3d street art

More Stunning Examples of 3D Street Art

December 5, 2014 By Fred Mitchell Leave a Comment

3D street art, also known as anamorphic pavement art, is a technique of painting a portion of pavement, or floor, in indoors cases, in such a way that, viewed from a specific angle it offers a perspective that makes the two-dimensional painting appear as being a three-dimensional object. While the technique itself has a long history, dating from the Renaissance and is usually behind the sort of pictures that appear to “follow you around the room”, its combination with urban street art is quite recent, being developed since around the 1980s through a graffiti and stencils revolution of sorts.

It has exploded, however, in recent years and has now become a global cultural phenomenon. While one doesn’t find this art so much in a school workshop or in the pages of a book or conventional journal, but rather on a blog or a tumblr page, being, by definition, unconventional, there are numerous prints that made the news or the subject of one documentary or another.

Winter is here and it’s probably not the best time to find any amazing 3D street paintings in your nearby locations, underneath all that snow, so here are 6 more stunning examples of 3D street art worth seeing.

1. The Orange Raft

One of the main draws of 3D street art has been, since its beginning, the ability to participate in the installation. It’s probably not a very good idea, when visiting a fine art museum or a gallery, to shake the hands of a statue or to lean on a painting, in an attempt to get a fun photo. But when it comes to this raft that is about to plunge into the swordfish-inhabited waters below, climbing on seems like an awesome idea.

2. Climbing Snail

Through their very nature, anamorphic paintings seem to either rise or plunge from the flat wall they are actually drawn on, but this New York piece by Julian Beever is taking it to a whole new level, with the paint spreading on the bench as well, offering a powerful illusion that the snail is freestanding and the presence of the shadow makes it so much more realistic.

3. Self-portrait

You don’t see a lot of self-portraits done in 3D street art form and for obvious reasons, but this piece by the famous Julian Beever, also placed in NYC, is an example of cool creativity that makes you wonder whether there can be a collaboration between the chalk-drawn version of Julian and flesh-and-bone one, as they seem to both be quite interested in street arts and even enjoy the same beer brand.

4. Clear-sky Chasm

Who says that one has to walk the streets of a Western cultural center such as London, Berlin, Seattle or Chicago to see a wonderful 3-d street art concept? You know that nightmare you sometimes have in which the pavement is suddenly giving way underneath your feet and you find yourself free-falling from hundreds of ft high, into the unknown? Well, you’re going to have it more often after seeing this piece from China. There is some relief and beauty, however, in the fact that it’s not a dark or fiery pit that opens up under the street, but a bright blue sky, giving a surreal and optimistic view of the underworld.

5. Bridge over 2D water

If you ever find yourself at the mall and the floor caves, leaving a clear brook behind, make sure to find a nearby log that can be used as make-shift bridge over the newly-formed peril. This simple, yet effective piece is part of a series of 3D paintings that are going on the road in 2014 and 2015, as an alternative festival, touring not fewer than 12 malls across Germany and infusing the man-made mall environment with a little bit of forest-chic.

6. The Other Side of Art

As a bonus and a way of further showing how painstakingly precise artists must be to create the incredible illusions offered by 3D street art, here is the above snail piece seen from a an angle just a few degrees off from the “perfect one”. Seeing it from across the street would mean that you probably didn’t even realise the wallpaper was a snail.

5 Awesome 3D Street Art Masterpieces in 2014

November 12, 2014 By Fred Mitchell Leave a Comment

Although wall paintings are literally the earliest accounts in the history of visual arts in human history, as well as some of the most famous, from cave paintings to Roman mosaics to Renaissance murals and everything in between, street art is still a relatively new phenomenon and, due to its often informal and even illegal nature, a still controversial one. Despite this, even traditionally conservative art institutions have become more perceptive to the goings-on of the sort of cultural form that takes place not so much inside the walls of a museum, but on them. Artists like Banksy and graffiti scenes like the ones in Berlin, Paris, San Francisco, New York, Chicago or Los Angeles are becoming household names and are beginning to be appreciated for their worth of demystifying art by bringing it, quite literally, from the center to the streets, doing away with the once pretentious public in favour of an urban, eclectic, yet deserving, audience.

Nonetheless, the concept of street art is taken even further, to the next level with 3D street art, a form that uses optic illusion and amazing street-painting to transform the urban environment in even the most obscure locations. Here are 5 examples of 3D street art that make the pavement come to life and which will swoon you off your feet.

1. The Lost Canals of Deventer

A giant work commissioned by The KunstLab Deventer at the September GedempteGrachten Festival in Deventer, Netherlands, which the people at the blog www.3d-streetpainting.eu managed to craft in a way that immediately blends with the local motif of Dutch canals coming alive with an utopia consisting of quasi-Lovecraftian motifs. The opening of the gates of a watery hell filled with Ancient Ones among the café’s terrace and bike rack is a superb juxtaposition of one of 3-D street art’s main hooks, the mingling of the impossible and the mundane.

2. Hans Christian Andersen Festival

A local pride vibe has clearly influenced every step of this awesome piece of work, painted in Odense, Denmark’s third largest city. The birthplace of legendary children’s righter Hand Christian Anderson, of The Little Mermaid, The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor’s New Clothes fame, Odense clearly made 3D street art its own, with this depiction of the life-filled underwater dwelling of the eponymous Little Mermaid.

3. Sustain Your Excellence

Another Dutch example, this is an indoor gallery created at the Erasmus University of Rotterdam for the EFR Business Week stand which gradually became a magnet for art amateurs. With its outer limit climbing the surrounding walls, it has as opposite end a semi-circular couch that serves best as observation point for this installation called “Sustain Your Excellence”. Within a futuristic setting that seems to drawn inspiration from both Back to the Future’s famous hoverboard and The Jetsons’ retro-futuristic ways of transportation, the Fritz Lang aesthetics of the high rises are levelled with the office floor.

4. Sunken Playground

Using the form to bring about further debate on the fight on what man-made climate change brings about, The Swedish Green Environmental Party (Miljöpartiet de Gröna) has commissioned these artists to step away from the canvas and tour this powerful fine work around Stockholm, Göteborg, and Malmö, Sweden’s largest three cities. The political, ideologically-heavy work brings the desired topic forward by confronting passers-by with the effects of global warming visible during their daily routine, and not just in a North Pole documentary or the occasional news.

5. 3D Streetpainting XL

Just because VSK Beurs is “the most important exhibition for heating, climate control and sanitary systems in the Benelux area” it doesn’t mean it actually needs to be as boring as it promises. And indeed, at least at this stand, it managed to avoid that and bring a bit of the NYC cool home by hosting this 3D street art, where the street is left outside in favour of M.C. Escher-influenced 2+1 levels house plan that manages to create a comfortable oasis in the middle of the expo area.

20 Examples of Incredible Street Art

April 10, 2014 By Fred Mitchell Leave a Comment

It’s amusing how certain people find three lines on canvas art, but the beautiful murals and 3D masterpieces that you can find on the street are considered acts of vandalism. Street art is all about self-expression, opening one’s eyes to the problems of the world, and provoking reactions from people that interact with the urban landscape. The great thing about it is that it can take many forms. From spray paint on buildings, to urban sculptures or installations, the sky is the limit. Here are some of the most fascinating examples of 3D street art.

Recommended Read: Best Street Artists of all Time

1. Yarn Bombing

There are many Yarn bombing examples in parks and large cities, but this is definitely one of the best ones. It has a wonderful rainbow-like spider-web design which is crocheted around a very ordinary tree. The purpose of yarn bombing is to brighten up the world with small details.

2. Peace Dove

Banksy is known for his controversial works. He even managed to add his murals on the great wall which separates Israel from Palestine. Another excellent example from him is the Peace Dove wearing a bulletproof vest and seems to be in cross hairs of someone with a gun. In other words, although peace makers are blessed, those who wish for peace are unwanted, and in danger of being eliminated.

3. Street Art and Nature

Street art that blends with the environment, particularly nature, is extremely beautiful. Take a look at the following examples of portraits created with leaves and bushes.

4. The Dentist

This is a clever piece designed by Nomerz. It uses the brick and pipe pieces of an old building to create the image of a man with a cigarette in his mouth. It shows the negative effects that smoking can have on the body.

5. Umbrella Tree

Who would have thought that a tree with orange umbrellas in it could look so good? Take a look at this wonderful urban installation.

6. Bicycle Facade

Here’s another incredible 3d Street Art Installation: the Bicycle Facade. It features dozens bikes displayed on a plain facade.

7. Child Coloring

Imagination is the canvas of our minds. This unique 3D street art portrays a child coloring his family on a small house. It has flowers, blue frames for the windows, a bad-ass sun and coloring pencils.

8. Stair Street Art

There are many examples of street art on stairs. Some display images of harbors, others vivid colors or inspirational messages.

9. LEGO

In the nooks and crannies of many cities you can find bits of LEGO filling up cracks in the walls. It’s a great idea for brightening up old buildings.

10. Ice Men

The 3D Ice man installation is a symbol that nothing is permanent. Hundreds of 3D ice figures decorated the stairs of the city, but melted away with the first sun.

11. Little People

This is a photo of a small plastic couple stranded on a tennis ball. It even has a palm tree to represent an island, and the water around it is made from the rain gathered on the street. It is a symbol that even the smallest thing can be turned into art.

12. Just Spray

David Walker managed to pull off a brushes-and-stencils effect using only spray. It is an unusual mural especially considering that it is so difficult to create. The vibrant colors make the portrait incredibly realistic, and a welcome addition to the urban landscape.