About Me

Hi! I'm Shelly Soneja, an Art Director and digital illustrator from the Philippines. I was born, raised, and studied in an international school in Indonesia where I was exposed to different cultures and had a steady diet of anime and manga, western cartoons and comics, and videogames. This myriad of influences are all reflected in my art style which shows a blend of Eastern and Western illustrative aesthetics. Vibrant, colorful, and magical, I use the female form to explore different themes, moods, and emotions.

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I have had experience over the years working as an artist, team leader, and Art Director for advertising agencies and video game companies. My work has been published in coffee table art books such as Udon’s Street Fighter Tribute, Artgerm’s Pepper Project, as well as numerous local comics such as Siglo: Passion which won the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Award for best comic book. Pre-pandemic, I would frequent local comic conventions selling my artwork as prints, stickers, calendars, and postcards.

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I first got into the world of NFTs and cryptocurrency in 2018 through my video game job at that time, where I created art for games powered by blockchain. It was in September 2020, under the lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic, that I took a dive into minting my own cryptoart. Since then, I have been tapped as a speaker for NFT-related talks; notable mentions included speaking about my NFT journey for Art Fair Philippines and the Web3 Festival 2022; and have had my artworks exhibited in IRL galleries all over the world, across the metaverse, and in outer space (through The Big Dream Project). Other NFT projects I was part of were with Kolectiv, Pranksy Collection, Graffiti Queens 2021, and Crypto Art Week Asia 2021.

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I was a former member of the now defunct The Guild - the first Non Fungible Organization (NFO) founded in 2020. Through this interdisciplinary Crypto Art collective, I was involved in pioneering endeavors such as the first nested NFT project on Ethereum (through the Pandora’s Box project in collaboration with Charged Particles) and had my work with them exhibited in galleries like d’strict Arte Museum, South Korea’s largest immersive media art exhibition.

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Djenerates (a sold out NFT collection and lifestyle brand focusing on DJs and nightlife), was another crypto project that I was involved in as an artist and Art Director, designing the artworks for the Club Edition, Superstars, Spirit Animals, as well as other miscellaneous illustrations and merchandise.

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When I’m not creating art, I play video games, train in Muay Thai, and play my ukulele.

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