Playing With Art (8 Photos)

Art cannot solve everything. But it can make the world feel larger, kinder, stranger, and more alive.

Across these eight works, artists give public space to wonder, childhood, friendship, inclusion, illness, and the idea of home. A planet floats in a London dock, a small fish fills an entire wall, and a flamingo bends into an airport terminal.

More: The World Is Still A Wonderful Place (9 Photos)

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🌍 “Floating Earth” — By Luke Jerram in London, UK 🇬🇧

Presented in Middle Dock for Canary Wharf’s 2023 Winter Lights festival, Luke Jerram’s 10-meter “Floating Earth” was created to evoke the “Overview Effect” reported by astronauts: awe for the planet, a sense of life’s interconnection, and renewed responsibility for its care. The small red canoe makes the installation’s scale plain. Its temporary London home was Middle Dock, now called Eden Dock.

💡 Nerd Fact: The installation is presented with a surround-sound composition by Dan Jones.

More: Floating Earth in London

🔗 Visit Luke Jerram’s website

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🐠 Betta Fish Mural — By Clara Leff in Fafe, Portugal 🇵🇹

Clara Leff painted this turquoise betta during the 2019 Café Cultural project in Fafe. Local coverage places the mural in Parque da Cidade. The small freshwater fish expands across an entire wall, and this photograph catches Leff working between its fins. See Parque da Cidade de Fafe on Google Maps.

More: Clara Leff’s Betta Fish Mural in Fafe

🔗 Visit Clara Leff’s website

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🪁 “El Luche” — By Maxi Zamora in Valparaíso, Chile 🇨🇱

On the steps of Pasaje Gálvez in Cerro Concepción, Maxi Zamora painted two girls playing el luche, Chile’s version of hopscotch. In his original post, he said the 2024 mural honors the simple street games once shared by children in neighborhoods across Chile.

More: El Luche on the steps of Valparaíso

🔗 Follow Maxi Zamora on Instagram

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👁️ Eye Mural — By My Dog Sighs and Background Bob in Southampton, UK 🇬🇧

For this 2021 Re:Claim Southampton collaboration, My Dog Sighs recreated one of Background Bob’s painted-cardboard designs at wall scale. He based the iris on the eyes of Noah’s mother and brother and placed Noah in the reflection. Background Bob’s first project raised more than £100,000 through its exhibition, book sales, auction, and donations; the proceeds helped redevelop the sensory room and garden at Colchester Hospital’s Children’s Department.

💡 Nerd Fact: The Background Bob project began during the first UK lockdown in spring 2020, when Noah painted cardboard at home and his father invited artists to collaborate through Instagram.

More: My Dog Sighs and Background Bob in Southampton

🔗 Visit My Dog Sighs’ website and follow Background Bob on Instagram

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🤝 “See no color” — By Rosalie de Graaf and Team RoosArt in Zwolle, the Netherlands 🇳🇱

Rosalie de Graaf designed See no color for the 32-meter Elvis Presley flat in Zwolle’s multicultural Holtenbroek neighborhood. Each of the four children is linked to a color; as they play, the colors—and the cultures they represent—mix. De Graaf painted it with Team RoosArt members Kyra Lankreijer, Jessie van Rijn, and Zara Veldhoen.

More: See no color in Zwolle (5 Photos)

🔗 Follow Rosalie de Graaf on Instagram

📷 Photo by Dronepilot Zwolle

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☀️ “Brightness Through the Clouds of Cancer” — By JDL in Rotterdam, the Netherlands 🇳🇱

Judith de Leeuw created this 30-meter mural on Rotterdam’s Kop van Zuid for KWF Dutch Cancer Society and AVROTROS’s television program Voor het leven. After someone close to her was diagnosed with terminal cancer, she shaped the work around the stories of cancer patients Pim, Ilse, and Kelly. AVROTROS documented how their accounts of living more consciously after diagnosis informed the woman and child emerging through mist. Symbolic pieces of the mural were sold during the broadcast to support KWF’s cancer research and work for people living with and after cancer.

More: Brightness Through the Clouds of Cancer (4 Photos)

🔗 Follow JDL on Instagram

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🧓 “Time” — By Matthias Mross in Chanieti, Georgia 🇬🇪

Created for Niko Movement, “Time” covers the weathered Culture Centre in Chanieti. Mross said the apparently unfinished late-Soviet block, its broken windows and mossy concrete, and an old weeping willow already gave the site a melancholy mood. The three old friends deepen that feeling and leave the viewer wondering what they are discussing.

More: Time in Chanieti (5 Photos)

🔗 Follow Matthias Mross on Instagram

📷 Photo by Nick Pania

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🦩 “HOME” — By Matthew Mazzotta at Tampa International Airport, Florida, USA 🇺🇸

Matthew Mazzotta’s 21-foot flamingo, formally titled “HOME” and nicknamed Phoebe, lowers her head through wave-like ceiling panels on Level 3 of Tampa International Airport’s Main Terminal. In his project statement, Mazzotta connects people arriving home with Florida’s wildlife and the home that humans and animals share.

💡 Nerd Fact: In 2023, HOME won the CODAawards Transportation category and a People’s Choice Award, the latter with more than 3,000 public votes.

More: Home at Tampa International Airport

🔗 Visit Matthew Mazzotta’s website

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Which one is your favorite?