Inspired by some of the most ancient art known to man, photographer Alex Guofeng Cao has created mosaics for the modern age.
Utilizing familiar images of some of the most recognizable faces of the 20th century, Cao has composed larger- than-life mosaics – photographs composed of other tiny images. A portrait of John F. Kennedy is made up of tens of thousands of images of his wife Jackie exposed in a manner in which the small pixels create the larger image. Joining the Kennedys in the Nantucket installation are images of Marilyn Monroe and the Mona Lisa, John Lennon and Elvis, among nearly a dozen others.
Garnering headlines across the country wherever the work has shown, Cao became the star of last year’s Art Basel in Miami, Fla. after being featured in a cover story
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“A portrait of John F. Kennedy is made up of tens of thousands of images of his wife Jackie exposed in a manner in which the small pixels create the larger image.”
in The Miami Herald and selling out his exhibit. Since then a slew of other mainstream publications and art journals have focused their attention on Cao, whose roots are in commercial photography and celebrity portraiture.
Born in China and educated from high school on in the United States, Cao was a fan of history first and foremost, and received inspiration for his current body of work after studying Western antiquity and ancient Eastern societies. He was also strongly influenced by the Pop Art movement in the United States that Andy Warhol is most famous for representing.