Surreal Jungle Renderings

In the vein of Dali and ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ Vinicius Costa has created a series of surreal digital landscapes. Costa renders fantastic scenery and eccentric characters in photo-realistic detail, giving the viewer a visceral sense of being there.

In one larger-than-life desert scene, Vinicius Costa places an over-sized apple and tea cup in front of a giant giraffe glancing curiously at an old-school ferris wheel towering boldly above mountain cliffs. I would pay to go to a place like this, despite the obvious hazards posed by a giant giraffe lumbering around porcelain and antiquated machinery.

Vinicius Costa’s creations beg the viewer to climb down the rabbit hole and forget the blase aspects of daily life. Indeed, he takes familiar domestic objects -- a pill bottle or bowl of milk -- and transforms them in unexpected ways. In these works, Vinicius Costa celebrates the expansiveness of imagination while avoiding the self-pitying trappings of escapism.