IX. The Monument Game
“
Second day
of the Second month
We are ripped awake
Unbalanced, wobbling, newborn
Decades of corrupted memories
Cached in freshly scarred sinew
Ignore the footprints
Time to take our first steps again
”
Overview
Luci is a series of digital paintings paired with written psalms created by artist Sam Spratt, released as episodic pieces of an evolving story about the rediscovery of our most ancient human values in a post-historic world. The first Chapter released in October of 2021 and since then, across the 9 digital paintings released so far, Sam Spratt’s LUCI has generated $3.3 million in primary sales and over $2.3 million in additional secondary volume. VII. Wormfood was sold at Christie’s for $252,000 with 100% of its sales donated to support MAPS, and his highest single sale was his latest piece, an interactive digital painting and game of Observation “IX. The Monument Game”, collected by 1OF1 works for $700,000.
The Story & Purpose
Luci wakes up, flayed and alone in present day, taking their first steps after having already lived what felt like life.
A violent unraveling of a creature in search of self, opens the ability to rediscover the ancient truths which make us human. Through wandering back into the world with new eyes, Luci begins to hear the song and frequency hidden in plain sight. A promethean chant, passed through generations, now obscured by a dreamlike and dissociated curse of abstract modernity. Rather than let this dream continue to trap Luci in a cradled sense of comfort and detached consumption, they journey into their earliest ancestral versions and begin the process of life anew–learning what it is to be human in its deepest form only through stripping down raw to our oldest and simplest iterations. Through rediscovering the lore and values in which millennia of storytelling have abstracted from Luci and their generation, they embark on quests into The Wander to sacrifice their stories and free us from our narrative of progress.
A story told through the seamless blending of memory, time, hallucination, and simulation, Luci unfolds reality across the ancient continental plains and birthplace of hominid origins, the streets of modern New York City, and within the dishonest narration of our own minds.
Exhibitions
Venice, Italy : April-June 2024
I. Birth of Luci
Collected by Cozomo Medici
II. Lullabies For Isaac
Collected by Fewocious
III. First Sacrifice
Collected by Anchor Drops
IV. Return to Diorama
Collected by 6529 Capital
V. Map to Wander
Collected by 6529 Capital
VI. The Muck
Collected by Defkhan
VII. Wormfood
Collected by Cozomo Medici
VIII. Infinite Ceremony
Collected by Woodmere Club Capital
The Skulls of Luci
The Skulls of Luci are a series of derivative paintings that were made as claimable gifts to every individual who placed an offer on Sam’s first three LUCI paintings: I. Birth of Luci, II. Lullabies for Isaac, and III. First Sacrifice. Each painting is born for The Blueprint Skull and were designed as a way of saying thank you to the people who believed in Luci from the beginning. As of February 2023, the Skulls of Luci have generated ~$690k in volume.
The Blueprint Skull Collected by CyborgNomad
The Skulls of Luci
About Sam
Sam is a New York based artist working out of his studio in the city. Sam’s pursuit is to make human art with human values about our stumbles, realizations, and fight to engage in a shared reality. Through intricacy at all levels, he seeks to create art within the digital space we actually operate in today that preserves the tactility, code, and values of the space we move through physically. Through focusing that technique towards a human story, his goal is to provide a bridge for the natural world as it extends into a digital network.
Currently, he is working on his series, LUCI which debuted on SuperRare in October 2021 and most recently was auctioned at Christie’s. LUCI is a search for a feeling that is as ancient as it is futuristic—something true in us, regardless of time, period, or interpretation. He has spent the last decade learning how to use digital mediums to paint in a traditional manner with past artwork finding homes in games, films, tv, music, books, theater, and most creative industries. Previous partnerships include: Rockstar Games, Netflix, Marvel, Universal Music Group, Kid Cudi, Donald Glover, among others.