Author Archives: Mary C

Nicholai Khan – Think Vegas

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Back in 2015 I saw these three murals by Nicholai Khan in Las Vegas.  Khan was born in Trinidad but moved to Manhattan (New York City) in the 1980’s.

three murals in a row by Nicholai Khan, with #thinkvegas written by them, a woman's face, Charlie Chaplin, and Mickey Mouse

a small tree grows in front of a murl of a large woman's face, the leaves of the tree match the position of woman' hair, by Nicholai Khan, think vegas

below: Charlie Chaplin & his dog, surrounded by laughter.

very colourful painting of man done with dots, sitting down, bowler hat on, sort of like Charlie Chaplin, with hundreds of ha ha ha written around him

below: Mickey Mouse doesn’t look very happy.

a sad and forlorn MickeyMouse sits with his head resting on his arms, mural

Casablanca seawall

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There is a path that runs along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean, leading to the new Hassan 2 mosque.  Beside the path is a wall that has been painted with street art.  When I walked here in October 2019, these are the murals that I saw.   I have only been able to identify some of the artists.

women leaning against railing on path beside the ocean in Casablanca, with Hassan 2 mosque and Atlantic Ocean in the background

below: “Oxymoron” by iramo aka Iramo Samir

woman's head and shoulders, mural by Iramo Samir called Oxymoron, most of her face is covered with flowers, lower part of face and shoulders is blue water with a person who seems to be drowning

below: Like all the murals on this wall, this one is looking out to sea

stylized painting of a black face with yellow mouth, blue around one eye, red hair,

mural on a wall in Casablanca, blue woman's face with black cloth around top of head

below: A man in a purple camo hat, by Majid aka Majid El Bahar

man's head, mural, wearing a purple camo hat and a black top with lots of white squiggles on it. A rope winds its way through the image

below: Casablanca plus text (artist’s tag) by TRUST

text graffiti by trust also with word casablanca and some scenes from that city

below: By  Moka 187

mural by vida moka of a topless man with orange pants, mask over face, teapot in one hand, running,

sea wall, with path below, beside the Atlantic Ocean in Casablanca, with Hassan 2 mosque in the background

below: Would you kiss a shark?  Even one that claims to love his mom?mural of a shark with toothy grin, words that say I want a kiss. Shark is holding a broom, has smd written on chest, as well as a red heart with word mom on it black line drawing mural on a wall, with faces

below: Close up of a man’s eyes and nose, signed as Senzoclouds aka Senzo or Mr. Clouds.

mural, close up of man's eyes and nose by Senzoclouds, senzo, mr clouds mural with woman in purple shirt and turquoise hat, holding arm in front of her face, mural two men sitting in front of a mural with woman in pink shirt and turquoise hat, holding arm in front of her face

a breown animal in profile, mouth open wide as it roars. a bear maybe

a dog-like creature wearing a baseball cap is spray painting a tag on a wall, mural

another Casablanca wall

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A low wall in the older part of the city… if I remember correctly it might be on one side of a taxi parking lot?   As I was taking pictures, an older man stopped to talk to me about the paintings on the wall.  I think that he said that a group of students painted it.

The mural is full of Casablanca scenes such as this image of the Hussan 2 mosque.

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall, the word Casablanca in white with a picture of the Hussan 2 mosque behind it, orange sky at sunset

an old mattress sits in front of a mural of silhouette people shapes jumping, in black as well as red, green, and blue people

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall, three black silhouette figures jumping

a man and a woman talking to each other as they stand in front of a wall covered in a series of murals

red sun, blue waves, hussan 2 mosque, brown wall, umbrellas, casablanca scene painted in a mural

streeet art mural of two mosques with red sky behind

below: Typical Moroccan tile work. part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall, tile patterns, triangles and diamond shapes in yellow, green, and blue

mosque with red sky, some tagging by RCA, mural

below: Curly metal railings and grilles like this can be seen all over Morocco.

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall, in blue curly shapes as seen on many metal railings in Morocco, on a red and orange background

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall, a large black, blue and white cat looking a four black and blue butterflies

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall - whimsical people doing athletic thigs,

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca walla blue door with gold trim

below: The Moroccan flag is a green star on a red background.

part of a series of murals on a Casablanca wall, a green star on a red background

Sbagha Bagha, L’Boulevard, 2013

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L’Boulevard – A long wall was painted with several murals by different artists as part of the first Sbagha Bagha festival in 2013.  Many of the colours have faded and some parts of the wall’s surface has disintegrated, but enough of the pictures remain that with some imagination you can visualize what was once there.

two women in long dresses and head scarves walk past a wall covered with older murals

The wall is in the older part of Casablanca, near Avenue des FAR and Place de la Concorde.

a mural of a veiled woman

a small spindly tree grows beside a wall with street art on it

a young man in a red jacket walks past a wall covered with older murals

The portion of the wall with the little crosses that become faces surrounded by butterflies was painted by Moroccan artist Morran Ben Lahcen

older mural on a wall, little crosses come together to make faces of two girls that are surrounded by butterflies

The animal (dog?) in the leather helmet and aviator glasses is the work of Aouina as are the coloured squiggles at the bottom.

an animal's face with pale green eyes and black nose, with leather helmet and aviator goggles, in a mural

wall of murals in Casablanca

A young man on his motorbike, by FLAN and Cisco KSL, both from Barcelona (the latter seems to be more involved with tattoos & clothing recently). The rider seems to have lost his cigarette and a screw or two.  I am not sure who did which part of the mural.

on a yellow background, mural, a boy riding a motorbike, by flan,

detailed painting of a wagon full of stuff, mural on a casablanca wall

 A taxi full of people, and many people beside, by Rebel Spirit aka Mohammed Elbellaoui

mural of people in a taxi by rebel spirit

The old man and the teapot were also painted by Rebel Spirit.  Originally, there was writing in Arabic beside the man.  The top part of the wall has broken off, taking the artwork from the murals with it.

mural on old wall of an old man's head, wearing a white turban older murals of a man and a woman walking with a cane

This older woman with the head scarf, heavy load, and walking stick was painted by Mouhim Simo.  The red paintings (above) are a later “addition”.

on a wall with a small window with open yellow shutter, a mural of an older woman with head scarf, bent over, and walking with a stick

The alligator driving the flying carpet with all his possessions was painted by Spanish artist (from Barcelona) Kram

part of a larger mural wall, a painting by Kram of objecs on a flying carpet on the top, and smaller rodent like animals with beady eyes on the bottom

This stencil work has been added since the murals were painted.  It looks very Moroccan with the blue tile work.  The two men neatly fit into a heart.

a blue stencil that looks like a Moroccan tile pattern, with an inset of a heart shape with top part red and bottom part two men's heads back to back, both with blue head scarvesBeside it is another stencil by the same artist.  This time it is four winged fish radiating from the center.   Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to figure out the artist’s signature.

black stencil of four winged fish radiating from the center, tails towards the center

Casablanca, at Socrate et Ali Abderrazak

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As you walk toward the intersection of Blvd Socrate and Blvd Ali Abderrazak the large murals there come into view.
a man walks along a wide sidewalk, walking towards buildings with large colourful murals

3 large murals at a Casablanca intersection, one in front is woman with many layered face

below: The mural in front is “Facing Forward” and it was painted by Moroccan artist Majid El Bahar; it was part of Sbagha Bagha, an annual street art festival in Casablanca.

large mural of womens faces in different horizontal stripes close up of eye in mural with satelite dishes on the building looking up at large mural from the bottom, womens faces,

The two murals behind the women were painted for Casamouja 2019.  This is an annual “urban art wave” and murals in 5 locations were/are part of this year’s event (between 20 Sept and 25 Nov).  The first location was at this intersection where there were 4 large murals.  Casamouja is a public programme started in 2016 for the promotion of street art in various districts of Casablanca.

In the middle is a mural of a man falling past a white, pink, and red background that was painted by OLDR

a large vertical mural by oldr of a man falling backwards past pink and white clouds. Falling with him is a blue dog, a car, and some logs

below: Falling past the laundry

mural of man falling part of a mural by oldr, a brown hat falling

At the back is a mural of cartoon characters by Moka

a mural of cartoon characters by moka,

a mural of cartoon characters by moka, Homer Simpson and Spongebob Squarepants

a mural of cartoon characters by moka in Casablanca, Inspector Gadget and Spongebob Squarepants

a kiosk covered with ads for coke products in front of a mural of cartoon characters by moka,

Just around the corner are two other murals that were also painted for Casamouja 2019.

below: A young man in football gear, by BAKR,

large mural by bakr of a young man in an orange blue T shirt holding a soccer ball or football, bottom part of mural is behind a fence

below: A mural titled “Back to the Past” by MED, aka Mehdi Zemouri

in a residential area of apartment buildings, a large mural by med in a residential area of apartment buildings, a large mural by med, closer look

Casablanca murals, Derb Ghallef

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There is an incredible amount of good street art scattered around  Casablanca, especially large murals on the ends of apartment buildings.

On Blvd Anoual in the Derb Ghallef neighbourhood is this painting by NDZW, a street artist from Vienna Austria.  It was completed in 2019 as part of that year’s Sbagha Bagha

large mural by ndzw on the side of a Casablanca residential building in Derb Ghallef

large mural by ndzw on the side of a Casablanca residential building in Derb Ghallef

Nearby are two other murals.  First, is this man painted by Yann Chatelin

large mural painted by Yann Chatelin of a man in a blue T shirt, with yellow background, Casablanca gas station in the foreground

And second is this fox by Mexican artist Seher One.

above the greenery of trees, a mural on the side of an apartment building, a foox, yellow leaves, and other pieces of nature on the side of building, a large mural with a fox, people waiting at a bus stop in front of it

Wabash street and vicinity, Chicago

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The Wabash Arts Corridor, founded in 2013, is a portion of Wabash Street in downtown Chicago. It is now the home of many large murals in a wide variety of styles.  I know that I didn’t find them all, but here is a large selection of them.  I’ve also included some smaller pieces that aren’t necessarily part of this project.

two murals on a wall on Wabash street in Chicago, on the wall Columbia college, beside a parking lot with a little bright orange car as well as other cars

below: A peacock painted in black and white by thedailydrizz aka Andrea Dunn

mural of a peacock done in black and white paint and made to look like it was done on 4 pieces of paper, on an old brick wall, by Andrea Dunn, a k a the daily drizz

below: Slime Mountain by Heidi Unkefer

mural in pastels tones, a reddish triangle, point down, and a light blue triangle, point up, meet in the middle, face on blue one, hands and little creatures too,

below: by Jordan Nickel, aka POSE

a bright collage-like mural

below: Many faces on the walls at this corner.  On one side are colourful abstract faces by Kashink,

two level parking structure on a street corner in Chicago, the short walls are painted with street art faces. On one side are colourful abstract faces by Kashink and on the other side are black and white faces from the project called Stop Telling Women to Smile.

below: “Stop Telling Women to Smile” is the title of the series on the other walls of the parking structure, a series of women’s faces in grey tones by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

on the walls of a parking structure, a line of realistic faces in grey tones, a man sits on a bench beside it

on the walls of a parking structure, a line of realistic faces in grey tones, two rows high

below: A mural by Darryll Schiff, “Descending into Heaven”

mural on a wall, black people in silhouette walking towards numbers in LED lights that look digital

below: By Lady Lucx and Sarah Stewart, an untitled piece on a parking structure wall.

walls of an elevated parking structure painted in an octopus mural

close up of the eye of an orange octopus in a mural by a parking structure

2 murals on Balbao street in Chicago, a blue one by a parking lot and one by asup on the side of a restaurant,

below: Mural  called “Make Your Own Luck” a group of cyclists by asvp on the side of the South Loop Club Bar & Grill
mural by asup on the side of a bar and grill on Balboa street in Chicago, in red, white and pale blue

below: “High Tide” by Amuse126

a large watery blue mural

below: Sticker, Lucky Gnome proclaiming happy changes in his life.
a sticker made with a USA postal sticker, picture of a gnome with words,

below: A paste up on a post, Andy Warhol
paste up of Andy Warhol on a post

below: “X Marks the Milky Way” by Renee Robbins, 2016

X Marks the Milky Way, a mural in a Chicago alley by Renee Robbins, abstract colours and shapes on a teal background

below: “Gift to the Class of 2016” by Don’t Fret

mural on wall above mollys Cupcakes in Chicago, a man with hands by mouth

below: On “The El” where orange & green line trains pass by

large murals on walls surrounding a parking lot that has an elevated train passing over it

below: Just the “Y” at the end of the word “Harmony” in a mural by Ben Eine beside a silver and grey mural by Marquis Lewis aka Retna

part of two murals, the letter Y and one in silver and grey

below: “Moose Bubblegum Bubble” by Jacob Watts

large mural of a moose blowing a big pink bubble with bubble gum

below: “We Own the Future” by Shepard Fairey in the same style as his “Obey” series

mural by obey in red, black, and gold, on upper storey of a brick building in Chicago

below: Watching over black horses on grey, a mural by Ricky Lee Gordon called “I am You, You are Me”.

horizontal mural of a woman's head in profile and horses, in black on grey

below: by Hera, “Imagine if we could Tolerate Each Other’s Differences”

on the upper storeys of a brick building in Chicago, a mural by Hera of a woman holding some birds in her hand, a small white figure stands beside her

below: A redheaded woodpecker. This is only a part of a larger mural that has been covered over by a large ad.  It was “From Boom to Doom” by Collin van der Slujis.   Seems like doom has won.

part of a mural, a large red head woodpecker, but rest of mural has been covered over by a large ad

below: “Impossible Meeting” by Marina Zumi
a mural by Marina Zumt of a doe and a buck, two deers, meeting nose to nose, painted in blues and purples

below: On the far right, by antckone aka Anthony Lewellen

four vertical panels close together, the two on the left are portraits, then an elephant and then a cartoon character by antckone

below: Butterflies on the corner.  There are many butterflies in this mural by Hector Duarte.  It is a representation of Mexican immigration.

a butterfly painted on the corner of a building

below: Within the confines of a small dog run, Melanie Vazquez‘s “Contra Todo Siendo Resistendo”

a mural behind a fence, pink, with yellow sun and green cactii

below: A large mural in a small space. “Standing Wave” by Justus Roe

large abstract mural beside a parking lot, small area, also in a fenced in space

below: Part of “Listen to Learn” by Hello Kirsten aka Kirsten McCrea.   Using an old telephone receiver to shed light on life.  The fence was a barrier.

car parked beside a mural, large hand holding an old fashioned telephone receiver but using is as a flashlight

below: The other side of the fence and the other side of the mural

mural by Hello Kirsten on the side of a brick building with a blue exterior metal staircase

below: A second rate photo I’m afraid.  It’s taken through the window of a moving train… and I forgot to go back and find the mural after I got off the train.  It is 8100-square-foot mural painted by Italian street artist Never 2501 in 2015.

seen through the window of a train, a large mural in Chicago

below: Ruben Aguirre, “Drowning City”

orange shapes on black, mural

below: Sun bum is winning.   J.C. Rivera’s “The Bear Champ vs Sonny”two cartoon-like characters wrestling of boxing, one has shirt on that says sun bum

mural in bright oranges and reds, sharp edges, linear, and across the street are portraits of musicians done in tile shaped pieces

on the corner of a building, on both sides, a mural in bright oranges and reds, sharp edges, linear, with a realistic hand as well,

mural in bright oranges and reds, sharp edges, linear, with a realistic hand as well, people walking past it, one man with hand out pointing at something

carol taking a picture of a row of murals of black musicians done in little squares on a brick wall in Chicago

mural of a black man singer made in tiles in blacks and white with shades of blue

photo (or photo like picture on a wall of a man looking at a tornado made of objects

words on paper, Dircksenstrasse

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below:  An old window on Dircksenstrasse covered with paste ups and other graffiti.   The top left pane has two posters with words.

First: ” Nichts andert sich, ausser ich andere mich. Alles andert sich, sobald ich mich verandere” which translates to “Nothing changes unless I change.Everything changes as soon as I change.”

Second (& longer): “Erwartet nicht, dass die anderen euch das Leben, die Liebe oder die Frohlichkeit bringen. Ihr musst zuerst in euch selbst die QUellen des Lebes, der Lliebe und der Freude offnen. Um zu empfangen, muss man mit Geben beginnen”, or in English: “Do not expect the others to bring you life, love or happiness. You must first open in yourself the sources of life, love, and joy. To receive, one must begin with giving.”

four panes of an old window covered with paste ups and other graffiti.

below: A closer look at the bottom part of the window.  On the right is a poster playing on the famous painting ‘American Gothic’ (1930) by Grant Wood.  The red noses means that it’s the work of MIMI the ClowN

On the left are more words.  This time they say “Helft einander. Liebt einander, jeden, alles, jedes, Blatt jeden Lichtstrahl. Vergebt.” or in other words, “Help each other.Love each other, everyone, everything, every, leaf every ray of light.Forgive.”

lower two panes of an old window covered with paste ups and other graffiti

below: Nearby is another old window with more graffiti.   The larger yellow poster says: “Das Universum Liebt dich und hil– dir” or in English, “The universe loves you and helps you.”.

On the right: “Dein schones Herz ist voller Gute. Verschenke diese Liebe und Gute uneingeschrankt an die Geschopfe der Welt.” which translates to “Your beautiful heart is full of good. Give away this love and goodness unrestricted to the creatures of the world.”

paste ups covering an old window, two posters with words, and one with picture of two black women

In both of the above posters the words are credited to #Azmuto.  He is the author of self-help, motivational type books so I suspect that these posters are self-promotion as much as anything else.  I’m not sure how that fits into the “advertising vs street art continuum” but they don’t scream ‘buy me’ so I have included them here.

glitter on Dircksenstrasse, Berlin

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The pictures on this page are all of paste-ups from artist SOBR‘s project, “It’s Time to Dance”.  They feature life size images of people dancing, alone, in couples, or in groups along with a lot of glitter.  There pictures were taken in August 2018 at which point the paper had been on the wall for a few months.

below: They share the wall space with a lot of other pasteups such as this chicken – dancing with the chicken?  Or maybe not because this chicken seems to have lost her head.

street art project, It's time to dance, by French street artist Sobr or Sobreon a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing,

below: Party time!

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, large group both men and women, glitter too

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, three women, one in a long skirt, one topless

below: The young girl in pink and purple is a paste up by TONA

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, women and glitter on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, three women, one with back showing

below: Even the little green guy is dancing but I doubt that it’s because of happiness.  His pockets are empty and he’s precariously balanced on a Euro.

on a brick arch, a paste up in black white, life size picture of people dancing, on two arches side by side, one with just one person dancing, and the other side with a couple