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Art

Floating Worlds Drift By in Murals by Cinta Vidal

In Hong Kong. All images © Cinta Vidal, shared with permission

For Cinta Vidal, everything depends on how you look at it. The Barcelona-based artist is known for her gravity-defying projects that manipulate architecture and household objects to create inverted environments dissimilar to daily life. Like her smaller-scale inverted works, Vidal’s murals are concerned with human subjectivity and feature both peculiarly arranged architecture and objects like books, chairs, and even a canoe floating through the air. They cover walls throughout Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Barcelona, among other cities around the world.

Whether it be a young girl seated on an oversized globe or a man peering over a balcony that’s tipped at a 90 degree angle, the works consider how perspectives are informed by a subject’s position.

Everyone has their own view on the world, and my work is my way of expressing this idea: it’s impossible to view something from every perspective at the same time. There’s always a choice, a perception. In my work there also lies a desire to take things out of context, releasing them into the air and, by doing so, giving them new value.

The artist tells Colossal that once she chooses a location to paint a mural, she studies the areas nearby. Vidal intends each project to become part of the existing environment, often prompting her utilize the color already on the building’s surface as her background. “Paint(ing) a mural is about interact(ing) with the wall and everything that surrounds it,” she writes. To get the latest on the artist’s creations, follow her on Instagram.

International University Barcelona.

“Refuge”

At the Honolulu Museum of Art

At a public library in Cardedeu

“Floating Napa” in Napa Valley, California

In Calgary

“Backstage” in Long Beach

“Viewpoints” for Thinkspace in Los Angeles

Art

Color-Blocked Animals and Geometric Shapes Transform Neglected Home in Installation by Okuda San Miguel

All images © Justkids, shared with permission

Spanish street artist Okuda San Miguel is bringing vibrancy once again to a formerly untended area of Fort Smith, Arkansas. His recent project, “The Rainbow Embassy,” was curated by global creative house Justkids for the Unexpected, an effort to revitalize dilapidated areas in Arkansas through a series of immersive arts initiatives. For the installation, Okuda painted a neglected house that occupied a lot adjacent to Darby Junior High School with a series of multi-colored geometric shapes and lines. The structure even has two faces resembling animals painted on its sides.

“This project gave me the possibility to expand on my previous work, adding in more architectonic dimension and completing my vision of mythical animals,” Okuda says. He wants his work to bring “a touch of imagination and play into the daily lives of the neighboring community and students and Darby Junior High, as they will get to enjoy the installation and watch as it evolves through the seasons.”

Okuda is known for his metamorphic projects, including his work on churches in Morocco and Spain and on a 19th-century French castle. If you’re in Fort Smith, head downtown to check out the permanent installation. Otherwise, find more of the artist’s vibrant transformations on Instagram.

Art

New Book Collects ROA’s Black-and-White Creatures in Photographs from Around the World

All photographs © ROA, shared with permission. Atlanta, Georgia, United States

Those unable to experience the black-and-white murals of Belgian artist ROA (previously) in person can admire photographs of his works in the recently published Codex. Released by Lannoo Publishers, the 352-page book contains four chapters centered on Eurasia, Africa, America, and Oceania, regions where ROA’s depictions of local animals blanket building walls. The photographs portray a snake wound around itself, six different species perched on vertical ledges, and an alligator on its back with its tail scaling a fire escape.

ROA works directly on the building, foregoing sketches and projections, and uses the architecture to inform the ways he paints birds, rodents, and other native creatures. Captivated by anatomy, the artist attempts to animate his paintings, giving energy and life to species often disregarded by humans. “Exploration of nature, more specifically of the animal world, can lead to increased empathy,” he says. “It teaches you something substantial about how one should live a good life.” The monochromatic murals’ scale often makes animals larger than their real-life bodies, securing and emboldening their monumental presence.

Codex, which is available now, also incorporates writing from RJ Rushmore, Lucy R. Lippard, Johan Braeckman, Gwenny Cooman, Robert R. Williams, and Kathy De Nève.

Johannesburg, South Africa

Puerto Rico

Vardø, Norway

São Paulo, Brazil

Perth, Australia

Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

Art

Towering Holographic Dinosaurs Stalk the Streets of Paris in Projections by Julien Nonnon

All photographs (c) Julien Nonnon, shared with permission

A T-Rex is inhabiting the streets of Paris. Artist Julien Nonnon has given life to extinct creatures in his latest work, “Prehistoric Safari,” by using video-mapping technology to project images of the dinosaurs in the Jardin d’Acclimatation, a long-established Parisian amusement park. Nonnon says the digital art form, which is at the intersection of photography, video, architecture and scenography, has allowed him to produce 17 3D-projections of species that occupied the Cretaceous period. A T-Rex flaunting its yellow eyes and a triceratops brandishing green horns appear at nightfall on building sides in holographic form.

The artist tells Colossal that this project is centered on pop culture and “was inspired by the adventure books of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Jules Verne and Michael Crichton, as well as Steven Spielberg’s movies.” In addition to the 3D-projections, Nonnon also directed a mini film titled “Dino Escape,” which depicts a dinosaur invasion of Paris’s streets and includes an interactive quest for audience members to retrieve a T-Rex egg and bring it to present day.

The show runs through January 5. Find more of Nonnon’s work on Instagram. (via Journal du Design)

Art Design

A Traffic Jam of Sand Cars by Leandro Erlich is Blocking Miami Beach

All photographs © Greg Lotus

There’s a traffic jam on Miami Beach thanks to Leandro Erlich (previously). Erlich’s installation, titled “Order of Importance,” is an effort to put conversations surrounding climate change front and center. Commissioned by the city of Miami Beach and curated by Ximena Caminos and Brandi Reddick, the installation features 66 life-sized cars and trucks erected on the beach at Lincoln Road. Made of sand, the vehicles blend in with the surrounding beach and highlight the temporary nature of their construction. They will be allowed to deteriorate until the exhibition closes December 15.

“The climate crisis has become an objective problem that requires immediate solutions,” Erlich says. “As an artist, I am in a constant struggle to make people aware of this reality, in particular, the idea that we cannot shrink away from our responsibilities to protect the planet.”

Caminos added that the exhibit, “like an image from a contemporary Pompeii or a future relic, also alludes to our fragile position in the large universal canvas. It interacts with the climate crisis facing the world, particularly the rising sea level.”

Erlich, who resides in Buenos Aires and Montevideo, is known for combining architecture, sculpture, and theater to create surreal works that alter traditional conceptions of natural environments. “Order of Importance” is his largest installation to date. You can find more of his work on Instagram and his site.

 

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Illustration

Good Clean Fun: Dianna Wood Wields a Power Washer to Blast Birds, Butterflies, and Flowers onto Dirty Driveways

Since receiving a power washer for her birthday this fall, Dianna Wood has turned her driveway, and those of her lucky neighbors, into works of art. Similar to the reductive processes of printmaking and scratchboard art, Wood removes areas of her “canvas” to reveal lighter tones in the form of cardinals, dogwood blossoms, butterflies, and other delicate flora and fauna. On her blog, Wood explains that she deftly adjusts the distance and angle of the power washer nozzle in relation to the cement to create the nuanced illustrations. The hobbyist artist and lifelong creative has garnered widespread attention for her just-for-fun street art. Those interested in keeping up with future projects can follow Wood on Facebook. (via My Modern Met)

Art

A Subversive Village of Urban Miniatures Covered in Graffiti and Tiny Murals

Antony H Haylock, 2019. Images courtesy of Emily Paxton

Photographer Emily Paxton and artist Pam Glew of PaxtonGlew have curated an exhibition of tiny houses, stores, and train cars that is unlike your typical model village. Instead of pristine new buildings, each model is hand-painted with graffiti and colorful murals. Together the miniatures form a well-worn city from the collective imagination of over 40 urban contemporary artists from around the world.

Titled Urban Miniatures, the pop-up opened on November 23, 2019 as a part of the Artists Open Houses Christmas Festival in Brighton, England. The roster of artists tapped to contribute include train-writers, muralists, designers, and painters, most of whom typically work at a much larger scale. From an optical illusion mural painted on a mini hotel by Peeta (previously), to architectural jewelry by Tiny Scenic, the scale of each piece in the exhibition forces the viewer to look more closely and appreciate the details. That level of intimacy is not always possible when a piece is ten stories tall or speeding down a track.

For those able to visit Brighton, Urban Miniatures is scheduled to run through December 22, 2019. The curators are also offering miniature-themed workshops for those who visit the gallery space. Limited edition prints, models, and other art gifts are also available via their online store. For more information, follow @paxtonglew on Instagram.

DONK, 2019

Peeta, 2019

Ange Bell, 2019

Remi Rough, 2019

Tiny Scenic, 2019

Tiny Scenic, 2019

Eelus, 2019

Mark McClure, 2019

Shuby, 2019