Anamorphosis felice varini biography

Before you even bother guessing: no, the following photographs are not the product of advanced photo editing – in fact, many of them predate Photoshop by decades. They are simple spaces designed with a particular effect that can only be properly experienced from a single perfect point of view.

Seen from the right angle these spectacular painted surfaces shot by photographer Felice Varini seem as if they must be overlays – but any shift in viewer stance immediately reveals their actual complexity.

Painted perfectly onto layered, detailed, raised and embossed surfaces the achievement of each new illusion of perspective is an incredible task absent modern interior design computer programs.

While some of his works exist in outside built environments or interior public spaces, many of them are also located on the walls of simple domestic places – homes, condos, apartments and even parking lots.

One of the most fascinating things about this designer/artist/painter/photographer is the way in which his optical illusion wall artwork has at once remained consistent but also evolved dramatically over the decades – he has stuck to this singular focus on perspective and geometry but has explored a vast array of design ideas within these seemingly simple concepts, and employed his anamorphic techniques to everything from private interior decor to public installation art.

Here’s what Felice has to say about his work, from an interview with Poetic Mind:

“When I begin to paint I never think about the viewer. The viewer does not affect the way I start the work. The viewer will become part of the work once it is done and he can watch the painting. Even then I can not tell you what he will see, because I do not know where he is standing and what is the view point from which he is watching the painting.”

“I start my works from one vantage point, which is simply th

New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences Issue 5 () ISSN Selected paper of 5th World Conference on Design and Arts (WCDA), May , South East European University Skopje-Macedonia The Anamorphoses of Felice Varini a Cristiana Bartolomei *, University of Bologna, Via Risorgimento 2, Bologna, Italy b Alfonso Ippolito , Sapienza University of Rome, Piazza Fontanella Borghese, Roma, Italy Suggested Citation: Bartolomei, C. & Ippolito, A. (). The Anamorphoses of Felice Varini. New Trends and Issues Proceedings on Humanities and Social Sciences. [Online]. 5, pp Available from: Selection and peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Ayse Cakir Ilhan Ankara University, Turkey SciencePark Research, Organization & Counseling. All rights reserved. © Abstract In the works of the Swiss artist Felice Varini, the fusion of color, space, architecture, geometry and visual perception make room for spectacular spaces. Taking advantage of the synergy between the anamorphosis and color, the artist creates optical illusions. The colored forms assume their real semblance only when observed from a particular point of view. Form all the other angles they seem to be just random stains of color. The right point of view is generally situated at the average height of man along the inevitable route, for example along the way from one location to another. However, this is not always so because not all spaces have a systematically superimposed obvious way of passing through them. He brings forth and uses simple geometrical forms: squares, triangles, ellipses, circles, rectangles and the like. These forms are generally created with primary colors: red, blue or yellow, and very rarely with such colors as white or black. Keywords: anamorphosis; optical illusions; geometry; * ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE: Cristiana Bartolomei, University of Bologna, Dipartimento di Archiettura, Via Risorgimento 2, Bologna, Italy E-mail address: om

Swiss artist Felice Varini has been creating illusions of flat graphics superimposed on 3 dimensional spaces since using the same eye-deceiving technique called anamorphosis. The complete shapes can only be seen when viewed at certain angles, otherwise the viewer will only see some random broken pieces.
For Varini it’s all about your point of view.  Varini takes this idea to its extremely literal conclusion.  From the perfect perspective his painted geometric shapes seem to float in front of your eyes.

However, in reality Varini works hard to make only appear this way.  In reality his pieces are huge, cover entire structures (at times multiple buildings), and carefully prepared to be seen from a precise viewpoint.  His large optical illusions underscore the subjective nature of art – it’s all about your point of view. The vantage point (Figure 15 and 17) is carefully chosen: it is generally situated at his eye level and located preferably along a well-traveled route, for instance an opening between one room and another, or a clearing, or a landing. He then projects the form devised for the particular space onto its surfaces from the vantage point, then traces and paints.
The finished painting can be viewed from the spot where he originally placed the projector. Felice Varini tends to use simple geometric forms: squares, triangles, ellipses, circles, rectangles, and lines. These forms are usually created in one of the three primary colors: red, blue or yellow, occasionally employing some secondary colors, as well as in black