A Korean Latte Artist Is Pushing the Limits of Coffee Creativity

This article originally appeared on The Creators Project.

Kangbin Lee is taking the art of the latte to a whole new level. Instead of painting with the coffee like Guilia Bernadelli and Jon Norquist, Lee’s self coined “Cremart” is made on the top of the poured coffee. Using a small spoon and several pencil-like dabbers, the Korean artist creates incredibly detailed artworks by delicately administering colored pigments onto tufts of coffee. Lee reproduces iconic staples of fine art like Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Edvard Munch’s The Scream, as well as images of pop culture like a portrait of Beauty and the Beast. The artist explains in a post on Bored Panda, “I wanted to find an amazing and delicate new flavor of coffee so I developed Cremart.” Each composition has an interesting way of using the drink’s cup and saucer, or even the espresso machine’s portafilter, as a frame for the image. In certain works he uses the latte’s white head as a blank canvas, while in others he builds off the coffee’s unique shade of brown.

Check out more works by the artist on Instagram.