Greg Allen posted the above screen shot and says "I think Google Maps' security pixelization of the Dutch Royal House's Noordeinde Palace in Den Haag would make an absolutely fantastic series of landscape paintings." Karen Archey "said the work reminded her of Kota Ezawa [and] Jason Salavon," wrote Paddy Johnson, who herself "took Alfred Jenson mixed with Luc Tuyman’s palette, though I’m sure there’s an artist that more closely matches Google’s pixelations. Though not as well known, Aron Namenwirth certainly provides a very good match." The closest Photoshop filter I could find was "stained glass," which I used to make this image:
To Johnson's list of precedents let's add Alex Brown, who shows at Feature gallery in NYC and makes oil paintings that look like Photoshop special effects (whether they are or not I don't know):
Update: Just noticed AFC commenter Lisa had a few hours' jump on me re: Brown.
Update 2: Olia Lialina has reminded me that the actual filter Google uses is "crystallize." Here is my demo of that:
Update 3: More on this topic.
