Baka created a dedicated art piece for Farokh to commemorate the growing Rug Radio community. A Twitter space where NFT enthusiasts and like-minded individuals go to chat and discuss pertinent topics in the space. Baka continuously proves that he is a community man, and for the culture!
The Interview
Prior to art and the NFT scene, did you have any other career ambitions?
Yes I always loved digital art since I heard about it so that's why I built my career around Photoshop and 3D Software.
Where did your art journey first begin?
I started making signatures on Message Boards, that was my first encounter with Digital Art. Then I went on to do Photomanipulations on YouTube and gained a following which introduced me to 3D which I now do for a living.
Where is your artwork most inspired from?
It is inspired by the likes of Moebius, Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Cowboy Bebop as well as Syd Mead.
How did you first get into the NFT scene?
I saw glimpses of it pop in my feed on instagram but I really got into it when some random dude named Igor messaged me on Instagram about cryptoart. I didn't know what it was but then he explained and I started planning my entry in the space.
You are from Germany, how have NFTs been received there and is the concept growing?
It's still weird for everyone. Nobody really knows what it is yet but I see it become the norm very soon.
Do you collect anything yourself, if so what is your favourite piece!
I do collect myself, mostly cyberpunk artworks from friends and certain PFP Projects. I don't have a fave piece yet since they all mean something to me.
Can you tell us more about your story collection, the ether tales?
The entire story about the concept can be found on my website. It's my personal graphic novel about a dystopian earth and humans escaping to Mars to survive.
What is your favourite form of art?
Digital art! Anythign sci-fi!
What does the future hold for BakaArts?
That's the fun part. I don't know! But I am filled with positivity and excited for things to come!
Hey! Now that you know more about Baka, you should certainly follow his Twitter and Instagram! It has been a while since my last Artist Spotlight, and this was certainly an epic way to return! As always, let me know who you would like to hear from next and for now, enjoy your weekend!