Miniature art jumps from social media to a gallery in Paris

Miniature art, very popular on social networks, takes the leap with the first large-scale exhibition in a European gallery, in Paris, in which Twenty world-renowned artists display some of their most iconic works.

This type of art has spread thanks to social networks, in which creators from all over the globe publish photographs with visual games on their accounts under the common label #MiniatureArt.

Now, the exhibition Small is Beautiful hosts in Paris a total of 126 works of art with all kinds of themes and formats, ranging from photographic and audiovisual to three-dimensional, with the aim of provoking the viewer and playing with their visual perception throughout the journey.

The works occupy the two floors of the joseph gallery, whose walls become part of the creations when they are used by some of the small characters that compose them.

The Eiffel Tower on the tip of a pencil

There are artists who dare to sculpt in something as small as the tip of a pencil. The Bosnian artist Jasenko Dordevic he is capable of carving in graphite the figure of a mother holding her daughter or even the Eiffel Tower with all the details.

With over 180,000 followers on Instagram, the London-based photographer Slinkachu exposes his Miniature Street Art (miniature urban art) in which he uses everyday objects to recreate grandiose situations.

You can see a shoelace waving in a puddle to represent a sea monster attacking a doll barely a few inches tall. After recreating these situations in places around the world, Slinkachu leaves the work in the place where it has been photographed.

French photographer Samsofy introduces the classic Lego figures personified and represented in miniature with the use of materials and products of everyday life. For example, one of these dolls, turned into a visual artist, surfs a wave of colored pencils.

Another of the spaces that attracts the most attention welcomes the works of the German artist Frank Kunert, who makes models to photograph and play with irony and intelligent humor.

Paper and cardboard, two materials, are presented through the artist duo Tank & Popek that present several sculptures made of cardboard; and the parisian artist Camille Ortoli, which presents several buildings made of paper with the classic “Haussmanian” design of the buildings of Paris.

Kunert proposes themes that are in everyday life, such as death and love, which it represents through the model of a cemetery that in its upper part has a garden two graves and in its lower part is the bedroom of a married couple to symbolize eternal rest together.

The host city of the exhibition also has a certain role in the exhibition with the works of the French artist Nicolas peter, known for making scale buildings in the working-class neighborhoods or some well-known buildings in Paris, such as the emblematic Tati department store, in the 18th arrondissement.

The painting also has its leading role thanks to the South African Lorraine Loots, which makes miniature drawings that can only be appreciated in all their richness through a magnifying glass.

At the end of the tour, visitors observe through various videos the creation process of all the works explained by the artists themselves from their workshops.

In addition, the gallery has organized several artistic creation workshops for children with the aim of motivating potential new authors in this field. (I)