Johan Karlgren is a Swedish artist who creates cool pixelated street art using beads. While small in size, his works are highly captivating, revolving around pop culture characters, animals, and everyday scenes.
Karlgren uses beads to create an image inside a frame and then fuses the beads together to make it a standalone piece. This art technique is usually used by children, but Karlgren’s art shows adults can enjoy it as well.
Some of Karlgren’s artwork ends up being offered on his website, but a large part of it ends up on the street as a way to give some life to the urban surroundings. For example, there are more than 500 of his artworks scattered around his hometown.
In a chat with Urban Nation, Karlgren revealed that he got an art degree but initially decided to focus on skating and video games. He only returned to art when he started beading with his kids and now enjoys every moment of it.
Karlgren’s main source of inspiration is video games, but there are all sorts of other things that he likes to capture with beads.
“Also movies from the eighties, stuff that Trump is doing, and political events,” he shared. “Generally, I enjoy doing stuff that is up to date.”
Check out more of his artworks below.
