Madrid-based Spanish artist Fernando Vicente uses maps for more than geographical purposes. For his Atlas series, the creative illustrator paints on old maps, transforming countries and whole continents into people, animals, and skulls. The collection of acrylic paint portraits applied and integrated into each map, similar to the work of Ed Fairburn, gives the lands a new sense of life.
While cartography can be seen as an art in its own right, Vicente manages to transform each informative sheet into an interpretive piece. The images he adds to the maps are translucent enough to recognize the underlying contours of nations and the separation between ocean and land while simultaneously appreciating the artist's ability to connect masses of land into one unified figure. His work presents an organic vision of the world, as though countries are not disconnected from one another and share a spirit guardian.
