Street Artist in the Spotlight: Bordalo II
Portuguese artist Bordalo II is a street artist and sculptor whose monumental animals transform discarded plastics, car parts, tyres and urban waste into environmental artworks seen in cities around the world. Best known for his Big Trash Animals, his work connects street art, sculpture and environmental activism, using the remnants of human consumption to recreate the wildlife affected by pollution and ecological damage.
Who Is Bordalo II, Street Artist and Environmental Sculptor?
Born Artur Bordalo in Lisbon in 1987, Bordalo II developed his visual language through graffiti and the urban environment before expanding into large-scale assemblage and sculpture. Rather than hiding the discarded objects he collects, he allows bumpers, plastics, tyres, pipes, toys and fragments of industrial waste to remain visible within each animal.
The result is immediately recognisable. From foxes and owls to bears, sharks, flamingos and enormous urban rats, Bordalo II transforms society’s leftovers into wildlife that appears to emerge directly from the architecture around it.
Bordalo II. Image copyright Bordalo II
Bordalo II’s Big Trash Animals
At the heart of the Big Trash Animals is a powerful contradiction: Bordalo II creates images of animals from materials associated with the pollution and destruction of their habitats.
Across his Neutral, Half-Half and Plastic approaches, discarded materials shift between camouflage and complete exposure, allowing Bordalo II to continually rethink the relationship between waste, wildlife and consumer culture.
Explore the meaning, materials and evolution of Bordalo II’s Big Trash Animals.
From the Streets to a Global Environmental Practice
Bordalo II’s animals are closely connected to the places in which they appear. Materials are frequently sourced locally, allowing each sculpture to carry traces of the city, neighbourhood or landscape from which its waste originated.
GraffitiStreet has followed Bordalo II’s practice since its formative years and worked with the artist on our Underground exhibition in London, where he transformed discarded materials collected across East London into a monumental four-metre rat. That first-hand encounter revealed the extraordinary physical process behind the finished works: searching, collecting, sorting and composing unwanted objects until an animal begins to emerge.
Today, Bordalo II’s work continues to ask a deceptively simple question: what happens to everything we throw away?
The images below trace the remarkable variety of animals, locations and materials through which he has explored that question.
@Luzsosafoto
Image copyrights the artist
Related Reading
For a deeper look at the ideas, materials and environmental message behind Bordalo II’s best-known body of work, explore GraffitiStreet’s complete guide to Bordalo II’s Big Trash Animals. You can also follow how the series developed through Neutral, Half-Half and Plastic, revealing how Bordalo II gradually exposed more of the discarded material within the animals themselves.
Bordalo II’s practice also extends beyond environmental sculpture. GraffitiStreet’s 2015 interview with Bordalo II captures his early thoughts on political expression and public responsibility, while our feature on Provoc and ten recurring themes in his art explores the socially engaged side of his work in greater depth.
More Artists in the Spotlight
Continue exploring GraffitiStreet’s Street Artist in the Spotlight series with RESTLESS, whose mixed-media characters explore identity, working life and contemporary society, and Nature the Artist, whose practice shifts authorship towards the natural world and examines humanity’s relationship with the environment. Together with Bordalo II, they reveal the breadth of contemporary Portuguese urban art, from waste and environmental sculpture to social observation and nature-led experimentation.
Discover Bordalo II at GraffitiStreet
Discover available Bordalo II artworks at GraffitiStreet, including works for collectors interested in his wider practice beyond the monumental public installations. For current availability, acquisitions and private viewings, contact GraffitiStreet directly or visit us at GraffitiStreet Gallery, 25A West Street, Chichester, West Sussex, England PO19 1QW.
Images © Bordalo II