Hard Court at Casa Axis in Valencia is more than a tennis court or an artwork. MRKA transforms a rich clay red surface into a space where play, imperfection, and questioning collide. At its center is a tension between the rigidity of tennis as a sport and the looseness of art as a form of expression.
“Crooked lines. No symmetry. No winners. Just pure play. Lucas nailed it with Hard Court. I love how it holds its own inside the architecture without trying to dominate it. It’s playful, irreverent, and totally in tune with the spirit of Casa Axis.”
– Felipe Pantone
MRKA introduces himself simply: “My name is MRKA from planet earth. I believe the journey just started. Thanks to graffiti I am here today.” His roots in street art are clear in the project. Scribbles, raw gestures, and a love of imperfection drive his practice, and Hard Court channels this energy into the familiar geometry of sport.
The Clay Red Court and Abstract Lines
Commissioned by Felipe Pantone and the Casa Axis team, Hard Court places art directly onto the field of play. MRKA painted the court with his non dominant hand, letting mistakes and unevenness become part of the design. The result is a clay red surface crossed with creamy abstract court lines.
These lines echo the formality of tennis but subvert it. Instead of rigid white markers that define every serve and fault, the creamy curves and off balance strokes soften the game’s rules. The contrast between strict structure and imperfect gesture becomes the point. The court is still a court, but it is also a canvas where rules bend and possibility opens up.
Process, Play, and Message
The idea was sparked by MRKA’s partner Tropikal Sultan, who suggested he paint with his wrong hand. He explains that sport and art are “very similar, except for having rules both are vital for me.” After finishing the court, he extended the process into a collection of drawings, also created with his non dominant hand, and hopes to bring some of those designs into reality.
For MRKA, Hard Court is meant to make people smile and to inspire them to paint or pick up a racket. The project blurs sport and art until both are simply about play. He adds that he needs to play before he goes into the studio, and often while he is there, showing how sport already shapes his practice.
Between Structure and Freedom
Tennis is a sport heavily bound by rules, lines, and societal expectations of discipline. By redrawing the court in clay red and creamy curves, MRKA questions that rigidity. The work keeps the framework of tennis visible but refuses to let it dominate. The result is a visual metaphor for freedom within structure, for finding creativity inside systems that usually demand perfection.
Why Hard Court Matters
Hard Court challenges how we think about both sport and art. It shows that courts and canvases alike are places to move, to create, to test limits, and to accept imperfection. For MRKA, art and sport share the same essence: the joy of doing. By transforming a tennis court into an artwork, he invites viewers to reimagine what play can look like and to see rules not as restrictions, but as lines waiting to be redrawn.
During the residency, we began to shape the world of CASA AXIS TENNIS. It started with the court—an anchor, a stage. But then came the fragments: the visor, the crewneck, the headband, the grip, the shorts, the balls. Symbols, maybe. Echoes of a game. And somewhere in the distance: C.A.I.O. —the Casa Axis International Open. When does it happen? Only Felipe knows, and he isn’t telling.
