Born Stathis Tsavalis, Insane 51 is a young Greek mural artist that began as a graffiti writer in 2007. From his teenage years, he showed great enthusiasm for art and installations. He wandered around Athens discovering the beauty of the city’s walls. Insane51 did his first mural in 2006 and his works are based on images using experimental techniques and hues.
Insane51 is still a student in Athens School of Fine Arts and he has studied applied arts and graphic arts as well. Nowadays, he specializes in photorealism on massive walls. Perhaps his most recent style is using 3D painting in his murals and he creates unimaginable double-imaged pieces.
His incredible talent has propelled him to take part in several art exhibitions and graffiti festivals in Greece and other countries across Europe. He’s exhibited works in street art exhibitions including Lobart Festival and Designwars Exhibition, art events including Live Paintings (Colour Our Day Festival, Athens Tattoo Convention, Athens Rockwave Festival, and Euro Tatoo Convention.
He’s taken part in graffiti festivals such as Thessaloniki Street Art Festival, HipHop Shop Graffiti Jams, Living Color Festival, Ram the Spot, Overline Festival and Roskilde Festival. Insane51 also painted a canvas for StreetArtToday, possibly the biggest street art museum in Europe. He’s a member of SakeTatooCrew channel on Youtube which also uploads several of his murals.
His mission is to travel around the world and leave his artworks wherever he goes. Here are three of his most recent incredible pieces;
‘Antithesis’ mural in Naousa
Insane51 did this ‘Antithesis’ mural at the Lobart festival held in Naousa, Greece in 2016. He painted a double-portrait of Brad Pitt and Edward Norton from the movie Fightclub. Insane used 3D glasses and LED light to create a double exposure 3D piece of the actors.
From a naked eye, it appears as one image from either angle you look at the mural from. Looking from the right, you see Edward Norton in turquoise shirt and black tie, his face dazzling with some wrinkles showing. He holds a cigar between his lips with the cigarette smoke blowing to the left. If you look from the left side, you’ll see Brad Pitt in a t-shirt and jacket and holding a cigar between his teeth. The word “Thesis” appears at the top side of the mural.
Once you put on your 3D glasses, you’ll the genius of Insane51; the images appear directly opposite to each other, flipped over each other hence the name ‘Antithesis’.
X-Ray Girl in Berlin
The X-ray girl is another collection of art pieces from Insane 51, that he did this inside a train station (raoul-wallenberg-straße) in Berlin. Using 3D this mural depicts a girl’s skull from an x-ray view and within a flash of a second the image changes to a beautiful ordinary lady.
The lady is seen to be staring to a window. The idea behind the drawing must have been motivated from Leonardo da Vinci. Notably about this art is that the mural assumes the real appearance of xray images on humans.May be Insane 51 might have dropped a radiology course before joining the art profession. Train travelers using this station must be amused at this piece of art.
Malcom McDowell Portrait
Insane 51 derived the art from the movie A clockwork Orange. The mural embraces blue/red 3D glass effect graffiti. The art was done for clock café bar which is based at Halandri, Anthens, Greece. This piece of art has attracted the attention of many art lovers and even those with little taste for art can’t hide their admiration for this mural.
Insane 51 must have put his heart on this art. With the LED lights shining you will be able to see the true beauty of this art. Well, still without the LED the portrait takes after Malcolm McDowell. The portrait is spot on and the café must have gotten value for their money.
