These two murals are at Srodkowa 17 and Srodkowa 21 in the Praga neighbourhood of Warsaw. The one in the back is “Mechaniczny Wilk”, which translates to “Mechanical Wolf”.
The other is “Warsaw Fight Club” by Conor Harrington
below: Looking across al. Jana Pawlla II in central Warsaw.
It was twelve years ago, 2010, that Italian artist Blu painted this large mural.
There are lots of soldiers going through the motions of war and combat but they are all being controlled by strings. Their green helmets have holes in the top to make room for the string.
The picture below clearly shows the puppet strings controlling the actions of the larger than life sized men. Strings on the tops of their heads as well as around the hands and feet.
Another piece of the puzzle fits into place – the symbol on the helmet is that of the euro. Money. What wars are fought over. Capitalism. What pits one group of people against another. Agree? or disagree?
These two murals are close to the train station in Lodz. In the foreground is a large portrait of pianist Artur Rubenstein. Just in the picture on the right hand side, is a wall with a faded butterfly mural.
The colourful portrait was painted in 2014 by Brazilian artist Kobra (aka Eduardo Kobra). Like many of the murals in the city, it was painted as part of an Urban Forms Foundation project/festival and now is part of the Urban Forms Gallery.
Rubenstein was born in Lodz in January 1887. He was a child prodigy – giving his first piano performance when he was 7 years old. At 13 he played with the Berlin Philharmonic and at 19 he played Carnegie Hall in New York City. He career spanned eight decades. He died in 1982 at age 95.
Lodz Poland is full of murals. It’s the kind of city where Tourist Information gives out maps showing the location of more than 130 murals, most of which are in walking distance (but there are trams too if you prefer). Three of those 130 are here in this blog post.
First, an upside down wiggly line couple by Klone Yourself (aka Igor Revelis) titled “Midnight Lovers”. Painted in 2017.
Another large mural in Lodz featuring abstracted human forms is this sort of art deco style painting.
The third is this mural called “Gentrification” by Tone aka Robert Proch (d. 2019). It was painted in 2013.
Photos taken May 2022
Rruga Myslym Syri is a fairly busy street in central Tirana, lined with shops and small businesses. Either on this street or in nearby alleys and small streets there is some street art. First, two small pieces by Franko (aka Franko Dinaj), a local artist.
below: Man carrying bike, a mural by Artez with the title: “Mos Paragjyko – Do not Prejudice”
below: Calligraphy and circles, an artwork by Davide DPA
“Personii ge kam perballe eshte fija e humbur qe me ndihmon ta gjej veten”
below: A big green dog by MOTS
below: Unsinkable stencil with a few famous people like Einstein and Laurel & Hardy, and many not so famous people.
below: Playing basketball on the wall.
below: A woman in blue
below: This woman is probably advertising a women’s hair salon but I liked the look of it just the same.
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I don’t think that these characters are actually called Honey Bear but that’s what I started calling them as I found more of them on the streets of Paris. I’m not sure if they even have a name.
I can remember my parents buying honey in bear shaped bottles. After a quick google search, I now know that this bear shaped bottle was first used in 1957 for Dutch Gold Honey, and was design by Ralph and Luella Gamber. They never patented the idea and it was copied by many other honey producers and vendors.
The street art bears are the work of fnnch, an artist based in San Francisco USA. If you take a look at his instagram page, you will discover that this bear comes in hundreds of variations! There is even bear merchandise. I only saw 6 variations…. These are the ones that I saw.
Bowie Bear
Red Wine Bear
Martini Shaker Bear
Cool Heart Shaped Sunglasses Bear (tapping his foot!?)
Spray Paint Can Bear
Avocado Bear
below: 3-D blue man face with rainbow bubbles by Gregos.
below: More 3D heads, this time it’s Mr. Serieux with 5 green stars, Mr. Affreux, Mr. Soleil with his yellow rays of light, and Mme Lune with an orange crescent moon that looks like an orange banana or a piece of canteloupe.
below: Small cat skeleton graffiti by Mr. Byste
below: The cafe may be missing an A but it’s got a heart, if you can work your way through the maze to reach it.
below: It’s all about the Journey, by studiojonesie, aka Amy Jones
below: It looks like a naked man climbing a mountain of rocks, a long uphill journey.
below: Three little pink and red female forms by Wild Wonder Woman.
below: Rue des Deux Boules is a short street, only one block long. At one end is rue Bertin Poiree where you can find these two little 3D objects stuck to the wall – a gymnast standing on one hand and a striped octopus.
Trying to hide some trees on blvd Vincent Auriol is a large mural by Bom-K. A girl, wearing bright pink gloves seems to be trying to spray something orange – an aspiring graffiti artist?, or is she picking up garbage?
Are her eyes closed? Is she in distress? Or crying?
photos taken June 2022
First, there was this small portrait by Morèje, aka Jérôme Gulon. His street art pieces have mosaic frames made from tiny multicoloured tiles. Back in 2015, he made a series of portraits to honour the people who died in the Charlie Hebdo shooting. These can be seen in a blog post from 2016.
The rest of the portraits on Rue Lambert are part of Rue Meurt D’Art, projects by Jean-Marc Paumier including these; the one on the left strongly resembles the man in the above portrait.
below: “voyer quelle aurore se leve, un souffle et tout est efface” [see what dawn is rising, one breath and everything is erased”]
below: “Le poete est un voleur de feu” [The poet is a thief of fire]
below: “Revons c’est l’heure” [Let’s see it again].
below: “Prenons donc notre place sans la mendier ” [let’s take our place without begging]
below: “L’art est le plus beau des mensonges” [Art is the most beautiful of lies]
Translations were done using Google Translate, therefore there may be errors.
Photos taken June 2022.
On a little dead end street near Gumpendorfgasse u-bahn station, there is a small series of murals. The most prominent one, is of a man in a black striped long sleeved T-shirt taking a picture with a polaroid camera.
To his right are a few images that look like they are the resulting polaroids – part of his collection perhaps.
These images were painted by Jana and JS, a couple who have been painting murals together for many years.
Photos taken June 2022
Eyes on the Streets 