“If you look on the map, Florida is like Italy, all surrounded by water,” says Etnik as he finishes this new spatial composition of geometrical forms. “Ocean, river, fishes and everything that is in the water represented in the elements. Nature in opposition with geometric shapes.”

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

In fact he accounts for all five Platonic elements combined with a geometric shape for a series of walls he’s planning; the cube and the Earth, Air with the Octahedron, Fire with the Tetrahedron, and the Dodecadedron with the Universe.

Here in Jacksonville he’s not far from the Atlantic, St. John’s River, Nepture Beach – and the building itself houses a seafood market. With this environment lapping at his ankles wherever he turns, one can easily imagine his influences when conjuring and painting this 38 foot x 150 foot “Eikosi”, his largest mural ever, here organized by Iryna Kanishcheva.

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

The twenty-sided icosahedron overlooking a stream of cars on the highway is full of rippling, swirling, splashing aqua – something the Turin, Italy based Etnik finds refreshing and in alignment with his urban art practice.

“The icosahedron of Plato is a metaphor to represent the ocean sections created in my style,” he says. “Urban agglomerations and natural elements (that float in an indefinite space and represent the contradictions of the urban spaces we live in) is the line that always mark my evolving style in recent years, on the revenge of the nature on urbanization.”

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Etnik. Eikosi. In Collaboration with GNV Urban Art. Jacksonville, Fl. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

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