30 Awesome Inflatable Art Pieces

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Hold Your Breath by Mel Ziegler, 2004

This Texas-based artist collected air from former battlegrounds in her home state, including Alamo, Goliad and San Jacinto. Her work materializes the mythological power sites of historical significance (especially sites of death) have over us. 

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Complex Pile by Paul McCarthy, 2007

McCarthy is never afraid to gross us out. His new show WS at the Park Avenue Armory features a food orgy that's almost impossible to watch. McCarthy created this 51-foot-high, 110-foot-long inflatable sculpture in Hong Kong, showing that even this smelly subject can be elevated to high art. 

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The Skywhale by Patricia Piccinini, 2013

Patricial Piccinini created this massive floating balloon to mark the 100th birthday of the Canberra, the capital of Australia. The artist said she wanted it to be more of a sculpture than balloon. We're not sure how successful she was, but those 10 boobs are certainly eye-catching.

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Inflatable Self-Portrait by Pawel Althamer, 2010

This unique take on a self-portrait floats in the Zacheta Gallery in Bruges, Belgium. In 2007, a version of this work floated over a park in Milan. Such a self-conscious work brings up questions of representation of identity. 

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Entanglement by Sarah Elizabeth Turner, 2007

This up-and-coming artist created this installation as part of her graduate studies at the University of British Columbia. The work strides the line between the playfulness of white balloons and the chilling connotations of surgeon's gloves. 

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Tight Spot by David Byrne, 2011

This artist put the whole world under the High Line in New York. The inflatable globe had speakers inside, therefore during the two weeks it was squeezed beneath the old rail lines, it could be heard projecting messages from the band Talking Heads.

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Le Géant, Champ de Mars by Nadar (Gaspard-Félix Tournachon), 1863

This artist was the person to make inflatable art, all the way back in 1863! Nadar, we salute you. 

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The Red Ball Project by Kurt Perschke, 2006-present

This work is an interactive public space project that has moved all around the world. The juxtaposition between the sturdy concrete structure and the inflatable ball creates a feeling of anxiety of the ball's impending pop. 

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Inflated, Deflated by Annette Messager, 2005-6

This installation is made by more than 30 over-sized cloth body parts that quiver slightly as if they are at the very end of their lives. 

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Self-Reproducing Pedestal by Andreas Zybach, 2007

This fascinating piece is a study of the biological process of breathing, merging science and art. As viewers walk over the lattices, the work inflates against the pressure. 

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Somehow I Don't Feel Comfortable by Momoyo Torimitsu, 2000

Torimitsu's installation makes for a very uncomfortable experience. With these nightmarish bunnies, the artist explores the tension between reality and perception.

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German Panther by Hans Hemmert, 2007

Better known as the "balloon tank," this piece was first displayed in Urban Gallery in Germany. This installation makes a weapon of war completely harmless, transforming it into a colorful toy. 

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Renaissance Pavilion by Various Architects, 2009

This inflatable building is a portable and collapsible event arena. It inflates in a little over an hour while simultaneously generating it's own energy. One of our favorite features is that it is 100% recyclable. Watch out world, this is what the buildings of the future look like.

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Falling into the Mundane World by Tam Wai Ping, 2013

This darkly comical piece aligns humans with the plight of the cockroach. 

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Sacrilege by Jeremy Deller, 2012

This inflatable replica of the Stonehenge acts as a moon bounce, rethinking one of the most hallowed sites in history. 

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House of Treasures by Cao Fei, 2013

Is this giant suckling pig a celebration of abundance or critique of excess? 

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Thirst by Chad Person, 2010

This New Mexico-based artist has created a quite few inflatable art pieces, they are all social critiques. Here Pegasus, the former Mobil Gasoline mascot, lies dead just like her failed company. Person explores the fact that both resources and icons are all fading away.

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Mona Lisa by Larry Moss, 2009

This crafty balloon sculptor brings new meanings to classic paintings by recreating them with balloons. From American Gothic to Campbell's Soup Cans he's transformed so much paint to latex. This modern take on the classics is definitely a breath of fresh air.

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Balloon Dog by Paul McCarthy, 2013

This huge inflatable dog directly references Jeff Koons' metal balloon sculptures. McCarthy's pup presided over the Frieze art fair this spring. To give it even more credibility, it sold for almost 1 million dollars earlier this year. 

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Breath by Mark Quinn, 2012

This inflatable sculpture is a replica of an actual statue of Alison Lapper during her pregnancy that Quinn created in 2005. It's touchy subject matter has ushered in criticism. Breath appears next to a famous Palladian church at the Venice Biennale. 

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Big Air Package by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, 2010-13

This art project took place at the Gasometer Oberhausen in Germany and is the largest envelope of air ever inflated without a skeleton. It is almost 300 feet tall and more than 250 feet wide.

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On Going Octopus Art Attacks in the City of Taipei, Taiwan by Filthy Luker, 2011/2012

This innovative artist used inflatable octopus to create 'attacks' all over the world. Here, he installs the marine life above a house to create a surreal landscape. 

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Luminarium by Alan Parkinson, 2012

A group called Architects of Air created giant moon bounces for adults where the focus is on light and color. These delightful installations appeared all over the world.

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Untitled Tree by Myeongbeom Kim, 2007-11

This Korean artist is all about combining man-made elements with elements from nature. Here a mass-produced object "uproots" the base of the tree. 

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Emptiness is Form. Form is Emptiness. by Choi Jeong Hwa, 2013

This artist uses the Buddhist symbol of the lotus to comment on the quickly disappearing spirituality in contemporary China.

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Silver Clouds by Warhol, 1966

This inflatable installation by Warhol has proven itself to be timeless. It's still installed all over the world even though it debuted over 40 years ago. Possibly a play on the phrase "every cloud has a silver lining," this optimistic mantra takes a sour turn as the balloons being to deflate.

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Rabbit by Jeff Koons, 2009

Koons continues to test the boundaries and relationship of pop culture and art with this inflatable duplicate of the stainless steel Rabbit he created in 1986.

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With the Wind by Liu Jiakun, 2002

This piece is a lighthearted work created by a Chinese architect that brings together her profession and her culture. Although, as an architect Jiakun works in solid forms, she shows here that she can build covered structures from air. 

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Pisces by Jason Hackenwerth, 2013

This New York artist put more than 10,000 colored balloons together for this piece that represents his version of the legend of Aphrodite and Eros. It rises more than 40 feet tall.

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Poetic Cosmos of the Breath by Tomás Saraceno, 2007

The only thing cooler than how this installation looks is how it was made. The artist utilizes the Greenhouse Effect to create this self-inflating structure.

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