1. L7M
Brazilian artist Luis Seven Martins, known as L7m, blends geometric patterns with nature in his work. In his own words, this represents a “revolt by the human sorrow, the beauty of life, the city’s disarray, the neglect and the surroundings”.
2. ROA
The Belgian street artist known as ROA often combines beauty and morbidity in his work by depicting animals and birds native to the mural context with their internal systems or flesh exposed. Speaking about his art in 2012, ROA said “if it can be engaging enough to let people look into those animals and inspire them to be creative, or to get involved with our globe, or just take a look at it, then I am very happy”.
3. ATM
British artist ATM‘s love of nature is evident in the staggering levels of flair and detail with which he paints endangered birds throughout London. The contrast between nature and the urban environment is something that he says is at the core of his work, and can act like a myth because “in myths the unwitting acts of human beings are severely punished by the gods. This speaks to the way we live. The wiser counsel is often ignored; we pretend the environmental side-effects are not really happening. We see progress on one level, but at a hidden level the opposite is going on”.
4. Erica Il Cane
Erica Il Cane from Italy uses black humour to paint animals in a series of surreal situations. When asked whether he tries to represent the attitudes of human beings camouflaged in animal form, he responded “Aren´t human beings animals anymore?”
5. Louis Masai
London-based Louis Masai uses his art to raise awareness of threatened species and our relationship with the natural habitat. Asked about his art, Louis said “for me it’s about acknowledging the core and for me that core is mother nature and working with the environment she gives you.”
6. Nuxuno Xän
Nuxono Xän is a street artist from the Caribbean island of Martinique, whose art is inspired by its surroundings. Describing the main themes of his work, Xän said he aims to cover “melancholy, dehumanisation, robotics, machine and man, man and nature, the relationship between tradition and modernity.”
7. Wild Drawing
Bali-born Athens-based street artist Wild Drawing says that the process of creating street art is equivalent to a natural phenomena because a mural is a “drawing that’s growing in the “jungle” of city buildings”. He says that he speaks through his artwork “about social phenomena, lifestyle, consumerism, etc.”
8. Ludo
French artist Ludo takes inspiration from precise botanical drawings to create powerful imagery that straddles both nature and technology. He says that his art “speaks about what surrounds us, what affects us and tries to highlight some kind of humility”. In this way, it “aspires to jolt us out of a longstanding collective denial: despite repeated natural disasters, we refuse to acknowledge our own fragile state. Humanity’s reign on this planet is a dangerous and fleeting illusion”.
9. DALeast
DALeast is a Chinese artist whose work often uses animals as the main subject matter to connect us to our environments. He says that through his art he wants “to express – the open urban space and human emotions with the environment”.
10. Boe and Irony
Boe and Irony are a British artistic duo who focus much of their art on animals. Speaking about their use of animals as subjects, they said: ”Street work gets inflicted on people whether they want to see it or not. You can’t go to extremes right up front, people close down. So you start off with something people can generally accept, like a fluffy kitten, that’s your foot in the door, then you can start actually trying to say something with the piece”.
11. Zéh Palito
Brazilian artist Zéh Palito creates fantastical images of nature with a dream-like mixture of vivid colours and geometric forms. Palito says his art aims to “create a dialogue between the relation of humans with animals, nature and the future”.
12. Sam3
Sam3 is an artist from Spain active in street art since 1993, who often integrates elements from nature in his murals. He says: ”Our society desperately needs new ways to face the dark and difficult near future. Art is the best way to reveal the hidden realities on today’s way of life. I have always been fascinated by the ideas of symbols, something that contains more than one meaning and that says more than only one thing. All my work is filled with this sort of dualism, like a search mirror, where I try to reach a public that is not specialised”.
13. HYURO
Argentinian artist HYURO‘s work regularly features people or cultural symbols contrasted with – and integrated in – nature. She describes her art as an expression of ideas of “worries, scares, identity, freedom.”
14. Titi Freak
Japanese-Brazilian artist Titi Freak regularly depicts vibrantly painted fish in contexts where fishing is an important part of local communities’ culture. The flair of Titi’s work helps connect people to the art piece and their surrounding environment. He says: ”The colours in my work and the actual act of drawing can appeal to people’s sensitivity.”
15. Laguna
Laguna, a street artist from Spain, uses natural and man-made materials to manipulate space and urban landscapes. The powerful images and manipulations that Laguna creates are all about subjectivity. He says: ”It’s not what we see but what we perceive, or vice versa … or not”.
16. Lonac
Croatian artist Lonac uses nature in his work to tell stories. He says that his art contains characters, and these “characters are illustrated metaphors gesturing abstract concepts – anger, fear, astonishment, sadness.”
17. Pablo S. Herrero & David De La Mano
Pablo S. Herrero and David de La Mano collaborate on art that reconnects humans with nature. De La Mano describes how “every time I collaborate with Pablo S. Herrero we establish a relationship with nature. This relationship has many faces, sometimes it is reflective, sometimes positive and hopeful, and sometimes critic. We always propose an open look, with different interpretations, not trying to offer a discourse or a statement, but rather a suggestion, a question.”
18. Natalia Rak
Polish artist Natalia Rak creates interfaces between nature and society in her work. In a recent interview, she described her influence - ”When I paint, I think of the Secesja, or the Secession period, in Barcelona. The buildings look like plants or nature.”
19. Limow
Spanish artist Limow‘s illustrations and street art have a re-occurring theme of man’s creation of – and entrapment in – nature. These make for unsettling and provocative images that force us to ask questions about our relationship with the wild.
20. Sego
Mexican artist Sego‘s work features detailed and fantastical animals, insects, and plants. He says that he uses his work to “represent life and how certain organisms need specific conditions to grow, which is also a social metaphor for people. We live in a society and we need each other to grow and thrive”.
21. La Pandilla
Puerto Ricans Alexis Diaz and Juan Fernandez collaborate under the name La Pandilla to create vivid images of animals that resemble mythological beasts. Diaz explains that nature is unescapable and this is what La Pandilla try to capture in their art: ”I’m a fan of organic forms and the wonder that nature creates, I believe nothing exists that can replace it, in it is the story of life and its history!”