Menu
The New Contemporary Art Magazine

Diving into the Mind-Bending Murals of Astro

French artist Astro takes flat urban surfaces and creates passageways into the void. Using shadows and light, calligraphy-inspired designs and winding curves, the artist’s optical illusions are made for public consumption. And even when they’re not so obvious to some passers-by and cars on a quick route to work, Astro has many of us looking at the big picture.

French artist Astro takes flat urban surfaces and creates passageways into the void. Using shadows and light, calligraphy-inspired designs and winding curves, the artist’s optical illusions are made for public consumption. And even when they’re not so obvious to some passers-by and cars on a quick route to work, Astro has many of us looking at the big picture.





In Portugal, Astro’s mural offers an entry point into the darkness, just feet away from the viewer. Elsewhere, traffic travels alongside an endless abyss without even knowing it. These works range from a scalable wall to the side of a towering residential complex. All offer a chance for anyone to travel outside reality, if only for the second it takes to capture the moment. Astro cites the work of Hans Hartung, Victor Vasarely, and Alphonse Mucha as major influences.




Astro is also one-half of the duo behind the CelloGraff, which implements cellophane as a disposable wall to tag without fear of the authorities. He developed the technique with fellow street artist Kanos.

The artist also takes his craft indoors, with the occasional work on canvas. Even these works retain the mind-bending quality of his public art projects. Follow all of the artist’s work on Instagram.

Meta
Share
Facebook
Reddit
Pinterest
Email
Related Articles
A blend of Greco-Roman iconography and modern-day graphic design, LA-based duo Cyrcle's latest work is a prime example of the ways images get recycled, re-contextualized and repeated in contemporary culture. Like the philosopher Guy Debord famously predicted in the 1960s, our experiences are mediated through images, and almost everything in mass culture has become an image of an image of an image. Not to get too far off track, Cyrcle's new mural in Malmö, Sweden plays with this notion of pastiche.
Road trips, the first sunsets (and sunrises) of the fall, a few beers, abandoned houses and a group of artists — that pretty much sums up the flurry of activity that took place at Salton Sea recently. The "accidental" lake (engineers originally dug an area for faster irrigation) in the Colorado Desert in Southern California was the setting for friends Eddie Colla, 2wenty, Nite Owl and Caratoes, who all made their mark there with signature work.
There’s both an elegance and jarring quality in the otherworldly creations of Caratoes. The artist shares these disfigured characters in both murals and gallery works, moving between monochromatic and vibrant hues. The artist had a recent installation at Superchief Gallery’s Miami location during Miami Art Week.

The London Police

When the first-ever END-to-END festival recently landed in Charlotte, N.C., it added nearly two-dozen murals to the 76-acre Camp North End, which began its existence as a Model T factory and is a now a burgeoning mixed-use site with industrial structures in-tact. Among the artists: The London Police (last featured on HiFructose.com here), Fabian Williams, James Moore (last featured here), Hnin Nie (last featured here), and several others.

Subscribe to the Hi-Fructose Mailing List