RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Brazilian artist Eduardo Srur reproduces works by renowned masters without using a drop of paint, but rather plastic collected from city streets and rivers.
For his most recent exhibition, Srur copied Picasso, Van Gogh, Monet and Warhol to draw attention to the pollution caused by the accumulation of plastic waste. “These works will probably last a long time in the history of mankind, just like the plastic we inappropriately dispose of in nature,” he said in his São Paulo studio.
His exhibition “Natureza Plástica” (Plastic Nature) will debut in the São Paulo capital in the second half of 2021.
The artist is committed to raising environmental awareness by creating enormous installations in public spaces in São Paulo, often on the banks of the city’s highly polluted rivers.
During the coronavirus pandemic, Srur’s focus returned to the studio, where he traded brushes for a pair of tweezers, working in colored plastic to compose images.
“I brought it into this contemporary moment, where plastic dominates everything and everyone, and I introduce this series as plastic nature” said the artist.
“A production with no paint, except that which has already been processed into plastic by the industry. No glue was used, it’s a box that was built and inside I press and condense, I create an accumulation of plastic bags that ultimately create the image you see.”