The French artist Mantra ended 2016 with his largest mural to date in Ambato, Ecuador for EMA16, currated by Central Dogma.
About The Mural
Entitled “La Fomule Scerete” (The secret Fromula), the mural is painted on the National Library’s side building wall in downtown Ambato, and depicts a woman in traditional clothes picking up books from the shelf. The artist is trying to convey that knowledge is the best weapon to fight injustice.
“It was rather beautiful the way he put her insecurities to sleep. The way he dove into her eyes and starved her fears, and tasted all the dreams she kept coiled beneath her bones.” – Christopher Poindexter
About The Artist
Mantra is a self-taught painter from France residing in Bogota, Colombia. Born in 1987 and has been painting the streets since 2008. As a kid, Mantra grew up between the noise of the city and the whispers of the surrounding countryside. And in his paintings and street canvases the Artist pays tribute to his childhood heroes (butterflies, owls, spiders, birds…) in a realistic and lively style like a mirror reflecting on the cries of a nature and that we don’t hear anymore. The artist creates magnificent murals with the combination of exquisite colors and in-depth background, with the intention to leave his footprints in the urban areas like repeated mantras, hence his nickname.
Images by Tania Navarrete
