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      Monumental Murals of Anatomical Creatures by ROA Celebrate Puerto Rico’s Biodiversity

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      Art

      #animals
      #murals
      #public art
      #Puerto Rico
      #street art

      April 26, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Red Tail Hawk in Humacao, November 2018. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Belgian street artist ROA (previously) has been touring Puerto Rico painting his signature monochromatic menagerie around the island. Depicting both native creatures like parrots and seahorses and invasive species like lionfish, the massive pieces celebrate the region’s biodiversity and the biologists and conservationists working tirelessly to preserve it. Many of the murals are anatomical and juxtapose life and death, a recurring theme in ROA’s body of work and one that’s apparent in his most recent rendering in Isla de Cabras. Spanning 160 feet, the massive artwork positions a plump, wrinkled manatee alongside a lengthy skeleton.
      The ongoing project has produced 15 murals so far and is a collaboration with Elegel Group. You can find out more about the impetus behind each animal on Instagram. (via Street Art News)

      Manatee in Isla de Cabras, April 2021. Photog by Four Two Photography
      Puerto Rican Parrot in Utuado, July 2019. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Octopus in Playa Escambron, July 2019. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Lionfish in Naguabo, June 2019. Photo by Pedro “Huck” Rosa, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Seahorse in Playa Escambron. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Snail in Aibonit, January 2019. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Monkey in Naguabo, November 2018. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Lizard in San Juan. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission
      Tortuga. Photo by Edgardo Santiago, image courtesy of Taller 2C1, shared with permission

      #animals
      #murals
      #public art
      #Puerto Rico
      #street art

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      Candid Moments Captured in Vintage Photos Are Magnified in Mohamed L’Ghacham’s Murals

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      Art
      Photography

      #found photographs
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art

      April 13, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Confinamiento” (2019), Cheste, Valencia, Spain. All images © Mohamed L’Ghacham, shared with permission
      Whether depicting a birthday party or a child’s first steps, the expressive murals by Mohamed L’Ghacham (previously) enlarge sincere, unposed moments into monumental celebrations of everyday life. The Moroccan artist recreates vintage photographs as wall-sized artworks in locations across Europe that portray a woman readying for bed or the chaotic minutes before a family portrait at a massive scale.
      L’Ghacham tells Colossal that his relationship to the original images has evolved in recent years from a simple juxtaposition of the site and the quiet, unassuming beauty of the domestic scenes to a more complex understanding. “Those first murals were done in abandoned, demolished places or simply on the outskirts of cities and public spaces. The impact of seeing an image of this type painted with a technique closer to classical painting than graffiti in such spaces created a concept by itself for me,” he says.
      Today, the Barcelona-based artist sources reference photographs and home videos from neighbors and city archives to connect more directly with the local culture. While his style is unchanged—L’Ghacham continues to use loose brushstrokes and layers of muted tones to achieve the vintage aesthetic—the streetside works reflect those living nearby. “I think (the murals) can be very symbolic and that many people can feel represented even if they are not necessarily the protagonists portrayed,” he says. “Until now my intention was to pay tribute and give visibility to situations that we all live in and that maybe sometimes we find it hard to value.”
      Starting next month, L’Ghacham will be traveling around Europe for a few projects and has a solo exhibition at PDP Gallery slated for this summer, which will be comprised of the smaller paintings he’s been sharing on Instagram.

      “Pillando el globo” (2019), Mataró, Spain. Done in collaboration with Ivan Floro
      “Matança do porco” (2019), Figueiró Dos Vinhos, Portugal
      “Indoor II” (2019), Schiedam, Netherlands
      “Dormitorio III” (2019), Mantova, Italy
      “La Fondue” (2019), Crans-montana, Switzerland
      “Family portrait” (2020), Wevelgem, Belgium
      “El dormitorio de Aina” (2020), Torrellas, Spain

      #found photographs
      #murals
      #public art
      #street art

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      The Wound: JR’s New Anamorphic Artwork Appears to Carve Out the Facade of Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi

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      Art

      #anamorphosis
      #black and white
      #installation
      #public art
      #street art
      #trompe l’oeil

      March 23, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “La Ferita” (2021), 28 x 33 meters, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence. Image courtesy of Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, shared with permission
      French artist JR unveiled an imposing artwork at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence last week that mimics a massive gash in the institution’s Renaissance-era facade. Spanning 28 x 33 meters, “La Ferita,” or “The Wound,” is an anamorphic collage that appears to reveal the iconic artworks housed inside the building, in addition to a stately courtyard colonnade, exhibition hall, and library. Exposing different parts of the interior as the viewer shifts position, the artwork is in response to the lack of accessibility at cultural institutions since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
      Completed alongside a team of 11 in two months, the site-specific piece was constructed 30 centimeters in front of the 15th Century ashlar facade with a metal structure and 80 panels of Dibond aluminum. It features JR’s signature photographic style—similar projects were installed at Williamsburg’s Domino Park, the Louvre, and the U.S./Mexico border—and includes a mix of real and imagined elements, including black-and-white renderings of Botticelli’s “Primavera” and “Birth of Venus” and Giambologna’s “The Rape of the Sabine Women,” in addition to prominent spaces like the Istituto Nazionale di Studi sul Rinascimento.
      “The Wound” is layered further with references to art history, from its use of the trompe l’oeil technique that grew in popularity in the 1500s to its evocation of ruinism, an 18th Century style that portrayed ancient architecture “as testimonials to a glorious past in a dramatic reflection on the fate of mankind,” a release says, noting that Palazzo Strozzi will not be preserving the piece beyond its initial construction.
      Follow JR’s monumental works on Instagram, and shop lithographs and books chronicling his projects on his site.

      #anamorphosis
      #black and white
      #installation
      #public art
      #street art
      #trompe l’oeil

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      A Flurry of Feathers and Leaves Surround Spirited Birds in Fio Silva’s Vivid Murals

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      Art

      #birds
      #flowers
      #mural
      #public art
      #street art

      March 5, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      Castelar, Buenos Aires. All images @ Fio Silva, shared with permission
      Fio Silva tucks clusters of oversized birds and botanicals into otherwise stark urban spaces, creating striking murals awash in puffs of feathers, petals, and leaves. The Buenos Aires-based artist focuses largely on movement, a thread that runs through both the vivid renderings of winged subjects as they appear to take flight or perch for just a moment. “It was that lack of stillness through work and searching for walls to paint that I found meaning in my time,” Silva tells Colossal.
      When working in color, the artist starts with blues, yellows, and reds before expanding the palette based on the “moods and to intensify, in some way, what I want to convey, if it is something rather clear, bright, or something… more subdued or desolate,” Silva says. “When I paint, I try to convey a certain force, that by seeing it or sharing it I can move someone, in whatever way.”
      Silva plans to complete a few murals in Argentina during the next few months and will travel to Europe during the summer, with an exhibition of smaller paintings slated for October in Paris. Keep up with the artist’s monumental public works on Instagram.

      Olivos, Buenos Aires
      General Roca, Rio Negro
      Olivos, Buenos Aires
      Left: Berlin, Germany. Right: Belsh, Albania
      General Roca, Rio Negro
      Patos, Albania
      Patos, Albania

      #birds
      #flowers
      #mural
      #public art
      #street art

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      Banksy Creates Bob Ross-Dubbed Process Video of New Work Depicting Oscar Wilde Escaping Prison

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      Art

      #humor
      #Oscar Wilde
      #street art
      #video

      March 4, 2021
      Christopher Jobson

      [embedded content]
      What begins as a soft-spoken clip of America’s most iconic TV painting instructor, Bob Ross from his Joy of Painting show, suddenly shifts into a frenetic and extremely rare behind-the-scenes video of Banksy creating his latest work in Reading, Berkshire. Titled “Create Escape,” the clip was just posted to the artist’s social media channels and depicts the real-time creation of a stenciled artwork of a prisoner escaping the high, red brick walls of HM Prison Reading (formerly known as Reading Gaol). Unlike the bright studio lights that illuminated Ross’s bucolic landscapes, “Create Escape” captures the frantic yet precise execution of a work done in near darkness by an artist completely governed by police response time.
      The expansive and unblemished prison wall was a daring and perfect spot for a Banksy piece. It’s best known for its most famous inmate: Oscar Wilde served two years in the prison from 1895-1897 for the charge of “gross indecency” for being gay. The work is clearly a tribute to the poet, as the escape mechanism appears to be a long strand of paper emerging from a typewriter in place of the usual bed sheets. Wilde recounted aspects of his imprisonment in the poem “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” which centers largely on the execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge.

      Still from “Create Escape”
      Still from “Create Escape”
      Still from “Create Escape”
      Still from “Create Escape”

      #humor
      #Oscar Wilde
      #street art
      #video

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      Art and Activism Collide Throughout Montréal in Playful Street Interventions by Roadsworth

      by

      
      Art

      #activism
      #animals
      #Montréal
      #public art
      #site-specific
      #street art

      February 9, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      All images © Roadsworth, shared with permission
      Crosswalks become perches and bike lanes morph into a monkey’s ropes in Roadsworth’s lively street interventions. For decades, the Montréal-based artist (previously) has been altering sidewalks, alleyways, and other public spots with largely nature-based projects that are informed by social issues and environmental crises. Whether a trippy koi pond or a simple yellow spider, the additions transform otherwise drab streets into unexpected commentary.
      In recent years, Roadsworth has created large-scale projects for a variety of organizations, including revitalizing a basketball court for a social housing complex and another for Amnesty International that comments on the horrors of the refugee crisis. Beyond commissions, he continues guerilla street art tactics, installing oversized birds, insects, and other animals that often are overlooked.
      The artist tells Colossal that these works reflect his “philosophy in regards to public art/street art which implies a questioning of urban space in general and an entreaty to rethink a city that is more conducive to walking/cycling and less dominated by cars, etc. The depiction of various animals is a playful way of reinventing the notion of urban space.”
      Follow Roadsworth on Instagram to keep up with his site-specific works that merge art and activism.

      “Refugee Crisis” (2016)

      “Darling Foundry Koi Pond” (2020)
      Right: “Tree Lace” (2019)
      Detail of “Refugee Crisis” (2016)

      “Nurture vs Nature” (2018)

      #activism
      #animals
      #Montréal
      #public art
      #site-specific
      #street art

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      A Short Film Chronicles Mural Fest Kosovo, Void Projects’ Initiative to Infuse a War-Torn City with Public Art

      by

      
      Art

      #Kosovo
      #mural
      #public art
      #short film
      #street art
      #video

      January 20, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      
      “At that time it wasn’t easy for me to be in the public with my camera because the country was very sensitive to reporters like me,” photojournalist Hazir Reka tells a group of muralists. “Being in the public with a camera was no different to being in public with a weapon because of how much it could affect reality.” Reka’s referring to a tumultuous time in Kosovo’s history when the region was in the midst of war, an experience he shares with the artists who traveled to the region in September 2020 for Mural Fest Kosovo.
      Organized by the art collective Void Projects (previously), which is helmed by Axel Void, the initiative sought to revitalize the public spaces within Ferizaj, a small city desolated by war. Fifteen international muralists—the list includesAruallan, Emilio Cerezo, Doa Oa, Alba Fabre, Maria Jose Gallardo, and Zane Prater—gathered for the project that U.K.-based filmmaker Doug Gillen documents in a new short film.
      Throughout “Change,” Gillen follows ten of the artists as they immerse themselves in local life and engage with the city’s youngest residents through workshops and school initiatives that directly involved the children and teens in the creative process. Their resulting artworks are a reflection of these interactions and large-scale depictions of the area’s ecology, citizens, and cultural milieu. While each is distinct in aesthetic—Aruallan and Void produced a photorealistic rendering of an 11-year-old boy they met on the street, while Fabre’s ethereal mural depicts an unknown woman lying in the water in traditional clothing, for example—they’re all infused with themes surrounding the city’s unique environment and more universal understandings of shared humanity.
      “The greater this connection, the more effective the work. Exploring the human stories of Ferizaj in this way, at this very unique moment in time, felt like an important opportunity to document meaningfully,” Gillen said.
      Watch the full film above to dive further into Kosovo’s history, and see all of the murals and glimpses into the artists’ experiences collaborating with Ferizaj residents on Void Projects’ Instagram.

      by Aruallan and Axel Void
      by Emilio Cerezo
      by Zane Prater
      by Alba Fabre
      by Doa Oa
      by Maria Jose Gallardo

      #Kosovo
      #mural
      #public art
      #short film
      #street art
      #video

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      A Tiled Wave Ripples Across Olafur Eliasson’s New Installation in Downtown Chicago

      by

      
      Art

      #Chicago
      #installation
      #pattern
      #public art
      #street art
      #waves

      January 19, 2021
      Grace Ebert

      “Atmospheric wave wall” (2021), 30 x 60 feet. All images courtesy of CNL Projects, shared with permission
      Last week, artist Olafur Eliasson (previously) unveiled a massive, wave-like artwork that mimics the rippled surfaces of the Chicago River and Lake Michigan. Comprised of 1,963 curved tiles, “Atmospheric wave wall” sits between the two bodies of water at Willis Tower and shifts in appearance based on the sunlight, time of year, and position of the viewer. It’s the Danish-Icelandic artist’s first public project, which was curated by CNL Projects and commissioned by EQ Office, in Chicago.
      Speckled with orange pieces, the blue-and-green motif is constructed with powder-coated steel and based on Penrose tiling, a design with fivefold symmetry, which fills the undulating border. At night, a light shines through the street-side work, emitting a glow through the tile seams and further altering the appearance of the textured facade. Eliasson says about the work:
      Inspired by the unpredictable weather that I witnessed stirring up the surface of Lake Michigan, ‘Atmospheric wave wall’ appears to change according to your position and to the time of day and year. What we see depends on our point of view: understanding this is an important step toward realizing that we can change reality.
      Follow Eliasson’s latest projects on his studio’s site and Instagram.

      

      #Chicago
      #installation
      #pattern
      #public art
      #street art
      #waves

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