Some argue no man’s artistry rivals nature’s beauty and even propagate this claim as an argument for the existence of god. And for most of history nature used to be a customary muse of visual artists. Today, however, nature is a channel on TV; we dwell in concrete forests and draw our inspiration from the constructs of other people. Here are two series that distill the questionable appearance of cityscapes into art: Vesela Mihaylova’s mash-up of photographs from Sofia, Istanbul and Vienna, and Gradinko’s psychedelic re-take on the realism movement in socialist art.

Urban patterns

by Vesela Mihaylova

Psychedelic Socialist-realism

by Gradinko

The series is part of the Masters Re-mastered project, which seeks after a new Bulgarian visual identity by remixing masterpieces and styles from old Bulgarian artists. Gradinko kept the love of communist painters for all things industrial and utilitarian but substituted a post-modern psychedelic twist for the stern aesthetics of bygone party-sanctioned art.