Subterms
Since 2019, the festival has been transforming Georgia’s capital city into a giant public art gallery.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Tbilisi Mural Fest’s Dynamic Murals Brighten the Sides of Buildings Throughout the City appeared first on Colossal. More
All images courtesy of Tblisi Mural Fest, shared with permission
Tbilisi Mural Fest’s Dynamic Murals Brighten the Sides of Buildings Throughout the City
November 21, 2025
Art
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Bookmark
Established in 2019, Tbilisi Mural Fest has a deceptively simple goal: to turn Georgia’s capital city into one huge public gallery. For the artist-organizers, who also create works under the moniker TMF Studio, contemporary murals have the ability to transform unsightly, blocky developments into giant works of art. The paintings are not only a pleasure to look at but also create a more inviting urban environment.
With a few exceptions, much of the recent work created for the festival is representational, showing people engaged in activities like harvesting grapes or dancing. International artists bring a variety of styles to often narrow, vertical compositions, adorning the sides of multilevel buildings.
Afzan Pirzade and TMF Studio, part of the “Dance” series
Through a wide range of figurative, geometric, or abstract styles, Tbilisi’s mural program is expanded each year, engaging viewers in both commercial and residential areas. Find more on the festival’s website and Instagram.
TMF Studio
Detail of work by TMF Studio
Edoardo Ettorre, “Concrete Horizons”
Afzan Pirzade and Besik Maziashvili, “The Most Sacred Connection of All.” Photo by David Chalodze and Anano Kekelia
Afzan Pirzade and Besik Maziashvili, “The Most Sacred Connection of All” (detail)
Fintan Magee, “Girl in Mirrors”
Afzan Pirzade and TMF Studio, “Samaya”
Afzan Pirzade and TMF Studio, part of the “Dance” series (detail)
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
All images © Pizza in the Rain, courtesy of Mortal Machine Gallery, New Orleans, shared with permission
PITR Highlights Storefronts, Signage, and Graffiti in Ultra-Detailed Portraits of Urban Streets
September 4, 2025
ArtIllustration
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Bookmark
Whether portraying a graffiti tag below a retail window or the bond patterns of bricks, the artist known as Pizza in the Rain, or PITR, illuminates city streets and commercial ephemera in striking detail.
With meticulous attention to geometry and quotidian features, the Chicago-based artist highlights business signage and urban facades in an almost narrative way, with the occasional figure passing through on foot or on a bike. Simultaneously immersive and nostalgic, we’re invited in and at the same time reminded of disappearing vestiges of past eras.
From storefront to storefront, we can imagine PITR’s compositions are snapshots of one continuous city, even though many of the distinctive locations are in different places around the U.S. Many recent scenes are evocative of New Orleans, with boarded-up shutters, like those often seen in the French Quarter, or historical markers. Circo’s Pastry Shop is a real place in Brooklyn, and The California Clipper is a well-known lounge in Chicago.
PITR renders everyday details with equal importance, from sprayed markings on the sidewalk, like the kind the gas company might make, to weathered awnings and neon logos. Nothing blurs into the background in his portraits of individual buildings and maximalist city blocks. On one hand, the locations appear realistic, yet on the other, there is a sense of fantasy and surrealism in their precisely drawn, slightly dystopian imperfections.
If you’re in New Orleans, stop by Mortal Machine Gallery to check out these pieces alongside new works by Max Seckel in Parallel Structures, which opens on September 12. Explore even more on PITR’s Instagram.
Collaboration with Max Seckel
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
“Urban Glitch 1983,” oil on linen. All images courtesy of the artist, shared with permission
Step Into Beguiling Bygone Eras in Jeff Bartels’s ‘Urban Glitch’ Series
September 23, 2024
Art History
Kate Mothes
Share
Pin
Bookmark
Around the time he turned 50, Jeff Bartels (previously) found himself thinking more and more about memory and nostalgia. “It occurred to me that I could remember certain things from my past exactly, while other memories were mixed up or even wrong,” he tells Colossal. “So I decided to explore that confusion.”
Bartels’s ongoing series Urban Glitch consists of five paintings so far, each focusing on different years from the recent past, ranging from 1979 to 2001. Each painstakingly detailed composition highlights pop culture of the era, from the latest cars and products to pastimes, music, and fashion.
Detail of “Urban Glitch 1983”
The imaginary buildings stack on top of one another and connect via bridges, platforms, and staircases reminiscent of M.C. Escher’s mathematically puzzling architecture.
Locked in time and space, as if the scenes are “glitching,” Bartels’s thriving urban hubs invoke the sights and sounds of bygone eras. People peer into their fridges, walk their dogs, play games at the arcade, and view paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat or Damien Hirst’s seminal 1991 work of a tiger shark preserved in a tank.
The artist employs 3D modeling software to create references for each painting rather than photographic sources, so “there is a lot of work done on my computer before I even pick up a brush and being the painting,” he says. “This way, I can create realistic-looking scenes that could not exist in the real world.”
Each piece takes hundreds of hours to complete due to the meticulous process of defining each building, figure, and tiny, stage-like scene. The artist estimates “1983” took about 850 hours altogether, and while the time commitment alone makes it “easy to burn out on them…” he says, “I do plan on continuing the series with at least a few more.”
Find more on Bartels’s website and Instagram.
“Urban Glitch 1985,” oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
Detail of “Urban Glitch 1985”
“Urban Glitch 1979,” oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
Detail of “Urban Glitch 1979”
Detail of “Urban Glitch 1979”
“Urban Glitch 1991,” oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
Detail of “Urban Glitch 1983”
“Urban Glitch 2001,” oil on linen, 30 x 30 inches
Detail of “Urban Glitch 2001”
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member now, and support independent arts publishing.
Hide advertising
Save your favorite articles
Get 15% off in the Colossal Shop
Receive members-only newsletter
Give 1% for art supplies in K-12 classrooms
Join us today!
$7/month
$75/year
Explore membership options
Previous articleNext article More
Art
#art history
#Benjamin Sack
#cartography
#cities
#drawing
#travel
July 15, 2024
Kate Mothes More
Art
Design
History
#Baltimore
#Bruce Willen
#cities
#installation
#public art
#rivers
#street art
October 27, 2023
Grace Ebert More
Art
#architecture
#cities
#landscapes
#Nathan Walsh
#oil painting
#painting
March 13, 2023
Kate Mothes More
