Add Fuel’s “Carnival Nautical” brings the decorative language of Asbury Park’s seafront architecture to the First Avenue Pavilion at 800 Ocean Avenue. Painted in 2026, the mural draws on forms the artist found in the Convention Hall, Paramount Theatre and Carousel Building, then reworks them through his approach to Portuguese azulejo patterns. (woodenwallsproject.com)
Seashells, seahorses, nautical shapes and geometric ornament were his starting points. Rather than reproduce details from the buildings, Add Fuel describes turning those references into new patterns: a conversation between a New Jersey shore town and the tile tradition central to his work. He calls it “a meeting between two places, two visual languages, and the sea that connects them.”
Image via https://www.instagram.com/p/DdjpcRMjtQb/
Add Fuel is the name used by Portuguese artist Diogo Machado, whose work has long explored the forms and repetition of azulejos. In Asbury Park, that vocabulary responds to a specific stretch of the boardwalk rather than arriving as a pattern detached from its setting. “Carnival Nautical” was painted as part of PlusOne, the Wooden Walls Public Art Project’s 2026 programme; the organiser scheduled his work at the pavilion for September 4–16. (addfuel.com)
Images via @addfuel on Instagram.
comment