Okuda San Miguel: Splashing world's cities with colors

05:26

Spanish contemporary artist Okuda San Miguel is famous for splashing vibrant hues across architectures in different corners of the world.

Okuda is recognized for his distinctive style of geometric blocks and his iconic artworks can be seen in Russia, Peru, Italy, France, Cuba, Spain, Germany, China's Hong Kong, China's Taiwan and the United States, just to name a few places. In an exclusive interview with CGTN via video call, Okuda spoke about his latest mural in Spain, which is relevant to the coronavirus pandemic, and his upcoming July exhibition in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

Inspired by artists like El Bosco, Rene Magritte, and Takashi Murakami, Okuda's path of vivid pop art exploration started in 1997. He gained international recognition after turning the century-old Church of Santa Barbara in Spain into a prismatic skate park in 2015. With multifaceted diversity of the world's cultures and geometric expressions in mind, his works often feature people with different backgrounds.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, Okuda and his Ink and Movement team have launched the Coloring the World initiative. It consists of a series of art-related activities and content designed to keep people entertained during this turbulent period, including an Instagram filter which reminds people to wear masks. The project also donates part of its proceeds to the Spanish Red Cross to support the fight against COVID-19. In addition, Okuda illustrated a mask-themed mural in Fuenlabrada, Spain to demonstrate the unprecedented threat that humanity faces.

Okuda's next stop is Guangzhou. His debut show at K11 Art Mall, titled "Kaos Trip: A Color Journey by Okuda San Miguel" will run from July 10 to October 11. While he might not be able to personally make it to the exhibition opening due to the pandemic, he told CGTN that a kaleidoscopic surprise is in store.