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The New Contemporary Art Magazine
Using biodegradable paint, Saype creates murals across grass and dirt, seen best far above the ground. Working on thousands of square feet, the artist is able to create scenes in which characters explore humanity’s relationship with the earth. A recent work, below, is perhaps the most vivid example of this to date.
Nevercrew, comprised of Pablo Togni and Christian Rebecch, is known for murals gracing public walls across the world. Yet, in the gallery work of the duo, seen recently in the show “Incidence” at GCA Gallery in Paris, offers a more intimate view of their socially and globally conscious work. The paintings and sculptures in “Incidence” offer a look at destruction waged against the environment.
Whether on his murals or in his acrylic paintings, Venezuelan artist Koz Dos implements several approaches into each of his portraits, including geometric abstractions, classical realism, and otherworldly distortions. The artist emerged out of the graffiti scene in Caracas, the country's largest city. His portraits on massive structures carry fine detailing, packed into the ornamental and natural elements of his pieces.
Grip Face’s graphical, object-based art has appeared in museums and galleries and on walls and everyday objects across the globe. The artist works with both familiar and abstract imagery in his pieces, which take notes from comic book art and whatever structure they’re painted on. Much of the work, event in its most unsettling alterations of its human subjects, is teeming with humor.
Greece-based artist Wild Drawing has a knack for creating absorbing, off-kilter murals on multiple surfaces. He also tends to use otherwise nondescript elements of structures and recontextualizes them, matching hues and creating depth otherwise not present on his enormous canvases. The artist often implements cerebral themes, offering universal, approachable work on walls across the world.
The murals of Tamara Djurovic, also known as Hyuro, don’t just work with the unique features of a wall: Each integrates its makeshift canvas for site-specific narratives. Her works are often intimate scenes, moving between interpersonal tension and solitary whimsy.
Puerto Rico-born muralist Bik Ismo is known for, among other imagery, crafting chrome figures and objects on walls across the world. Playing with “reflective” surfaces and light, the artist is able to create startling illusions. This sensibility has brought the artist’s hand to recent projects in Taiwan, Belgium, New Zealand, and Dubai.
Venice-based artist Manuel Di Rita, who works under the moniker Peeta, creates illusionary paintings that create new dimensions out of the walls and canvases they inhabit. Whether he’s using spraypaint, oils, or or acrylic latex house paint on wood panels in the jungle, the artist is able to play with the existing architecture and perspectives to create entirely new ones. At times, he works with the geometric art of Joys to create playful collaborations in dynamic dialogue.
In a new show at Itinerrance Gallery in Paris, Inti offers a new collection of works on canvas and installations that take influence from his massive murals across the world. The artist’s surreal scenes combine textures and iconography from cultures and histories from across the globe. The show runs through March 17 at the gallery.
(A collaboration with Celeste Byers) Aaron Glasson’s murals, though surreal and vibrant in an otherworldly sense, are firmly grounded in reality, often depicting real people and their personal journeys. The artist, born in New Zealand and living in the U.S., crafts murals across the world, in addition to work in illustration and gallery paintings. He cites his themes as “relationship to the natural environment, community empowerment and education, indigenous knowledge, the subconscious, and the unseen.” Several of his recent murals are collaborations with artist Celeste Byers.
Smithe’s visceral illustrations disassemble and mechanize the human head, exploring both psychological ideas and how the body can be manipulated. Whether it’s on a screen or adorning a massive wall, his works warrant extended contemplation. The artist often offers process images on his Instagram account.
Whether on a wall or canvas, you can feel the influences of pop, graffiti culture, advertising, and both high- and low-brow art in James Reka’s work. The artist maintains both a mural and gallery practice in this sensibility, presenting the figurative in both vibrant and unexpected ways. Reka was last mentioned on HiFructose.com here, and he was featured in Hi-Fructose print publication in Vol. 17.
Mexico City artist Mazatl crafts murals that both implement and emulate the artist's talents in woodcut imagery. In frequent collaborations with fellow mural and graphic artists like Kill Joy, the artist’s distinct use of blacks and perspective make for eye-popping efforts across unexpected spots. The above mural, in Cholula, Puebla, is one of the artists’ most recent pieces.
The “street interventions” of Belgium-based stencil artist Jaune put sanitation workers in strange, often humorous situations on walls across the world, using the contours and features of each site for inspiration. For many, the stencil work recalls the public work of practitioners like Banksy and Blew le Rat. His specific usage of sanitation workers, however, comes from personal experience.
Nemo's crafts illustrations and murals with vague, sometimes grotesque characters often shown in reflection or anguish. When the viewer looks past the unsettling circumstances of these drawings and paintings, they may find something relatable in the emotions evoked in each piece. Just like the name of the artist, the works serve multiple functions.
Vitaly Tsarenkov takes visual cues from 8-bit console games and early 3D animation yet crafts paintings on canvas, murals, and sculptures. The Russian artist transitioned from primarily graffiti work under the moniker SY to major gallery shows and crafting murals for festivals across the world. The artist's works are held in private collections in France, Morocco, Russia, and beyond. The below works are acrylic paintings.
French pair Ella & Pitr once again tackle a topical social issue in their latest major mural. At more than 150 feet high, “Le Naufrage de Bienvenu (The Sinking of Welcome)” tells of a refugee seeking passage between the mountains on either side of Piney's dam in the Valley of the Gier in Loire. Ella & Pitr were last featured on HiFructose.com when they created the world's largest mural.
Spanish artist Liqen somehow moves between the paper and the public wall without compromising his intricate, absorbing linework. His wild creations often carry surreal sensibilities and a hidden treasure in every corner. The artist's work tends to be influenced by an early passion in nature, and in specific, the diversity of species and sights it provides.
John Horton; photo: @streetartnomad The festival Wide Open Walls returned in Sacramento this month, and with it, came 40 local, national, and international artists who crafted murals across the city. This year's artists included Askew One, Bryan Valenzuela, Jake Castro, Lora Zombie, Maren Conrad, Nosego, Molly-Devlin, Trav, Stephanie Taylor, and others. See some examples of works from this year above and below.
Case Maclaim is the moniker of German artist Andres Von Chrzanowski, a muralist known as a co-founder of the Maclaim Group, a troupe known for using spray paint to combine photorealism and surrealism on public walls. In particular, the artist is known as one to “embrace the power of movement through the universality of hands.”
Christopher Konecki’s vibrant paintings, sculptures, and murals distort and create surreal artifacts out of urban landscapes. This vibrant, yet somewhat bleak observations recall work from Jeff Gillette and Masakatsu Sashie. (Also, Josh Keyes, who was recently featured here on the blog, carried similar visual themes in his own early work.)
From small canvases to enormous walls, the works of Adele Renault often contain one of two things: pigeons or people. In vibrant, vivid detail, these beings are captured and isolated on every scale. The artist was raised on the Belgian Ardennes and is based in Amsterdam, but her works appear on structures around the globe.
Colombian artist GLeo covers walls across the world with her vibrant murals, with figures often adorned with masks and other surreal embellishments. She emerged as a popular muralist in her native South America, but she now brings these homegrown influences to spots everywhere. Much of her mural work is accomplished with brushstrokes, offering absorbing textures.
Mathieu Connery, the alias of Frederic Chabot, creates ground paintings across Canada that uses geometric forms and the natural textures of the space to create illusions. This vibrant works began as a project at the Montréal MURAL Festival on Boulevard Saint-Laurent. Connery’s been creating murals on walls for years, but has just recently become known specifically for his talents displayed on sidewalks, streets, and other walkable surfaces.
French artist Nicolas Barrome’s wild, cartoonish scenes play with texture and expectation. He does this both on the canvas and on walls, with each piece tethered by Barrome’s rendering of cutesy characters and objects alongside darker elements. In a statement, the artist’s swirling influences are given some context.
Australia-born muralist Smug One uses walls and structures across the world as canvases for his vivid portraits. Whether it’s his own family members, friends, or pop culture figures, Smug subverts the typical texture and lighting of mural art with his figurative pieces. The artist moved to the U.K. and settled in Scotland a few years back.
Whether it’s on a canvas or an urban wall, Drew Merritt crafts harrowing portraits that are both intimate and elusive, utilizing nondescript backdrops. As vague as some of Merritt’s narratives may seem, each carries an earnest humanity. The artist was last featured on HiFructose.com here, and according to a statement, “has resolved to defy categorization.”
Etnik’s latest mural is a swirling collection of hues and geometric shapes, towering above an Italian street as part of the Without Frontiers Project. Etnik emerged as a graffiti-slinging street artist in the vibrant early '90s, before integrating all facets of his into a versatile practices of canvas, sculpture, installations, and massive mural work into a holistic approach. The Italian-Swedish artist’s real name is Alessandro Battisti, and he’s currently based in Turin, Italy. The artist last appeared on HiFructose.com here.
Hula is the moniker of artist Sean Yoro, who creates massive, delicate murals above waterways and alongside abandoned structures. The self-taught painter was raised in Oahu, where he engaged with the ocean as a surfer before embarking on a path in street art and tattooing. Today, he creates his massive figures in oil paint and creates pieces across the world.
Italian artist