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Trompe-l'il Paintings of Windows Create Fantastic Optical Illusions in Istanbul

If you were walking past these small and decorative windows, you might not assume that they're fake. But, you'd be mistaken. These windows are actually paintings by the Spanish street artist Pejac. He recently stopped in Istanbul, Turkey to create three new trompe-l'il pieces in the district of Uskudar. Titled Lock, Poster, and Shutters, they're convincing as part of the landscape; it's only upon closer inspection that we see Pejac used brushes, acrylic paint, and sandpaper to seamlessly blend artwork and the environment.

Lock, Poster, and Shutters takes advantage of the building's existing elements and textures to produce the illusions that we see here. Pejac intends to play with our perception of what's real and fabricated, and he's persuasive. Even some of the detailed photographs look as though they really could be stone. And, it's the artist's aim to momentarily confuse you. “Trompe-l'il literarily translates from French to ‘eye trap,'” he explains. “In the case of these three windows the trap works in both directions: from outside to inside and from inside to outside.”

Pejac website and Instagram
Photos by Julian Santiago
via [Colossal, Street Art News, and Complex]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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