Italian artist Giovanni Contardi isn't exactly a cubist, but he is making a name for himself by using a particularly tricky medium for his art. Contardi, 24, can turn hundreds of Rubik's Cubes into massive portraits bearing the likenesses of celebrities like LeBron James, Rihanna and Justin Timberlake.

The first Rubik's Cube portrait that Contardi sold — of the late-singer Amy Winehouse — brought in roughly $5,000, he says. But the highest price one of his portraits has fetched so far is $29,000, he says, which came last year from a private buyer who commissioned the portrait because he "wanted to surprise his wife for Christmas," Contardi tells CNBC Make It. "[I]t's all real Rubik's Cubes, it's a handmade frame, there is a tons of hours of work."

Source: CNBC Make It

It typically takes Contardi "at least three or four weeks" to complete each incredibly realistic portrait, much of which involves planning out a patterned design that uses the six colors available to him — a six-sided Rubik's Cube puzzle is made up of white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow squares. Contardi likes to make portraits, usually based on existing photos of celebrities, because he says he has "a passion for facial expressions, and so I always kind of challenge myself with different facial expression and how I can make them seem real with just the color of Rubik's Cubes." Once Contardi's design is fully planned out, he says "it's time to play with Rubik's Cubes, and that take me, realistically, only two hours" to actually assemble a full-size portrait from the hundreds of Rubik's Cubes that he twists and turns until he gets the exact pattern of colored squares that he needs.

Italian artist Giovanni Contardi Source: Giovanni Contardi