Youri “Mantra” Cansell
(b. 1987 Metz, France)
The 21st Collection
2020
Acrylic paint
Courtesy of OZ Art NWA and JustKids

The 21st Collection is another mural from OZ Art’s 2020 ARkanvas initiative. French street artist Youri Cansell (also known by his moniker Mantra) is a painter and naturalist with a passion for nature. Equally adept at painting humans as well as animals, Mantra is also fascinated by entomology, the study of insects.

Mining childhood memories of collecting critters from his backyard garden, he now paints exquisite murals, often of moths and butterflies. These images appear in urban places where these ephemeral beings are seldom seen in the wild. The creatures are depicted as lifeless specimens displayed in an exhibit case with a wooden frame and cast shadows. The broken glass in the image serves as a heartbreaking comment on lost biodiversity, alerting the viewer to the threat of climate change to bring awareness to the preservation of our natural ecosystems.

The central figure, a Luna Moth, sits alongside a Silvery Checkerspot Butterfly, a Karner Melissa Blue Butterfly, and a White Orange Tip butterfly. You can see a sister mural to this one in Little Rock, Arkansas, entitled The Nine, celebrating the nine species of butterflies native to Arkansas.

(written by Carlyn Wilder, 2024)