Ruben Romero is the founder of a fine art genre called Transmaterialism. Transmaterialism is an art movement started in 2004, which treats intangible material as physical. Transmaterialists want to mold intangibles like space, time, light, sound and digital assets like clay on a potters wheel.

Over the last two decades, Romero has done work with hypersonic sound, light, space, and digital art. A signature mark of his work is his use of hand crafted glass as a representation of intangible material. He explores concepts about time, the immaterial value of currency, and the physical quality of non physical materials.

In 2001, he received a BFA from Tyler School of Art and in 2004 a MFA from the University of the Arts. He is doxed with a social media following of over 680k. He also owns and is renovating a Nuclear Hardened Underground Bunker.

When creating this project, Romero felt that the genre of crypto art must be taken more seriously as an art form. He found that pirate flags are a unique way to enhance the idea of traditional PFP collections. He chose a pixelated art style to pay tribute to the early crypto projects, and help legitimize crypto art as a whole.

APOC PIRATES is his first collection in the Crypto space and he's excited that there is more permanence with Ordinals over tranditional NFTs and the potential to create a subversive community.