For Dublin-born artist Colm Without, each mural is an experiment with form, gravity and perception. His geometric murals pull from his Fine Art Sculpture background, exploring how people move through and experience space. He fell in love with the idea of architecture and environment as active parts of a mural rather than simple backdrops.
Why murals?
At the beginning, murals were actually quite intimidating. I was learning in public, surrounded by incredibly talented artists, with people constantly watching as I worked. At the same time, that was part of what drew me to them. I was fascinated by the scale and immediacy of creating something directly within the public realm. As my practice developed, my background in sculpture and abstraction began to influence the way I approached murals. I became interested in how an artwork could respond to a particular site, its architecture and the way people move through and experience a space.
What continues to excite me about murals is that they exist somewhere between art, architecture and public space. They allow me to explore perception and spatial experience on a monumental scale, in a way that’s accessible to anyone.
What’s the craziest part about your murals? Any weird stories?
One thing I’ve learned is that no matter how much planning goes into a mural, something unexpected usually happens. While painting my mural Please, Stand By in Dublin, I arrived one morning to discover that someone had set a plastic rubbish bin on fire directly in the middle of the bandstand. The melted plastic had solidified into a puddle on the ground and there was smoke damage and black soot across a large section of the artwork. I ended up spending a huge amount of time cleaning, repairing and repainting parts of the piece before I could continue painting.
I’ve also had moments where I’ve been high up in a boom lift painting and looked down to see someone trying to break into my car. I wasn’t about to wait for the lift to reach the ground, so I jumped off at the first opportunity and ran towards the car to scare them away.
On a lighter note, when I was painting murals in Dublin I was regularly asked if I was “Bansky” (Banksy). It always made me laugh and I never really knew how to answer that one.
Coming from Dublin, what surprised you about Denver’s mural scene?
When I first arrived in Denver for CRUSH Walls in 2019, I was blown away by the amount of artwork covering the city. Seeing murals by both local artists and internationally recognised names across entire neighbourhoods was something I’d never experienced before. What impressed me even more was that it wasn’t just the murals themselves, it was the whole ecosystem around them. It feels like public art is genuinely valued here rather than being treated as an afterthought. I also think Denver’s industrial character lends itself really well to large scale murals. Compared to Dublin, where many buildings are protected and public art tends to be more scattered, Denver feels like a city that has really embraced murals as part of its identity. That openness to public art and different forms of creative expression is something that really stood out to me.
Did you bring anything from Ireland that still shows up in your work?
I’m incredibly proud of where I come from and I’m always happy to be known as the Irish artist. I don’t think my work is overtly Irish in a visual sense, but Ireland shaped the artist I became. I came from a fine art background into public art and mural painting rather than the other way around, and I think that foundation still informs everything I create.
Was there any culture shock working in Denver versus Ireland?
The biggest culture shock for me was probably how enthusiastic people are about public art. Everything feels bigger in America. The scale of projects, the ambition and even the conversations around what’s possible all seem larger. The only thing I still haven’t fully adapted to is painting murals in the Denver summer. The heat can be relentless, although I’ll happily take that over painting in the Irish rain.
Why geometrics? What drew you to shapes versus more recognizable images?
For me, geometry isn’t the subject, it’s the language. It gives me a structure for exploring relationships between space, form, light, colour and perception. Abstraction allows me to explore more universal experiences of how we perceive and navigate the world around us. When I approach a wall or a space, I don’t envision a finished picture. I look for ways to open up the space, creating new spatial relationships by manipulating form and building connections between the artwork, the architecture and the viewer. The site itself becomes an active part of the work rather than simply a surface to paint on.
Does geometry feel like a universal language?
I think perception is universal, and geometry is one of the clearest visual languages I’ve found for exploring it. We all experience light, shadow, colour, depth and space, regardless of where we come from or what language we speak.
Your murals seem to be more about experimental perception rather than decoration. How does your work change how people see space?
I’m interested in creating work that changes the way people experience a space rather than simply decorating it. Especially with my more recent anamorphic and perspective-based pieces, the experience becomes part of the artwork itself. From one viewpoint you might see a colourful, dynamic composition, but as you move through the space the work gradually reveals itself until you find the point where everything aligns. It’s a moment of clarity and wonder that rewards exploration.
I want the paint, architecture and the site to combine into something greater than the sum of their parts. Through optical techniques, colour and perspective, I’m interested in creating work that exists somewhere between physical reality and perceived reality, encouraging people to question what they’re seeing and become more aware of the space around them.
That’s why I often say the viewer completes the work. Physically, nothing has changed. It’s still the same tunnel, wall or building with a layer of paint on it. But perceptually, everything has changed. The artwork becomes a device for changing how someone experiences the architecture, creating a temporary moment of curiosity, wonder and presence.
Your work fuses “sculptural sensibilities with urban painting, using abstraction as a tool to reshape how people engage with space. What is the process of fusing sculptural sensibilities with urban painting?
My background in sculpture fundamentally shapes the way I approach murals. I don’t begin by thinking about colour or surface. I begin by thinking about space, volume and how people will physically experience a place. I’m thinking about volume before colour, movement before image and experience before decoration. Paint simply becomes the medium I use to construct those spatial experiences.
Your work is about exploring visual perception through geometric abstraction and spatial perspective. What do you want viewers to notice or understand about your murals?
More than anything, I hope the work encourages people to stop. We spend so much of our lives moving through familiar places without really noticing them, and if a mural can interrupt that for even a moment, I think that’s something quite special. I don’t expect everyone to interpret the work in the same way, and I don’t think they should. Once the work is out in the world, the viewer becomes part of it. I see myself as a catalyst, creating the conditions for an experience to emerge between the artwork, the space and the person encountering it. If people leave feeling a sense of curiosity, wonder or simply a greater awareness of the space around them, then I feel the work has done its job. If they leave looking at the world a little more carefully than they did before, that’s the best outcome I could hope for.