Jon Rafman Wraps Entire Rooms With Classic Paintings

Monet Master Bedroom

Lichtenstein Moe’s Tavern

Matisse Nursery

O’Keeffe Lobby

Basquiat Classroom

For his ongoing project titled “Brand New Paint Job,” artist Jon Rafman transforms domestic and familiar settings by imagining them as classic paintings. Using recognizable patterns and paintings from artists such as Basquiat, Lichtenstein, Picasso, Monet, O’Keeffe, Haring, Duchamp, de Kooning, and Matisse, Rafman wraps nurseries, living rooms, bedrooms, and familiar television sets like Star Trek, Jeopardy!, and Seinfeld, turning these works into 3D living spaces. In order to create these imagined spaces, Rafman finds 3D models from Google 3D Warehouse, an online gallery where Google Sketchup users upload their work.

Of his project, Rafman says, “The BNPJ interiors started off as a play on interior design chic. Historically, the greatest fear of the painter was that his work would become design objects. Now it’s common for contemporary artists to take inspiration from commercial visual culture. The design of a Nike cross trainer or a Samsung monitor is as important to contemporary art practice as intense light and dark shadows are to baroque painting. I’m exploring the line between art and design, in which a great work of art can be reduced to a shrinkwrap or add-on surface and functional objects and spaces elevated to the purposelessness of artwork. I’m interested in those forced marriages.” (via my modern met)

Hans Hoffman Kitchen