in public

Public art is an art genre in which the concept, function, and form of the work are created through public discourse and for the general public. The works of public art are there for public access and often appear in public spaces, serving as a powerful avenue for the artist to express to the general public.

Essentially, public art engages the viewer outside of traditional exhibition halls, museums, and art galleries. It appeals to the masses through interventions, ideas, actions, performances, and visuals. Today’s public artists look to redefine cardinal concepts such as social engagement, collective identity, social contract, and community.

Katsuhiro Otomo - Kinka Doji Riding the Waves Accompanied by Fujin and Raijin, 2015, ceramic relief, 8.7 x 2.8 meter, installation view, Sendai Airport, Japan feat

Katsuhiro Otomo at the Sendai Airport – Riding the Waves

Ceramics / 3 minutes of reading
Katsuhiro Otomo, the creator of Akira, the 1988 Japanese animated cyberpunk action film, is one of the most well-known manga artists, animators, screenwriters, and film directors in the world. Though he is best known for his manga series and film adaptations, Otomo crossed over into the sculpture world when he was asked to design a …

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Wesley Meuris - Memento Public, 2012, 500 x 1000 x 1000 cm, installation view, Central Burial of Borgloon, Belgium feat

Wesley Meuris’ Memento – A place to leave your worries behind

Architecture, Sculptures / 3 minutes of reading
Memento is a circular pavilion that was created by Belgian artist Wesley Meuris. This beautiful white pavilion is located on the outskirts of the little Flemish town of Borgloon. Being situated directly on the slope, Memento overlooks the central graveyard found in the medieval city that has been nicknamed Central Burial by the locals. Memento …

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Vincent Ganivet’s monumental Catena Containers in Le Havre

Sculptures / 3 minutes of reading
The Catène de Containers is a sculpture created by Vincent Ganivet in 2017. To build the monument, Ganivet made two archways of containers to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the French city Le Havre. The containers, which were stacked up to 30-meters high, are easily distinguished by the various bright colors and are situated at …

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Shen Ting Tseng Architects - Floating Pavilion, 2016, installation view, Taipei Fine Arts Museum plaza feat

A floating pavilion in Taipei – By Shen Ting Tseng Architects

Architecture, Installations / 2 minutes of reading
The Floating Pavilion was a temporary structure exhibited at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum Plaza in 2016, as the winning design in the annual competition to build pavilions at different spaces in the TFAM complex. The pavilion was designed by Shen Ting Tseng Architects to add vitality to the plaza, which is usually wind-beaten and …

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João-Filgueiras-Lima-Lelé-Centro-de-Exposições-do-Centro-Admnistrativo-da-Bahia-1974-Salvador-Brazil-1 feat

João Filgueiras Lima’s Bahía exhibition center – A brutalist classic

Architecture, Brutalist architecture / 3 minutes of reading
As far as Brutalist architecture goes, the Centro de Exposições da Bahía Building, more commonly known as the Exhibition Center of the Administrative Center of Bahía, is a perfect example. Designed in 1974 by Brazilian architect João Filgueiras Lima, more frequently known as Lelé, this amphitheater was designed to accommodate at least 50 individuals. Brutalist …

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What tools do graffiti writers use? Martha Cooper & others show you

Graffiti, Street Art / 5 minutes of reading
HKwalls’ Tools of the Trade was the first thematic public exhibition held in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, between 8th May and 6th June this year (2021). It tried to give the public an insider’s peek at the very secretive circles of modern graffiti and street art. A wide array of tools commonly used for creating …

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The Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library & Vladimir Rusakov’s impressive mural

Mural, Paintings / 3 minutes of reading
The Miguel Lerdo de Tejada Library is an impressive feat of architecture, but even more impressive is its large-scale mural, covering 2000 square meters. The library, one of Mexico’s most important resources for financial records and heritage book collections, houses psychedelic frescoes that tell the story of revolutionary scenes throughout history. Mexicans love their murals …

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Torres de Satélite, Mexico City feat

Torres de Satélite – The story behind

Architecture, Sculptures / 10 minutes of reading
The Torres de Satélite or Satellite Towers are a collection of sculptures installed in the Ciudad Satelite district of Naucalpan in Mexico State, a few kilometers outside Mexico City. They are considered among Mexico’s first large-scale urban sculptures. The monuments were conceived in 1957 by the famous Mexican painter Jesús Reyes Ferreira, architect Luis Barragan, …

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Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin – NOT a chapel

Architecture, Church architecture, Installations, Light Installations / 10 minutes of reading
For everyone with an interest in design, Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin is a great feast for the eyes and has a pretty interesting story behind it. Austin is a 2715 square feet (252 square meters) building on the grounds of the Blanton Museum of Art. The story behind the building goes that in 1986, Douglass Cramer, …

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Ricardo Bofill’s eye-catching La Muralla Roja

Architecture, Postmodernist Architecture / 3 minutes of reading
Lying off Spain’s Calpe coast is La Muralla Roja (red wall), one of the most eye-catching buildings on the shores of the Mediterranean. It is an apartment block borrowing heavily from the Arab, Greek, and contemporary designs while keeping clean-cut geometric shapes of contemporary architecture. The outer walls are in different hues of red and …

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Sher Maker transformed a boring gas station into this ..

Architecture, Installations / 3 minutes of reading
Creatives find inspiration from some of the most uninspiring sources. Many of them find ideas from looking at others’ creations. Architects are in this category too. They get their creative juices running from some of life’s regular occurrences. A gas station is the last place you would expect to see creatives basing their work upon. …

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Not Vital’s remote house in Patagonia, Chile

Architecture / 3 minutes of reading
Not Vital is no stranger to success. Throughout his long and illustrious career, he has become synonymous with works that fuse sculpture and architecture to create an almost spiritual experience for his audiences. Vital’s works echo a powerful conflict and link between our understanding of traditional architecture and sculpture, which allows him to come up …

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