Next week the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Festival starts from the 1st of March to the 7th of March, where they will hand out the 1st 3D Street Art awards. Organized by Brand Dubai,
Maybe you have already read about it or someone told you, this event will give out a total of $600.000. The winner will win a price of $350.000. This is the first time in the world that this will happen and yes of course this happens in Dubai. ASA will be in Dubai during the event to report true our social media about this great event. Next to the conventional 3D artists there will also be artists known from the Street Art scene like Fanakapan and Kobra.
As Ayesha bin Kalli the Project Manager of Dubai Canvas said: “Dubai Canvas 2017 will feature the creations of some of the world’s most skilled and innovative 3D artists who are pioneers of various new styles, techniques. These are artists whose work has expanded the possibilities of 3D art and inspired many other artists across the world.
The artist will start the week before of the festival from the 22nd of February to 28th of February. This will give the public the opportunity to see the artist at work and during the festival they can enjoy the many great photo moments created by the TOP of the 3D artists in the world.
Many of the 25 artists in the shortlist are international luminaries in the 3D art world. Versatile Italian artist Tony Cuboliquido was the first to experiment with anamorphic 3D art and animated art with video mapping. His works have been commissioned by some of the world’s largest companies including Disney, Universal Cinema, Luxottica, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Samsung and Unilever. Cuboliquido’s works can be seen in the ‘Basilica of the Nativity’ in Bethlehem and the Basilica of the ‘Virgin of Nativity’ in Mexico City.
Returning to Dubai for another edition of Dubai Canvas is Leon Keer a world-leading 3D street artist. He has executed commissions in Europe, the United States, Mexico, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Russia, New Zealand, Australia and several Asian countries. His work features topical issues including current environmental concerns. The Dutch artist is constantly aware of the playfulness and beauty around him compared to the degradation, a contrast that he expresses and amplifies in his work.
Another artist returning to Dubai for the Festival is Fanakapan, a leading street artist based in London. Fanakapan started painting on the streets in 2000 around Bournemouth and Bristol following his studies at art school. His works of graffiti feature realistic balloon animals and letters. Fanakapan’s works depict letters shaped as silver foil balloons, whose lighting and shine make them seem as if they are bouncing off the wall. Fanakapan has painted graffiti art in different locations around the world in his highly technical free hand style that he has mastered over the past few years.
KAS, born and raised in Porto in Portugal, has worked in graffiti projects for several national and international companies. He has also participated in various street art events in Europe and international exhibitions across the world. His recent 3D works mix photorealism and puzzle patterns. He currently lives and works in Brussels, Belgium. KAS developed a passion for art at a young age. The self-made artist learned informally from some of the greatest graffiti artists in Portugal.
Japanese artist Tomoteru ‘Tomo’ Saito has won prestigious awards in street painting, most notably at the Grazie di Curtatone Madonnari Competition in Mantova, Italy where he was awarded the first place among ‘Maestri Madonnari’ in 2000 and 2001. He has participated in street painting festivals across Europe, US, Mexico, Hong Kong and Dubai. In 2016, he won the People’s Choice Award at the Street Painting Festival in Toulon, France; the first prize in the category of ‘Copyists’ at the Street Art Festival in Wilhelmshaven, Germany; and the first prize in the category of ‘Classical’ at Little Italy Madonnari Arts Festival in Baltimore, US.
Mexican artist Juandrés Vera’s work has been exhibited in museums and galleries in cities such as Monterrey, Guanajuato and Durango in Mexico, Paris and New York. Juandrés Vera has obtained several awards from urban art projects such as both ephemeral and permanent murals in two-dimensional mode and anamorphic mode (3D) in countries such as United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Thailand and UAE, among others. He currently resides in León, Mexico.
Brazilian artist Eduardo Kobra was born in São Paulo. At the invitation of the municipality of São Paulo, he made the first 3D pavement painting in Brazil. Cities where Kobra has displayed his artwork include Moscow, Lexington, Los Angeles, London, Athens, Lyon, New York. and Miami. Kobra has painted a mural on the facade of ‘Museo dell’Altro e Dell’Altrove’, which faces the historical Via Prenestina in Rome. In Sweden, he painted the ‘Alfred Nobel’ mural in the city of Boras; and Poland, at the invitation of Urban Forms Gallery, where he painted The ‘Rubinstein’ on a huge wall. Kobra and his team now hold the Guinness World Record for the largest spray paint mural by a team. The work, which was commissioned by Rio 2016 to decorate the Olympic Boulevard, measures 3,000 square meters.
Laurent Hamelin, also known as Milouz, is a self-taught French artist, who is the founder of the famous TSFcrew. Painting since 1995, he started his career as a graffiti artist and quickly began painting big figurative walls with his group. For more than ten years, he has worked in partnership with the artist Papy. Together, they have painted enormous ‘trompe l’oeil’ pieces that opened doors to dreamlike universes. The quality and originality of his creations brought invitations from around the world to create anamorphic pieces, apart from the opportunity to work with famous brands.
Portuguese artist Odeith, best known as one of the pioneers of 3D graffiti, is one of the shortlisted artists who will be displaying his work at the Festival. Odeith’s artworks are extremely detailed and realistic, almost photographic in their precision, creating the impression of something solid. Viewers often find it hard to believe that his 3D works are regular flat-surface paintings and not sculptures when seen from a certain distance. Internationally recognized for his 3D pieces, Odeith is often invited to exhibit his work outside of his native Portugal. Odeith is no stranger to Dubai having exhibited his work in last year’s Dubai Canvas.
Qi Xinghua, who describes himself as ‘China’s first 3D artist’, is a four-time Guinness World record holder for making the world’s largest 3D paintings. Xinghua, who is making his second appearance at the annual Dubai Canvas Festival, is renowned for the strong 3D impact of his designs, which often leave people wondering what is real and what is fantasy. He uses a technique called ‘reverse version’ or ‘inverse-perspective’ in which far away objects appear big and close objects small.
Ruben Poncia from the Netherlands is another artist returning to Dubai for this year’s Festival. He started his career making acrylic and oil paintings in a realistic or surrealistic style in which he sometimes used perspective tricks. Later, he used his perspective tricks to create 3D street art. Poncia, who now works mainly as a 3D street artist, performs at 5-10 festivals a year. He considers street art as an artistic challenge as the artist is out in the open and has a limited time to create his work.
Remko van Schaik from Netherlands, yet another artist returning to Dubai for the Festival, believes 3D street painting is a great test of an artist’s creativity and skills since it is a very public activity. He started pursuing street painting after seeing street painters working in his hometown Utrecht. After initially creating 2D street paintings in the traditional way, he got interested in the technique of making 3D street paintings.
Truman Adams, who sold his first painting at 10, is a versatile artist who works in a range of genres: mosaics, portraits, illustration, fine art, murals, decorative, and 3D and 2D street art.
Vera Bugatti, an Italian artist and street painter whose works feature human, ontological and environmental issues, takes inspiration both from ancient and contemporary themes. She has taken part in several street art events all over the world. Bugatti works with several techniques, ranging from chalk and paints to wire, electric elements and nails.
Rene Muniz, from Brazil, is an advertising and graffiti artist, whose passion is to convey positive messages like love and peace through art.
Russian artist Nikolaj Arndt who also participated in Dubai Canvas last year, has displayed his 3D art pieces at street art festivals in different cities across the world. In 2006, Nikolaj Arndt moved to Germany where he is now based. He currently teaches at a private art school and works with advertising agencies and galleries.
Ryszard Paprocki is an architect and painter who is considered Poland’s most renowned 3D artist. Since 2011, he has created several large 3D paintings in Poland and across the world. His work is usually created in the presence of a large audience. Separately, he also creates easel paintings, monumental paintings, interior designs, sculptures, landscape architecture and industrial design as well as abstract paintings, installations and large hyper-realistic 3D graffiti.
Dima Fatum, a Ukrainian street artist’s works are characterized by unique experiments with different artistic styles and genres including surrealism, the ‘double’ images and calligraphy. His work also combines post-graffiti and abstract graffiti styles.
American artist John Pugh’s works focus primarily on 3D wall murals. Pugh has received numerous public and private commissions in the United States, Taiwan, and New Zealand. His particular mural style sparked the term ‘Narrative Illusionism’
German artist Ella Mundt has collaborated with the well-known street artists Manfred Stader and Edgar Müller. She runs a studio for commissioned works with special focus on portraits.
Gennaro Troia, an accomplished Italian pavement artist, is the founder of the Neapolitan School of Madonnari, a group of artists who have exhibited their unique creations across the world.
Hungarian artist Fat Heat, who calls himself an ‘addict’ to graffiti art, got bitten by the art bug in 1998 when he first encountered another artist’s work on some buildings near his home. His works can be found in the form of large murals throughout Europe.
Andres Iglesias Petroselli, an Argentinian artist’s work has been displayed in Brazil, Spain, France and Netherlands apart from Argentina. Also known as Cobre, Petroselli is one of Argentina’s major 3D artists.
Russian artist Danila Shmelev, who has previously worked as a tattoo artist, started painting 3D art after she worked in a 3D illusion museum. She took part in the uinternational art festival ‘Stenograffia’ with two 3D artworks.
Dubai Canvas 3D Art Award received a total of 122 entries from 35 countries. Artists who submitted proposals for the Award represent almost 80% of the global community of 3D artists. The initial selection committee shortlisted 25 artists for the final round of the Award. Their works will be featured in the third Dubai Canvas Festival taking place in March. We are confident that the stunning art on display at the Festival will attract large audiences across all ages,” Bin Kalli added.
A jury comprising of renowned international and local artists will evaluate the 25 shortlisted artworks to select three winners of the Dubai Canvas 3D Art Award. The winners will be honored at a ceremony to be held at the Festival. There will also be a ‘People’s Choice’ award based on votes from the public.
Team ASA is looking forward to report you live from the event. ASA will be in Dubai from 27 of February till the 2nd of March. We will update you everyday with photos,videos and live streams from our Facebook page
