Projection art is the height of modern artistry—it requires no canvas, paintbrushes or even a gallery to display it. Instead, it utilizes technological know-how and needs only a large surface to project the finished product on. Unlike other art forms, projection art has the ability to transform an urban environment or indoor space while simultaneously telling a story and creating a spectacle. Below, check out the art world’s brightest lights and the artists behind them.
Yugoslavian artist Zlatko Cosic screened this experimental short silent film in 2008 for Light Works, organized by The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis.
Rock of Cashel
European projection artist Ross Ashton created this work especially for the Rock of Cashel—a 90-foot heritage site in central Ireland—as part of the National Lottery SkyFest fireworks display for the annual Saint Patrick’s Festival.
Sydney Opera House
Sydney-born lighting designer and composer Mary-Anne Kyriakou is the founder of Smart Light Sydney—a new event at the music and lights festival Vivid Sydney—where artistic interpretations of music are projected onto various landmarks.
Eat Your Vice
Muhammad Akbar conceived this projection art concept for EAT—the pioneer extreme sports clothing brand in Indonesia—to appear in the brand’s print advertisements in October 2008.
Camera Rosetum
This animated work of art was created by Sean Capone and projected onto a tunnel that runs beneath the Manhattan Bridge for the Art Under the Bridge Festival in Brooklyn, New York.
Milan Cathedral On the nights of Christmas Eve and Christmas, Paolo Buroni projected blown-up iconic religious images onto the façade of the Milan Cathedral as well as other landmarks in the Italian city.
Loom American artist Jennifer Steinkamp presented the above work—a mixture of computer animation and video projection—at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Tra il Pieno e il Vuoto (In the Fullness and Emptiness) Swiss artist Felice Varini—known for using projector stencils in geometric images—exhibited this retro orange and white circle artwork in Lugano, Switzerland.
Universal
In 2006, Brooklyn-based artist Louis Cameron presented this work using digital video in a solo exhibition at Vanderbilt University’s E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
