Artists Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni, who work as NEVERCREW, have a knack for bringing the immensity of nature to developed urban spaces. Their colorful, large-scale murals take a playful tack when it comes to portraying animals, often merging them with other objects such as instant photos or, most recently, a plastic punch-out toy. “Souvenir,” completed this year in Vienna, combines motifs of a large bear with other Arctic components, such as icebergs, a seabird, and a steamship.

“The natural environment appears transformed, filtered, made artificial: it is no longer a space experienced through relationship, but a distant construction,” the artists say in a statement. The work is “almost a simulation reflecting a perception of nature progressively emptied of empathy…Nature becomes something to observe, arrange, organize, as if it were a separate object rather than a system of which we are an integral part.”

Over the past few years, NEVERCREW has completed numerous architectonic paintings that depict the fragile balance between humanity and nature—specifically wildlife. Whales, bears, and elephants are depicted inside of terrariums or bundled into fabrics.

The animals’ very presence on the side of buildings, where they are contained within the bounds of the architecture, is a reminder of the tensions between—one might even say the incongruousness of—daily human activities and city infrastructure. For Rebbechi and Togni, bringing nature into these spaces highlights the importance of sustaining the relationship between humankind and nature.

See more on the artists’ Instagram.

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A bold new structure has appeared in Cary Park in Cary, North Carolina: the latest sculptural pavilion by Marc Fornes / THEVERYMANY. The work is titled “L’Ile Folie,” which nods to the architectural tradition of the folly, a landscape feature that was all the rage with wealthy estate owners in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Often nostalgic and resembling ruined miniature castles or bucolic village buildings, follies were generally non-functional and conceived as pure decoration. Fornes, however, reimagines this practice with an eye toward the future rather than the past. The pavilion “gives this tradition a contemporary meaning: memorable, playful, and slightly surreal,” says a statement.

Fornes is known for creating high-tech structures made from thousands of individual facets, blurring the distinction between architecture and sculpture. Situated along a boardwalk and perched over a pond, the gleaming white pavilion invites visitors to pause and appreciate their natural surroundings from a contemporary landmark.

“Constructed from ultra-thin folded aluminum panels, each piece is digitally fabricated and precisely riveted into place,” says a statement. “There is no hidden frame; the skin is the structure. Thousands of perforations filter sunlight into delicate patterns, turning the canopy into an ever-changing atmosphere of shadow and shimmer.”

See more on THEVERYMANY’s Instagram and Vimeo.

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In Sydney’s Circular Quay, a 6.5-meter-tall installation spins, twirls, and totters amid a public thoroughfare. Titled “There, Now, Here,” the kinetic artwork is by the Brooklyn-based duo Wade and Leta and is in almost constant motion, thanks to wind, motors, and willing participants hopping on a see-saw.

With black and white stripes alongside a more muted palette, the colors of the playground-style project reference Dorothea Mackellar’s beloved poem “My Country,” which professes her devotion to the Australian landscape and what she dubs the “sunburnt country.” Harnessing the washed-out tones of a sun-bleached environment, the artists present their signature bold works in more subtle hues, as if the pieces have been baking under the light for years.

A sonic component created by Josh Burgess accompanies the sculpture and can be manipulated by the public through accessible controls. “If one were to listen closely, they can hear the rush of water on the rocks, the dings of the light rail, the crosswalk signal, and most importantly, the local wildlife,” the artists say. “Our favorite piece is a nod to the ‘bush doof’ using the sounds of a lyrebird as the structure.”

“There, Now, Here” is the pair’s first public work in Australia and part of the annual light and music festival Vivid Sydney. Find more on Wade and Leta’s Instagram.

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“Play is how we give permission,” says Vitor Freire, co-founder of the Amsterdam-based studio Imagination of Things. “Permission to challenge what’s fixed, rehearse what doesn’t exist yet, and close the distance between people who wouldn’t otherwise meet.”

Freire and co-founder Monique Grimord take play seriously and, in a new project, their studio created a vast repository of 169 artworks, designs, games, and more that have offered an unexpected encounter with imagination and joy. From Rael San Fratello’s award-winning “Teeter-Totter Wall” to the healing Wind Phone project to a 12-foot puppet walking the world, Unruly Play is a multi-decade archive of participatory projects, public spaces, and digital creations that invite surprise and camaraderie.

“Our collaborators have always asked us where our ideas come from,” Gimrod says, “and the truth is that they come from references that rarely talk to each other—it can be a seesaw through a border wall or a phone booth connected to the dead… We wanted to create unusual dialogues and support new creative practices, and Unruly Play was our answer for that.”

Fully interactive, the project is searchable by theme or browsable through a shuffle feature. To dive deeper into the power of play, check out this compendium of artist-designed spaces.

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Although James Reka finds total freedom in his studio practice, it’s public art that he gravitates toward. The Australia-born artist researches the history of a building or neighborhood as he conceptualizes a mural and enjoys the constraints of creating within a particular geographic and cultural context.

“Public art needs to connect with the local community,” he says. “It does need to have a narrative or a message, even if it’s very subtle. I am mindful of this and choose to view it as a challenge to explore certain themes and color combinations that my studio work does not.”

Reka renders minimalist shapes into dense compositions with a distinctive sense of vitality and movement. The largely geometric depictions draw attention to the color palettes and layerings, which the artist builds up through contrasting hues that delineate a hand or face. Architectural details like windows or piping play a role, too, and are incorporated into the final piece.

While the studio and street require different approaches, Reka finds that all of his work has trended toward abstraction in recent years. “I was actually never very good at painting or drawing realistic things!” he says. “Maybe subconsciously, I acknowledged my strengths and weaknesses at an early stage in my art career.” In describing his process, he adds:

I often start by drawing proportionally correct figures before stripping them back to the rawest form or most simplified version. Through sketching, happy accidents occur, which often help me direct the content or composition. Certain lines tend to stand out for me to then manipulate and abstract further. Eventually, this process is ripping the content apart and then rebuilding its core elements in an abstract way.

Reka is currently preparing for a solo show this fall in his hometown of Melbourne. Keep up with his projects in and out of the studio on Instagram.

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The surprise of turning onto a street to see a vibrant mural—or the joy of viewing several in progress during popular festivals like Nuart Aberdeen—is essentially an ephemeral experience. Murals may be designed to last several decades, or they may be temporary installations that address a particularly interesting bit of local history or urgent social issue, but either way, the experience is brief as we walk by. Always vulnerable to the elements and new development, these pieces don’t always last long. That’s where Art UK’s archive comes in.

As a digital platform, Art UK connects viewers to public collections around the nation. There are about a million artworks on the site, drawn from around 3,500 collections, including museums, libraries, hospitals, town halls, and more. The organization also recently reached a significant milestone in its ambition to map and catalogue street art and murals across the country. Just a little more than two years after launching the initiative, Art UK has added more than 6,600 new works to its database, bringing the total number of public artworks to well over 21,000.

Ranging from small, spray-painted pieces by the notoriously enigmatic Banksy to large-scale compositions by Rogue-one, The London Mural Company, and more, the scope is daunting. “Our initial aim for the project was simple: we wanted to record 5,000 murals and wall-based artworks from across the U.K.,” says Art UK’s Public Art Manager, Tracy Jenkins. “The artworks would date from A.D. 1000 to the present day and include wall paintings in historic churches, post-war ceramic and concrete works, and contemporary painted murals and mosaics.”

Volunteers dedicated more than 5,000 hours to locating and photographing the works. The database includes many that are decades old at this point, emphasizing their sites and condition in case they’re ever threatened by future redevelopments. Most of the works are relatively recent, but Art UK doesn’t discriminate based on date or even if they’re outside. A series of otherworldly paintings inside of St. Thomas’ Church in East Shefford, Berkshire, for example, are centuries old.

Jenkins notes that the project launched at a time when street art and mural-making in the U.K. were experiencing a boom, and the addition of these aesthetic installations within an urban context “has been shown to significantly reduce the instances of unsightly tagging graffiti,” in addition to boosting visitors and local economies. She also acknowledges “public art in any form can be contentious, sparking debate and strong emotion… Street art and muralism is in many ways the most democratic genre—it is not created in a faraway studio, it is not locked behind closed doors, and it does not require prior expert knowledge.”

Creating an archive of street art and murals is a way to build engagement and also understanding of the medium, promoting a feeling of what Jenkins calls “community ownership and pride,” where moments of artistic, informative, playful, and celebratory work delight around city corners. See a handful of additions below, and explore the database on Art UK’s website.

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In the large-scale murals of Alex Senna, figures gather, greet one another, relax, and interact with their own shadows in bold compositions. The Brazilian artist is known for his black-and-white murals that emphasize community and emotional bonds. Togetherness, security, and positivity pervade the scenes, sometimes playful and other times more contemplative. Set against colorful backgrounds and amid urban structures, Senna’s pieces emphasize connection, support, reflection, and belonging.

At the end of May, Senna embarks on a tour across Italy, France, and Spain to participate in several festivals. Follow the artist’s Instagram for updates.

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