Illusory transformation magic in 3-D portraits by self-taught artist Sergi Cadenas

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Modern art Spanish self-taught artist Sergi Cadenas incredibly unique. He is a very talented master of artistic metal forging and at the same time an original painter who showed the world a new amazing form of fine art. Experimenting with the creation of three-dimensional illusions on corrugated canvas, Sergi uses his own painting technique and creates unique portraits, where he brings together often two opposite images: a young girl and an elderly woman, a black man and a bright blonde, an animal and a human …

The 47-year-old Catalan self-taught artist Sergi Cadenas is a blacksmith by profession and artist by vocation, who has conquered the world with his incredible 3-dimensional portraits. Looking at his work, you are truly amazed at what incredible results a person can achieve if he does what he loves.

His portraits seem to be saturated with magic. The master manages to place two diametrically opposite images on one picture plane with ordinary paints. And which of them the viewer sees depends on which side he is looking at the picture from. Passing to the opposite side, a completely different thing opens up to his gaze. Everything depends entirely on the angle.

At first glance, the secret is quite simple to perceive, but it is incredibly difficult to create: the artist, with scrupulous precision and honed skill, applies two different portraits with a pencil, and then oil on parallel vertical stripes of a corrugated canvas, moreover, in such a way that the images are passive in static, and the visible image was transformed as the viewer looks at the picture from which angle.

This is very difficult to explain in words, so we suggest that you first watch a short video in order to really understand what the art of Sergi Cadenas is.

As you can see, Cadenas's paintings consist of vertical stripes, due to which these magical transformations take place. And depending on what angle you look at, the image changes. An adult turns into a child, a cat turns into a girl, a skeleton turns into a person, a young girl turns into an old woman, Marilyn Monroe turns into Albert Einstein … Isn't it very hypnotic. It is difficult for the viewer to take his eyes off the canvas, on which one so wants to see the edge of transformation, which is sometimes impossible to do.

This video shows some of the most famous works of Sergi Cadenas from this series:

A few words about the unique master

Catalan artist Sergi Cadenas began to paint very late, almost 30 years old. And curiously, he never studied it anywhere. His first works were landscapes of his hometown of Girona, exhibiting which the aspiring painter began to win at various art exhibitions and competitions. Then Sergi became seriously interested in portraits, and after he mastered this rather complex genre, he came by experiments to a special technique of three-dimensional optical effects, which became his hallmark.

Now Sergi still lives in Girona, his world is his family and work in the studio, where he is accompanied only by a devoted dog. The artist does not really believe in inspiration; he accepts to a greater extent, as an incentive to creativity, new ideas and dedication to his beloved work. Having developed his own visual language, for several years he said a very powerful word in modern painting.

Thanks to laborious experiments, he was able to express himself, as an artist, in amazingly "live" portraits that leave no one indifferent. His brilliant work of art has received recognition and sincere fans living not only in his homeland, but also abroad.

The first exhibition of the Spanish master was held in a Madrid art gallery, then his works were exhibited in the POPA Op art Museum, which specializes in optical illusions, in Switzerland. Now three-dimensional "kinetic" paintings are shown with great success at the Galeria d'Art Jordi Barnadas in Barcelona.

I would also like to note that the great-grandfather of Sergi Cadenas Nonito was a famous blacksmith in his region. And thanks to the work under the supervision of a famous architect named Rafel Mazo (1880-1935). Iron craftsmanship can be found in many of the architectural structures created by this architect.

P. S

And for those who are interested in the secret of creating stunning Spaniard canvases, we suggest watching a video where you can follow the work of the master from the beginning of work to the final result. Pretty impressive.

In turn, the Russian artist became famous for his portraits, who developed a unique method of working with a palette knife. This is what our publication is about: Virtuoso palette knife portraits from the cycle "Geniuses of the XX century" by artist Alexander Ilyichev.