By Richard Campbell
The Spanish Pop Surrealist Okuda San Miguel has landed his brightly colored mythical creature sculptures on the Seaport Boulevard, lending a playful quality to what is essentially a highway through the Seaport. His larger than life sized geometrically formed sculptures face forward on the boulevard, beckoning more to drivers than to the pedestrian passer-by. The identity of the mythical figures is encased with an architectural sense of sculpture. They are the perfect anecdote to break up the seemingly never-ending sequence of blue glass boxes.
Looking somewhat like computer generated art, they are often cryptically named. In contrast to the native growth on the medians, these shiny sculptures will draw the eyes and add a notion of modernity to the new Seaport that fits its unstated desire to eventually become a more walkable, adventure filled part of the city. One can see influences from Dali, Picasso, Gaudi, and other Spanish artists, along with a kind of ubiquitous international color palette that has a bit of a corporate feel to it. His work was also on display at Hub Week, painted on the sides of big containers, which echoes his larger wall murals in churches and buildings in Spain and the Swiss Alps.
A resident of Madrid, Spain, the artist took a BA from Complutense University of Madrid, and his street works can be seen around the world: India, Mali, Mozambique, the United States, Japan, Chile, Brazil, Peru, South Africa, Mexico and Europe. He appears to be at great ease working in multiple mediums and has that fashionable flair for which Spanish artists are renown. To see a comprehensive website of his work, go to: http://okudart.es/showcase/.
It must be said that the common sculptural works and murals are a little less edgy than some of his photography and video which tries a little bit too hard to be controversial. It must be duly noted that the work he has done for Boston is suitably restrained. It is a welcome addition on the Seaport to see some sculpture that doesn’t look like bug zapping screens or boring abstractions.
