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      An Anamorphic Mural Transforms a Montreal Street into Undulating Sand Dunes

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      Art

      #anamorphosis
      #murals
      #optical illusion
      #public art
      #sand
      #street art

      November 3, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © NÓS, by Olivier Bousquet, Eloa Defly, Raphaël Thibodeau, Alex Lesage, and Charles Laurence Proulx
      Along the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, sandy drifts swell and surge in a massive mural by the Canadian architecture firm NÓS. Aptly named “Moving Dunes,” the anamorphic artwork is comprised of neutral-toned lines that undulate along the walkway, creating a deceptive path mimicking deserts and beaches. Chrome spheres sporadically appear along the street in order to reflect the surrounding architecture and rippling patterns on the ground.
      The 2018 project coincided with the museum’s exhibition, From Africa to the Americas: Face-to-face Picasso, Past and Present, which prompted NÓS to evoke the perspective-bending approach of cubist painters. “Moving Dunes” was chosen after an annual call for proposals to install a large-scale artwork on the Avenue de Musée. Follow NÓS’s latest designs and illusory projects on Instagram. (via designboom)

      #anamorphosis
      #murals
      #optical illusion
      #public art
      #sand
      #street art

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    • 150 Shares109 Views

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      A Colorful Geometric Mural of a Cityscape Visualizes Humans’ Impact on Nature

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      Art

      #cityscapes
      #climate change
      #flowers
      #murals
      #nature
      #public art
      #street art

      November 2, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Love of Nature” in Chelyabinsk, Russia. All images © Vitaly Tsarenkov, shared with permission
      Artist Vitaly Tsarenkov, who works under the moniker SY, depicts the threat of ecological catastrophe through a new mural featuring geometric flora, fauna, and objects typically found in bustling city centers. Created for the Urban Morphogenesis festival in Chelyabinsk, Russia, “Love of Nature” is a vertical rendering of the human impact on nature, with color-blocked trucks, road cones, and towering buildings near the top and a fire, flowers, and tufts of grass occupying space at the bottom.
      Based in Saint Petersburg, Russia, Tsarenkov says the 50-meter-high mural conveys that each person has the agency to protect the planet’s resources. “It’s impossible to stop all harmful factories at once, but to make the first step towards the clean Earth is not difficult and within everybody’s power just by taking the trash away after recreation in nature,” he writes on Instagram.

      #cityscapes
      #climate change
      #flowers
      #murals
      #nature
      #public art
      #street art

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    • 100 Shares129 Views

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      Multi-Story Murals Showcase Domesticity through Elegant Ceramic Tableware

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      Art

      #ceramics
      #murals
      #pottery
      #public art
      #street art
      #tableware

      October 23, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      Oviedo, Spain. All images © Manolo Mesa, shared with permission
      Spanish street artist Manolo Mesa merges public and private spheres through large-scale murals that highlight simple domestic objects. The multiple-story artworks depict traditional dining scenes, from an elegant porcelain tea set to a lone jug with swirling flourishes to another vessel resting on a saucer.
      To complete a recent tableau in Oviedo, Spain, for Parees Fest, Mesa explored the history of an abandoned pottery factory in San Claudio. Event organizers gathered tableware from local residents, a collection that informed the shapes and exterior motifs of his work. “I was able to see all the evolution of this earthenware in the houses of Oviedo. I found postwar pieces, which were inherited and preserved with great affection by collectors. We saw (the) tableware of a lifetime from the middle of the century,” he writes on Instagram. Showcasing a delicate collection of vessels, the resulting mural explores an otherwise hidden facet of local history.
      Find Mesa on Instagram to view some works-in-progress and follow his ceramic-centric projects.

      #ceramics
      #murals
      #pottery
      #public art
      #street art
      #tableware

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    • 125 Shares169 Views

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      Mantra’s Trompe L’oeil Murals Encase Enormous Butterflies in Vintage-Style Boxes

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      Art

      #butterflies
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art
      #trompe l’oeil

      October 15, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      Torino, Italy. All images © Mantra, shared with permission
      Working with entomologists around the globe, the French street artist known as Mantra (previously) transforms brick facades and concrete walls into massive studies of local butterfly specimens. With framed outer edges that mimic a wooden box, the trompe l’oeil murals render the winged insects in detail, depicting their richly hued scales and delicate antennae. Each artwork features species native to the area, making it possible that a live specimen might flutter by its enormous counterpart.
      In a conversation with Colossal, Mantra said he’s harbored a lifelong fascination with entomology that stems from spending hours in French gardens and bucolic areas as a kid. “As a child, I was interested, curious, and focused on the small life forms in those places,” he says. His current practice hearkens back to those carefree hours and connects with an adolescent desire to become a naturalist. “My approach is as a scientist,” the artist says, noting that education about environmental care and issues is part of the goal.
      Although Mantra considers all insects and natural life beautiful and crucial to maintaining biodiversity, the focus on butterflies revolves around his artistic ambitions because the vivid creatures allow him to experiment with color, shape, and texture. Each specimen is rendered freehand before the artist adds detail and the illusory shadows that make them appear three-dimensional. By painting various Lepidoptera species again and again, the artist is “repeating a mantra,” a detail of his practice that informs the moniker he works under.
      In recent months, Mantra has traveled to Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden, in addition to various locations throughout France, to complete public artworks, and he’ll be in Arkansas this month for two projects curated by Just Kids. Follow all of the artist’s entomological murals on Instagram.

      Rombas, France
      Cancún, Mexico. Image by Gino Caballero
      Silkeborg, Denmark
      Las Vegas, Nevada
      Dijon, France
      Jacksonville, Florida
      Brooklyn, New York
      Dallas, Texas. Image by Chop’ em Down
      Overum, Sweden
      Indianapolis, Indiana
      Cancún, Mexico. Image by Gino Caballero
      Torino, Italy. Image by Martha Cooper

      #butterflies
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art
      #trompe l’oeil

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    • 113 Shares99 Views

      in Street Art

      New works from E. LEE go up in Chicago

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      We always love checking in with Chicago’s E. LEE. E brings creativity and thoughtfulness to every piece (whether in the street or indoors), and there’s usually more than what meets the eye.

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      E. LEE began his street art career in 2015 with a goal to impact lives with art. By taking the viewer into consideration, he orchestrates experiences using trompe l’oeil effects and pop images as symbols. In this series about cultural symbols of value, he replaces common objects with cartoon representations of currency and gold. The depth created with shadows and the fantastic scale creates a sense of awe for the viewer while the simplicity and boldness of the piece sneaks into a complex question of what we value in our culture…and why.
      First up is a work entitled “Looming Large”, in the Uptown neighborhood. The works invites the viewer to sneak a peek at a stash of massive gold coins within an otherwise unassuming building

      Next up is the complex “Your Life as a Comedy” in the Logan Square neighborhood.

      Lee tells Street Art News, “I feel this piece is very important right now. A lot of people are feeling anxious and unsafe in the current environment. A threat from nature in Covid, a threat from society with possible income and housing loss, and a large amount of social unrest on top of everything.”

      Lee continues, “This is an optimistic piece. The viewer is the protagonist and it is the story of our lives. It’s a cycle (represented by the cycle of the day) showing the metaphoric hurdles we all must overcome:
      The desert: an empty barren place with a lack of nourishment. It is loneliness and a feeling of isolation.
      The flood / ocean: turbulent water represents turbulent emotions. It is the opposite of a lack, but rather an overwhelm and possible feeling of drowning.
      Anvils floating above us on balloons: This is anxiety… the random occurrence that can fall on our heads out of nowhere (cancer, pandemic, death of a loved one)
      A Crack in the Earth: This represents us falling into a hole. A major problem or depression we have to climb out of.

      We navigate these obstacles and we get ourselves to the other side. When we do, there is more life (trees and bushes), more balance, and we’re equipped with the tools to build a little more safety for ourselves and the ones we love. The last panel represents us improving our lives, building, and the opportunity to take a breath and rest up… for the cycle and challenge will soon begin again.”

      Have a tip about Chicago street art? Contact @jreich on Instagram More

    • 150 Shares99 Views

      in Art

      An Intricate Lace Mural Envelops the Facade of a French Fashion Museum

      by

      
      Art

      #lace
      #murals
      #public art

      September 29, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Nespoon
      On France’s northern shores lies the port city of Calais, a municipality that once was a destination for lace manufacturers. To escape economic and social difficulties, English textile artists and engineers immigrated in the late 19th Century, often establishing clandestine operations that defied patent laws by bringing specialty machines and practices to the region. Soon after, Calais became an industrial hub for lace manufacturing, employing around 40,000 residents.
      A new mural by Warsaw-based artist Nespoon (previously) celebrates that rich history through an oversized textile that envelops the facade of a factory. The public artwork features delicate mesh and floral elements that cover the side of the Cité de la Dentelle et de la Mode, the city’s fashion and lace museum. Nespoon chose this particular motif, which dates back to 1894, from the institution’s archive before spray painting its intricate details onto the building.
      Check out the video below to see the lace motif in-progress, and find more of the artist’s textile-based pieces on Behance and Instagram.

      #lace
      #murals
      #public art

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    • 163 Shares129 Views

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      Okuda San Miguel Transforms a Stark Lighthouse in Spain into a Technicolor Beacon

      by

      
      Art

      #lighthouse
      #murals
      #public art

      September 11, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      “Infinite Cantabria” (2020, Spain. All images © Okuda San Miguel, by Beatriz Carretero and Omar H. Garcia, shared with permission
      Situated along the coast in Cantabria, the Faro de Ajo has been transformed from a barren facade into a vivid display of more than 70 hues. The undertaking of artist Okuda San Miguel (previously), the 16-meter tower features a striped bird, wild animals rendered in bold blocks of color, and various dots and squiggles. Now bearing the name “Infinite Cantabria,” it is the first intervention on a Spanish lighthouse. “It has been a unique experience, both because of the artistic challenge that it has brought about for me, as well having carried this project out in my homeland,” says the artist, who is from the region in northern Spain.
      Follow Okuda San Miguel on Instagram to check out more of his global projects, and pick up a face mask, puzzle, or print for a smaller dose of his technicolor interventions. (via TimeOut)

      

      #lighthouse
      #murals
      #public art

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    • 188 Shares139 Views

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      Outfitted with Knights’ Helmets, Children Painted by Seth Globepainter Play in the Streets of Paris

      by

      
      Art

      #COVID-19
      #helmets
      #kids
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art

      September 10, 2020
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Seth Globepainter, shared with permission
      French artist Julien Malland, who works as Seth Globepainter (previously), is responding to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis with a new series of murals that capture the innocence of childhood. Painted throughout the thirteenth district of Paris, the public artworks feature kids in the midst of an imaginary adventure or playful activity: one rides an oversized pigeon, another blows multicolored bubbles, and a pair appears to float above the ground to embrace.
      Each of the figures is sporting a metal knight’s helmet, a sign of protection for their physical wellbeing, in addition to a show of strength and resilience. In a note to Colossal, Globepainter says the headwear also refers to French President Emmanuel Macron’s speech in March in which he said, “We are at war,” as he closed the country’s borders and ordered residents to stay home. The murals represent the way Parisians have accepted this new way of living and are about “how children, in particular, seem to have adapted easily to it,” the artist says. “They are protected by their helmets which weigh so heavily on them. They can only see through small openings in the metal, but they continue to play as if nothing had happened.”
      To see more Globepainter’s public artworks that consider the world through the lens of childhood, follow him on Instagram.

      #COVID-19
      #helmets
      #kids
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art

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