Juan Brufal, aka Mono Azul, Turns Cats into Psychedelic Digital Dreams

Working under the pseudonym Mono Azul, the Argentine digital artist Juan Brufal builds vividly colored, surreal imagery in which reality is repeatedly distorted and reassembled. Cats recur most often among his subjects: he recasts them as ironic, enigmatic creatures that, set against bright palettes and surreal landscapes, take on nearly human forms and postures. These feline figures serve as the starting point for playful, unsettling pictures where imagination and reality converge. Born in Buenos Aires in 1973, Brufal is self-taught; he first approached poetry and music before finding in the digital realm the freest means of shaping his own conception of art. "My research is to communicate to the world my personal perception through new forms and images," he states. His practice centers on psychedelic, highly colorful and surreal images, with the cat functioning as a recurring motif rather than a single subject. The Italian art publication Objects. presented the work, crediting Brufal as photographer under the Instagram handle @brufaljuan, with images credited to @amarillaaoveja.