Xomatok's Vibrant Interventions Paint the Cracked Sidewalks of Mexico City with Bold Colors

FEBRUARY 22, 2023
GRACE EBERT

All photos by Alf A. Nieto, © Xomatok, shared with permission

Wander the streets of the Roma Norte area of Mexico City, and you might stumble upon the latest interventions by Xomatok (previously). The artist painted bold color spectrums on split sidewalks, which have erupted around the defiant roots of trees. Vibrant pinks, yellows, and blues blanket the sides of the concrete, juxtaposing the natural and human-made and highlighting the power of the wooden giants in the urban environment. “This series of interventions brings us closer to a conscious experience in the streets, through the intervention of the cracks in the concrete that reveal the force of nature present in urban life, an allusion to the unveiling of other realities that exist in parallel to it,” the artist shares.

There are currently five works in the Manifestos series, which was curated by Heart and produced by Mano de Obra in collaboration with Drbarret and Adaneye. You can follow additions to the project and Xomatok’s latest works on Instagram.





More:
https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2023/02/xomatok-manifestos-mexico-city/

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This Artist Who Painted On Rocks Will Truly Inspire You
October 17, 2020 Posted by The Artist Editorial



Jean Verame is one of the most lucid examples of how a man can turn entire hills and lifeless rocks into his canvas.

He’s the creator of unprecedented works within the land art movement; he paints directly on desert rock. His big projects take several months to complete and require years of meticulous preparation. The works of this man are highly recognizable.

This Belgian-born French sculptor began to paint stone in 1975 in the Cevennes Mountains. Since then he has done a series of open-air-workshops. Each of his projects has been a masterpiece and (almost always) better than the last.

Have you heard of concepts such as land art, earth art or environmental art?

Jean belongs to artists who are proponents of this style – earth art – have decided that using a traditional canvas is too mainstream, so instead they pick natural landscapes as a canvas.

Taking nature as canvas, these artists play with volume, mass and space to create monumental artworks. They use grandiose elements of nature served both as a canvas and setting for artists in search of the exceptional.



Every project of this kind is a grand endeavour and requires a lot of time and money to prepare. Oftentimes materials have to be transported to remote locations where the artist can create his vision for the place.Lots of painting materials, tools, scaffolding, and more are needed in order to complete a project of this proportion, not to mention all the food and supply required for the survival of the camps. Indeed, in most cases the locations are so remote that camps are required to sustain the artist and his supporting crew.

This is never easy, which makes it all more impressive.

https://www.theartist.me/art/jean-verame-the-man-who-painted-rocks/

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More:
https://www.theartist.me/art/jean-verame-the-man-who-painted-rocks/

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Blue Desert
Qesm Sharm Ash Sheikh, Egypt
Brightly painted boulders scattered throughout the Sinai Desert.

NOT FAR FROM MOUNT SINAI, in the Saint Katherine Protectorate, lies the Blue Desert. Unlike the White Desert and the Black Desert (both in the Egyptian Sahara), the Blue Desert is not a natural creation, but a work of art.

Created in 1980 by Belgian artist Jean Verame, the groundbreaking Egyptian-Israeli Peace Agreement (1979) inspired the artist to paint several large boulders in this otherwise barren desert region in a bright blue color, symbolizing peace. The unusual peace monument is situated in the South of the Sinai Peninsula, a region which prior to the Peace Agreement, saw numerous battles between the warring countries. The artist used a total of 10 tons of paint, which were granted from the United Nations. Verame has since created similar monumental pieces of art in Morocco and Chad.

More:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/blue-desert

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