Playing With Shapes (8 Photos)

Street art and sculpture that change the shape of a place

A university wall grows blue loops. Beach pebbles become a field of tiny towers. Across a Swiss village, white circles jump from roof to roof. Wooden scraps fit together into a skull, and painted letters seem to project from a bridge pillar. Some rearrange real materials; others use paint to change how solid surfaces look.

More: Can Anything Become Art? (80+ Photos)

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🔵 Anamorphic Mural — By Peeta in Padova, Italy 🇮🇹

Blue loops seem to curl out of this university building, wrapping around its round windows. Peeta painted the Padova mural for the Biennale della Street Art in 2021 on the University of Padova’s economics building on Via Ugo Bassi. Highlights and shadows give the flat facade an extra layer of depth, while the real balconies remain part of the composition.

💡 Nerd Fact: Peeta’s painted illusions are informed by physical sculpture. In his artist statement, he explains that building three-dimensional forms helps him study real light and shadows before reproducing those effects in paint.

More: Anamorphic mural by Peeta in Padova, Italy

🔗 Visit Peeta’s website

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🪨 Acervus Circlus — By Jon Foreman in Freshwater West, Wales, United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Blue, rust-red and golden stones sit in little stacks, gathered into one large circle. Jon Foreman made Acervus Circlus at Freshwater West, choosing colours that contrast with one another. Each tiny stack feels like a sculpture inside the larger one.

💡 Nerd Fact: Foreman usually includes white stones in arrangements like this, but left them out here because he felt they would stand out too much. His account of making the work shows how deliberate that beach palette is.

More: Land and Beach Art by Jon Foreman

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🟠 The Wall Has Arms — By Denis Dendy in Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪

Long white arms loop around an orange orb, casting painted shadows across the concrete. Denis Dendy’s untitled mural was painted at Urban Canvas Parkhaus Wedding, a changing parking-garage gallery organized by LIEBEzurKUNST at Brunnenstraße 105–109 in Berlin. The person working beside it gives the looping form a sense of scale.

💡 Nerd Fact: This garage is designed to change rather than keep every mural permanently. The organizers describe a rotation system in which artists have three to four days to paint, and completed works remain for at least two months before their walls become available again.

More: When Art Make The Impossible (12 Photos)

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⭕ Cercle et suite d’éclats — By Felice Varini in Vercorin, Switzerland 🇨🇭

White arcs cross roofs, walls and gaps between buildings in Vercorin. Felice Varini’s Cercle et suite d’éclats, created in 2009, brings those separate marks together from a chosen viewpoint. Follow just one circle and it appears to jump through the village.

💡 Nerd Fact: Varini does not consider the perfectly aligned view the whole artwork. In his own account of his method, it is only a starting point: the fragmented shapes seen while moving away also belong to the work.

More: This is not Photoshop – By 2D artist Felice Varini (4 photos)

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💀 A Skull from Scraps — By René-Pierre Beaudry in Montreal, Canada 🇨🇦

Offcuts, broken boards and light switches add up to a skull against a black backing. René-Pierre Beaudry lets the uneven edges of the salvaged pieces form its teeth and brow.

💡 Nerd Fact: Art made by bringing ordinary objects together has a long exhibition history. In 1961, MoMA’s The Art of Assemblage examined works incorporating materials such as wood fragments, household utensils and discarded manufactured objects—materials not originally made for artists.

More: Can Anything Become Art? (80+ Photos)

🔗 Follow René-Pierre Beaudry on Instagram

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🏗️ LISBOA — By Odeith in Lisbon, Portugal 🇵🇹

LISBOA climbs a concrete pillar beneath the Vasco da Gama Bridge. Odeith painted the lettering as part of his contribution to Lisbon’s MURO festival in 2021, extending the project beyond his Obliquity exhibition at Gare do Oriente. Shading makes the letters appear to project from the column, while the actual edge of the pillar runs through the illusion.

💡 Nerd Fact: A camera can help these illusions read more clearly than two-eyed viewing. Mensagem’s on-site report from Odeith’s 2021 project describes finding the intended viewpoint and either closing one eye or using a camera to see the painted forms appear to float.

More: 3D Art By Odeith (25 Photos)

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🐟 Noyer le Poisson — By Veks Van Hillik in Dijon, France 🇫🇷

A blue fish hovers beside a tall glass, with an eye visible through the vessel. Veks Van Hillik painted Noyer le Poisson for Le M.U.R Dijon’s April 2026 programme, at the junction of rue d’Assas and rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The painted arch makes the flat wall look like a deep recess in the building.

💡 Nerd Fact: The title carries two meanings. The Académie française records noyer le poisson as a fishing technique for tiring a hooked fish before landing it. Figuratively, it means using evasions to avoid a subject during a discussion.

More: Nature Become Art (100 Photos)

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🌀 Druid Spiral — By Jon Foreman in Druidston, Wales, United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Dark slate stands on edge in a spiral that grows from a tight center into a broad outer curve. Jon Foreman made Druid Spiral at Druidston, using the beach’s slate to give the pattern its jagged outline. The gaps between the stones become part of the drawing.

💡 Nerd Fact: Slate can split naturally into thin sheets because of its microscopic structure. The Earthlearningidea Virtual Rock Kit explains that its tiny interlocking crystals lie in parallel bands, allowing the rock to split along planes called cleavage.

More: Land and Beach Art by Jon Foreman

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Which one is your favorite?