No Matter How You Hang Them, These Paintings Will Always Show You Something New

No matter how you hang them, there’s always something new to see in these surreal paintings by Polish artist Jacek Yerka. This collection, called 4siders, shows a different image depending on how the painting is oriented. The other sides, meanwhile, become a dizzying backdrop of semi-familiar forms and puzzling geography. Each picture becomes a nonstop spiral as you turn it over and over, trying to see the whole scene. Furniture, buildings, and trees seem to tumble around, creating changing landscapes whose details seem to multiply before your eyes.

(via My Modern Met)

Yerka’s inspiration is drawn from the old Flemish masters of the 15th and 16th centuries, whose meticulous paintings featured entire worlds of detail, all rendered in a mathematically precise way. But all that precision doesn’t mean a lack of expressivness. Yerka’s landscapes and rooms become almost less like paintings and more like visual puzzles, as the viewer tries to figure out how each side relates to one another.

Besides these tumbling paintings, Yerka’s work includes all kinds of surreal, dreamlike images with both tiny details and sweeping scenery. You can see more of his work on his website, as well as on Facebook and Twitter.