In Santiago, Chile Jorge Campos, A.K.A. Pixel, is taking mosaic street art to a whole new level.

Exploring the intersection of art and technology, Pixel shares his images of cultural heroes, and riffs on art icons, with the people of Santiago by bringing mosaic art to local neighbourhoods.

In his own words, Jorge Campos says: “Pixel is an artist from Santiago, Chile, who started his design career when it was still hard to think that visual design will evolve towards technologies, as it prevails today.  Today, the use of technology is not only an obligation, but a responsibility, as it allows us to record our history and improve our design and artistic tools.”

Street art has been a main inspiration in Pixel’s artistic development. For two years, he worked in Paris taking photos of urban street art by pioneers like Blek Le Rat, Jef Aérosol, Miss. Tic and Lézarts Biévre.

As Campos explains, talking in the third person, this was a formative experience; “In Paris, he learned firsthand of the work of Space Invader who inspired him to research pixel and mosaic techniques. Subsequently, he studied the religious and decorative mosaics of Mesopotamia, Greece and Byzantium. He began to explore the use of the pixel to create simplified images that synthesized color and form to its limit. Now, he has reached a cohesion between photography, mosaic, and dominant technological tools to create his own signature technique.”

Pixel’s mission is to make art easily accessible to the people. He calls his installations ‘interventions’ and believes that his mosaics will inspire people to become engaged with art.

Commenting on public reaction to his work, Campsos states: “At first, people think they are facing a painting. Approaching and touching, they realize they are in fact facing a mosaic. Then, they wonder if it was really hand made.  They also play with distance to appreciate the work in detail, take photos, and when the image is revealed perfect and detailed on the small screens of their smartphones, they fall for it!”

All of Pixel’s interventions include a plaque with a QR code that directs the viewer to an online portfolio. There, people can see how Pixel makes his mosaics and also discover the locations of other ‘interventions’ across the city. find other works of his across the city.

A new post from Joe Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, February 2017.