We’re stretching our definition of ’tile’ a little further again today to celebrate a strange and mindbending art – Rubik’s Cube mosaics. The artist we are focusing on is Giovanni Contardi, a young Italian who first learnt to master the cube in 2009, later coming second in the 2011 World Rubik’s Cube Championship.

With a repertoire of over 60 national records, nine European records and three world records, his talents have now taken on new forms. Using the famous puzzle to produce huge mosaic portraits, he is now a full-time Rubik’s Cube artist.

John Lennon, Amy Winehouse, Dali, and LeBron James have all featured in his works, as has a fantastically meta representation of Picasso’s Portrait of Dora Maar, The Mona Lisa, and most recently a modern interpretation of Atlas holding a Rubik’s Cube in place of the Globe.

About his most recent piece Contardi said: “This mosaic is very special for different reasons. First, it’s not a portrait and, second, it’s 6,111 Rubik’s Cubes, which is the biggest one ever done in less than 24 hours.” Miraculously it only took 16 hours to complete, an incredible demontration of talent a Rubik’s Cube skill.

Giovanni Contardi

A new post by Hanna Simpson, Diary of a Tile Addict, November 2020.