As the Urban Jungle ever increases, so does the enormous amount of words, images and icons plastered across buildings, windows, chairs and public transport. All of these forms of art are vying for our attention and, of course, our dollars. One style of this art form that is emerging quite rapidly across the major cities around the world is Street Art — that is any art developed in public places, ‘in the streets’.

You have more than likely come across this form of art in the form of graffiti in a dark alley or on the walls of the train lines. But a distinctive form of street art that is becoming popular is 3D Street Art which combines the mastery of Renaissance art techniques with the hard, gritty qualities of street art.

This new art form is quickly giving graffiti a whole new outlook as it slowly moves peoples perception of art on walls or the pavement from vandalism to amazing pieces of fine art, capturing everyone’s imagination and thus standing out from the typical neon signs and scrawled images on the sides of buildings.

3D Street Artists like Kurt Wenner, Eduardo Relero and Tracy Lee Stum are creating up storms around the world with their amazingly realistic masterpieces that tend to captivate any passerby and transport them into what seems another world from the concrete and asphalt surface they are created on.

One of the top anamorphic street artists in the world, Kurt Wenner’s unique gift to transform a simple concrete pavement into a classic Renaissance 3D piece of artwork is astonishing. The former NASA illustrator has invented a pictorial geometry that corrects the specific distortion caused by viewing the painting at an oblique angle. This makes the subjects in the piece of art stand up and become three dimensional. Kurt has been commissioned for TV features, advertisements and even documentaries.
Julian Beever is another 3D street artist working in a medium of chalk and uses city pavements for his canvas. He too works in the 3D anamorphic style and has produced pieces of work for Coca Cola, Sony and Rembrant paints. A typical illustration for Julian takes around a day to complete with the finished artwork looking so realistic, walkers by try not to trip over the three dimensional object even though it is really just chalk on concrete. Unfortunately, after all the hard work and amazing result, usually with the help of the elements of nature, the chalk illustrations are washed away the very next day.

Previously a professional graphic designer, Eric Grohe has wowed passers by with his unique style of 3D Street Art by painting murals that tend to leap off the sides of buildings and merge into the urban landscape. Eric has splashed his style of street art over numerous buildings from the Seattle in the US to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. His work tends to capture the scene he has painted perfectly, and seems to draw you into the artwork as if you were part of it in everyway. His realistic approach has seen blank, boring sides of buildings transformed into what can be described as a doorway into an illusion.

Melbourne itself is known as one of the worlds leading street art cities with approved outdoor locations across the city brought to life with the numerous artworks from local street artists. To see some of Melbourne’s street art locations, go and visit:

* Hosier and Rutledge Lane opposite Federation Square
* Caledonian Lane off Little Bourke Street
* Union Lane off Bourke Street Mall
* Rear of 280 Queen Street in Finlay Avenue
* 21 Degraves Street
* Cnr Flinders Lane and Cocker Alley
* 122 Palmerston Street, Carlton

For more information or if you would like to register to be involved, visit www.melbourne.vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=145&pg=3274

Kevin Hall is the Studio Manager for Artisan Creative. He can be contacted via email at kevin@getartisan.com.au