Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

6193. Upfest 2024 (38)

Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

Ivan Tortajada is a Spanish artist from Valencia whose stylised portrait pieces are unusual and fantastical. You can only fully get a feel of his work by checking out his website, which I thoroughly recommend. In this Upfest piece, he has cleverly brought together two characters on perpendicular surfaces and incorporated the large caterpillar that has occupied this wall for as long as I can remember.

Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

The portrait on the left is painted with warm colours in his highly illustrative style. The character appears to be glancing at the caterpillar and is holding a lighted match, I hope without malicious intentions.

Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024
Ivan Tortajada, Upfest 2024, East Street, Bristol, May 2024

The adjacent portrait is in colder blue colours is also looking on at the caterpillar and appears to be holding a disc that the bug is resting on. The portrait is beautifully worked with stripes of graded blues, and a touch of yellow where there is reflected light. This is a beguiling piece and one that so cleverly fits into the selected spot, working with the existing caterpillar, rather than against it.

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scooj

I am Stephen. I live in Bristol, UK. I decided to shorten my profile...to this: Wildlife, haiku, travel, streetart, psychogeography and my family. Not necessarily in that order.

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