The call by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science for selected contemporary artists to send in their artistic representation of the question “What do movies mean to you?” to create the poster art design for the 2021 Academy Awards (The Oscars) has yielded some of the most amazing artistic interpretations.

Each of the seven international artists invited to create custom Oscar® statuette art drew elements from their various cultures to form an exotic and diverse reimagining of the iconic statuette using several artistic mediums. 

With the tagline for this year’s Oscars being “Bring Your Movie Love,” the artists used illustration, motion design, painting, photography, and textile art to transport their personal inspirations and experiences, which including theaters of the 1920s and ’30s Hollywood, film as both a form of escapism and a bridge of communication, and more.

The artists commissioned by the Academy are multidisciplinary artist Temi Coker, born in Lagos, Nigeria, and based in Dallas, Texas; Illustrator Petra Eriksson, born in Stockholm and based in Barcelona; graphic designer and illustrator Magnus Voll Mathiassen, from Norway; self-taught artist Michelle Robinson, born in South Korea and based in Los Angeles; artist and illustrator Karan Singh, from Australia; textile artist Victoria Villasana, from Mexico; and independent artist and creative Shawna X, from New York.

The final artworks created for the 2021 Oscars show an infusion of a well-synchronized diversity of contemporary art designs from the cultures and experiences represented. You can make out Coker’s mix of vibrant colors and textures (which comes from his upbringing in Nigeria as well as his love for the African Diaspora) to evoke emotion through color, patterns, and storytelling; just as Eriksson’s bold imagery, awash with big bright colors and anchored with strong compositions, is distinctive but not disruptive. 

For a world that’s been changed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the Academy Awards which will be having its 93rd edition on the 25th of April (the latest date the Oscars have ever been held in a year) wants to use its theme of “Bring Your Movie Love” to celebrate our global appreciation for the power of film to foster connection, to educate, and to inspire us to tell our own stories. 

You can experience a range of exciting African and diaspora stories told through an eclectic collection of historic and contemporary art on the Aworanka website.