Renowned artist in the Street Art scene, Mantra is an autodidact artist who stands out for his incredible speed in execution and gigantic works of breathtaking reality, full of poetry.
As a child he spent as much time in the country as in the city and though a total city dweller, he is very attached to the elements of nature and the animals, butterflies and owls in particular. They appear in his work in a hyperrealistic way, giving wildlife and nature a dominant position in the city.
His monumental wall paintings of insects or animals are often surrounded by a dark frame, suggesting a gigantic painting or a huge butterfly box hanging on the house wall.
Mantra’s amazing technic enables him to repeat the same pattern while changing the scale. Urban figurative artist, his monumental paintings express poetry and lyricism…
Beyond the decorative aspect it is also a symbolic element. In the iconography of art, the butterfly is the visual representation of the soul rising to the sky or a symbol of resurrection following the metamorphosis of the chrysalis to butterfly. It is also a symbol of fragility.
For VAF4 in 2018, Mantra inspired himself from the butterflies of the Valais, starting from a sketch and free hand painting these huge species on the wall, taking in account the shades of the moving sun.