City Walk to transform into open-air canvas

Paintbrushes and splatters of colours are covering some of City Walk’s public spaces, as artists from around the world gather to take part in the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival in the new area from March 1 to 7.

Expressing their ideas of ‘happiness’ — this year’s theme — through 3D art, 25 international artists are currently in the process of creating their masterpieces, and battle it out for the Dh2.3-million Dubai Canvas 3D Art Award.

Four Emirati students were also chosen to display their works at the festival.

The festival, a unique public art experience organised by Brand Dubai, the creative arm of the Government of Dubai Media Office (GDMO), is aligned with the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to convert Dubai into an open-air museum that inspires creativity and innovation.

Art award

In its third edition, the festival will feature the works of the 25 international artists selected from a total of 122 entries from 35 countries this year.

A jury comprising renowned international and local artists will evaluate the artworks of these 25 artists to pick three winners for the award, who will be honoured at a ceremony to be held at the festival. There will also be a ‘People’s Choice’ award based on votes from the public.

Gulf News went to the scene on Thursday where artists from over 15 nationalities were outlining their 3D images on boards covering walls and floors, converting City Walk’s public spaces into an open-air canvas.

One artist, Odeith from Lisbon, Portugal, said the message behind his piece is for people to be happy. “My work consists of two windows — old Dubai and new Dubai — which show the transition over 46 years. It questions how many people are happy with this transition, and I think a lot of people’s lives are changed and are, in fact, happy,” he said.

Odeith’s canvas also includes a plane flying from old Dubai, showing small houses and boats, to new Dubai, which reflects tall buildings by the Marina area.

Another artist, Leon Keer, from the Netherlands, is taking part at the festival for the third time. “My piece represents cars inside their boxes. The theme is happiness this year, and I know Dubai residents care a lot about their cars, [so] I am representing them as toy cars in order to spark people’s minds and bring them back to their childhood,” said Keer.

The artist said his piece will give a 3D effect, giving people the illusion that four cars including a Porche, Dodge, Chevrolet, and Lamborghini are each placed inside a box.

Meanwhile, American artist John Pugh said he is creating what will look like an old portal in natural ruins to reflect people’s connection with nature. “It will have a very inviting entry way, and inside, you’ll see shadows and a man and woman’s hands touching,” he said. Pugh explained that while brainstorming for an image to create, he wondered about the things that made him happy, and decided to reflect the happiness people feel when connected to nature.

“Many people have had an experience while they are in some kind of wilderness or maybe here in the desert, where they discover something. It’s almost a mystical experience in a little corner of the world that not too many people stumble into,” he said.

Emirati fine arts student from Sharjah University Fatima Ebrahim Al Ali said she feels humbled to be chosen to take part in the festival. “My piece is a combination of reality and imagination. It’s a painting of a swing set carried up by balloons, and it represents happiness during childhood,” she said. Fatima, who is in her third year of university, said she has been painting and drawing since she was young, and often likes to incorporate childhood themes in her work. “As a child, one dream of mine was to fly away, and I can do that with a swing set and plenty of balloons,” she added.

Box:

Odeith from Lisbon, Portugal

Odeith was born in 1976, in Damaia, Portugal. He held a spray can for the first time in the mid-1980s, but it was in the 1990s that the artist had his first contact with graffiti and its movement. His first works were sketched on street walls and train tracks. Early on, the artist showed a special interest in perspective and shading, in an obscure style, which he later called “sombre 3D”. In this style, compositions, landscapes or portraits, messages or homages stand out for their realism and technique. Odeith is a pioneer in transforming graffiti into anamorphic (this is a form of art that offers a distorted projection or perspective that asks of the viewer to use a special device or take up a particular observation point to see the image).

Leon Keer from the Netherlands

Leon Keer is an artist in anamorphic street art. He has executed commissions in Europe, the US, Mexico, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, New Zealand, Australia and several Asian countries. His work features topical issues including current environmental concerns. Keer has often presented his art through live-action-painting performances. His ability to perform as a street painter allows him to share the joy of painting with the public.

John Pugh from the US

John Pugh is a trompe l’oeil artist (an art technique that uses realistic imagery to create the optical illusion) who focuses primarily on public art. He believes that the ‘language’ of life-size illusions allows him to effectively communicate with a very large audience. Once intrigued by the illusion, the viewer is invited to visually cross into the mural to explore and discover the deeper concept of the piece. Pugh feels that public art is a very powerful form of communication, and with it comes great responsibility.

Fatima Ebrahim Al Ali from the UAE

Fatima Al Ali is a third-year multidisciplinary fine arts student, who is trying to find herself through her art. She is focused mainly on sculpture and installation art, but ventures sometimes into photography and painting. Currently, through her art, she is exploring childhood and its effects on the development of an individual and the psychology behind it

source : gulfnews