Sohei Nishino seems to have captured so many things that I love in his art.  Foreign cities, travel, maps, photography, collage, vast landscapes, collage, (I could go on)… are all what makes his layered Diorama Maps so exciting.  I’ve only looked at them online, but I wish I could see his current show in person. His works are huge and I really want to stand in front of them and play a quiet little game of ‘I spy’.  Or maybe there is actually a black and white Waldo somewhere in there?

Amsterdam

Amsterdam (detail)

New York

Artisitic Process

He captures the details of his maps by walking the streets of the subject city for months at a time and the ultimate images that he creates are composed of thousands of small images that he took along the way.

I love how from a distance they almost look like illustrations…but up close you can see tiny details of street scenes, nature and general life in the city.

And then there is this – watch a time-lapse of creating once of these amazing pieces.

Making Diorama Map of San Francisco 2016 from sohei nishino on Vimeo.

Learn more about his process at atlas obscura.

If you are in San Francisco between now and February 26th, 2017 you can check out Sohei Nishino in person at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.