Oda & King: Hyperrealistic Paintings by Artist Duo

Two Halves of One Artist

The stars of the social media realm were aligned when Corey ‘Oda’ Popp (born December 24th, 1984) and Kit King (born November 29th, 1987) ‘met’ on Instagram. Both were already budding artists in their own right, with very similar aesthetics and focus on realism.  Initially, King stumbled across a drawing of Oda that seemed identical to hers. Naturally, she reached out to confront Oda, who encouraged her to take note of the date stamp on his work.

The artistic duo both worked in the tattoo industry before embarking on a full-time journey into the world of hyperrealism. After their first collaboration, they knew right away that they had found their vision for the future – both for their own lives, and their art.  With each piece they come out with, the resulting image never shows two artists with distinctive styles, but two minds working as one.

Married in Art

Working side by side in their home studio in the French Canadian countryside, the two artists continuously learn from one another as they push the boundaries of what oil as a medium can do. There’s a certain morbid fascination evident in each Oda and King artwork that cannot be missed. But what begs the viewer to stay and pay closer attention is the vulnerability of the subjects portrayed in each piece.  Each detail – whether it’s the speck of light bouncing off the iris or a crooked tooth – reminds us, in a way, of how fragile and imperfect we are, once deconstructed.

The hyperrealism of painting duo Oda and King rendered in oils stuns the eyes into paying more attention to the beauty and vulnerability of what it means to be alive and human.  Each Oda and King piece is painstaking in detail and meditative in nature, pulsing with life the longer you stare at it. The artwork showcases the raw intensity of the human experience, through hyper-realistic depictions of the body, that creates a sense of suspended reality. Visually, there’s no way to distinguish which was painted by the hand of who, but the effect seems to be borne of Oda’s meditative approach to art and King’s emotionally charged aesthetic – producing pieces that feel raw and yet with a kind of stillness that somehow breathes.