The latest work to be installed as part of the Murals of La Jolla public art program combines colorful natural scenery with a pattern of black and white lines.

“The Deep, Impenetrable and Mysterious Jungle,” unveiled this month on an exterior wall at 7766 Fay Ave., is part of a series of paintings by artist Claudia Comte originally done in acrylic on canvas. Switzerland-born Comte has worked in a variety of media, often combining sculptures or other installations with wall paintings to create immersive environments.

“Claudia’s mural image is compelling with its split diagonal format, contrasting fire-colored vegetation rendered on the left with stark black-and-white geometric patterning on the right,” said Murals of La Jolla Executive Director Lynda Forsha. “Her highly graphic image is fresh and appealing and has already engaged visitors who first recall previous murals on this site before they begin to think about Claudia’s unique vocabulary, composition and juxtaposition of imagery.”

The Murals of La Jolla program was created in 2010 by the La Jolla Community Foundation and subsequently relinquished to the oversight of the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. Currently there are 17 murals around town, funded by private donations and installed and removed on a rotation. Each work is on view a minimum of two years.

Comte was unavailable for comment about her piece, which according to the Athenaeum references the visual iconography of Belgian comic artist Andre Franquin.

“Comte strips excess content, such as characters and the built environment, from Franquin’s original comics, leaving only the linear depiction of a nature scene,” according to a statement from the Athenaeum. “Through this critical editing process, Comte implies that the natural environment is the leading character in this reimagined narrative she introduces. These abstracted fragments of Franquin’s world are created in a red to yellow gradient, referencing the horrific forest fires occurring throughout the world.

“The landscape is broken up by dizzying black-and-white graphic patterning commonly found throughout Comte’s larger body of work. The lush, undisrupted and almost naive representation of nature found in the mural is reminiscent of Comte’s childhood, when she first discovered Franquin’s comics, recalling a time when global warming, forest fires and desertification were not yet so present.”

Comte’s work has been shown widely throughout the world, including exhibitions and projects in Switzerland, Germany, Mexico, Austria, the United States, Italy and more. She has been the recipient of many awards, including the Kulturförderpreis by Alexander Clavel Stiftung in 2018, the Swiss Art Award in 2014 and the Kiefer Hablitzel Award in 2012. She lives and works in the countryside outside Basel.

“Delving into her fascination in the memory of materials and her keen interest in how the hand relates to different technologies, she puts forth the possibility of a hidden sequence at play in her work, weaving together an integrated system of relationships both between and within individual works,” according to the Athenaeum.

For more information, visit muralsoflajolla.com. ♦