Sam Spratt

Sam Spratt is a digital painter based in New York. His ongoing project, LUCI, sets paintings beside short written psalms, and ten paintings exist so far. Its name refers to the early human ancestor found in Afar, Ethiopia. The Toledo Museum of Art describes the series as a "refracted self-portrait of the artist." Collectors' written words are recorded onchain and built into the work.

Spratt trained in oil painting and illustration at the Savannah College of Art and Design, finishing in 2010. That year he began illustrating for Gizmodo and painted a three-part December cover for Game Informer. Over the next decade he painted album covers for Childish Gambino, Janelle Monáe, Logic and Kid Cudi. He also made covers for Marvel, Netflix and Rolling Stone, and paintings for Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption 2.

LUCI began in October 2021 with three paintings auctioned on SuperRare. Spratt thanked every bidder with a skull artwork, and the holders of the 50 Skulls of Luci later became the Council of Luci. Its members vote on the winners when collectors compete in later chapters. Christie's sold VII. Wormfood in a 2022 online auction. For IX. The Monument Game (2023) on Nifty Gateway, 256 Players wrote observations onto the painting, and the Council picked three winners. X. Masquerade (2025) arrived with 613 Masks of Luci. Spratt made both by combining handwork with a generative AI engine trained on his own paintings.

In 2024, 1OF1 presented The Monument Game, his first solo exhibition, in Venice during the 60th Biennale. In 2025 the Toledo Museum of Art showed Masquerade and the Masks in its group show Infinite Images: The Art of Algorithms. He is now working on the seventh chapter of LUCI.