3D graffiti, whether it’s in chalk or paint, on walls or the street, represents a new way of combining the mastery of Renaissance art techniques with the gritty, ephemeral qualities of amazing street art. These 3D street artists gives graffiti a whole new meaning – one that departs from the conventional interpretation of graffiti as vandalism in the form of images and letters scrawled on public property. Artists like Kurt Wenner, Eduardo Relero and Tracy Lee Stum create street art that’s so incredible it is almost impossible to pass by without being sucked in to the worlds they create on asphalt and concrete surfaces.
Kurt Wenner
Kurt Wenner’s ability to transform Renaissance classicism into 3D street art is unparalleled and has made him the top anamorphic street painting artist of our time. Kurt aims to ‘reinvent classicism for a new age’, bringing his talent for realism to the streets, literally, having invented a pictorial geometry that corrects the specific distortion caused by viewing his street paintings at an oblique angle. A former NASA illustrator, Kurt has had his work featured in a lengthy list of articles, television features, ads, and documentaries.
Edgar Muller & Manfred Stader
Edgar Muller and Manfred Stader are a German team of street painters. Much of their work is in the 3D anamorphic style, but both of them often create traditional street paintings in a style that mimics the detail and realism of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Their background in realism gives them an incredible advantage as anamorphic street painters, as evidenced in their ‘River Street’ work and the paintings above. Stader and Mueller have won many street painting competitions, and have taught street painting at universities.
Julian Beever
Julian Beever’s world-renowned sidewalk chalk drawings have been a viral hit all over the internet, and it’s easy to see why: he’s a master of the anamorphic technique, which he’s been perfecting since the mid 1990s. Each of Julian’s creations typically take a full day to complete, and by the next day they’re just a memory, washed away by rain or walked upon by pedestrians. The English artist has been given the nickname ‘The Pavement Picasso’, and he continues to work all over the world.
Tracy Lee Stum is widely considered to be one of today’s finest street painters. She has traveled the world to be a featured artist in many festivals and events, and she currently holds the Guinness World Record for the largest street painting by an individual, which she completed in 2006. Tracy’s work contains many themes, from Biblical to exotic to the mundane.
Eduardo Relero
Eduardo Relero is a street artist working primarily in Spain. His fanciful illustrative style looks like storybook pages come to life, and indeed each of his anamorphic sidewalk chalk drawings seems to have a story behind it.
Rod Tryon
Rod Tryon has been adorning the streets of the world with his chalk drawings for more than 20 years, and was first inspired to try anamorphic designs in 1996. Of his paintings, Rod says “Entertaining the audience by creating an image that looks like it is coming up out of the street, or the impression of a hole opening up in the asphalt in front of you, is a special treat for the artist. Seeing crowds react to his 3-D pastel images, bring great joy to both the artist and onlookers.”
Greg Brown
The work of Greg Brown isn’t meant to be accessible. His huge murals seem to jump out at the viewer, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to interpret, and that’s how he likes it. Greg’s murals vary dramatically in style and content from one to another, due to the intense collaborative process he takes on with each client. They range from Dali-esque surrealism to classic trompe l’oeil, with subjects including everything from construction equipment to miniature ships.
Eric Grohe
Eric Grohe was a professional graphic designer and illustrator for decades before beginning work on his renowned trompe l’oeil murals. Eric’s murals appear to jump off of the surfaces that he paints on, and they grace walls all over the United States and the World, from Seattle Washington to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Eric’s work reflects a patriotic all-American theme, and his depictions of scenes such as football games and picturesque towns have turned blank walls into works of art.
Daim
Daim
Daim is a German graffiti artist who first started spraying in 1989 and hasn’t stopped since. Daim has become one of the most sought-after graffiti artists in the world, and has even appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records for spraying the highest graffiti in the world. The only ‘traditional’ graffiti artist on our list, Daim creates 3D art on interior and exterior walls, canvas and vehicles and also works in animation and sculpture.
