beside Straat’s door

Posted on December 23, 2023 by Mary C

Amsterdam has a large museum/gallery dedicated to street art. It is located on the grounds of an old shipyard, a short ferry ride away from the central part of the city. Some of the murals are outside, along with a lot of graffiti that has been added over time. The works that I have included in this blogpost are what I saw around the outside of the entrance to STRAAT, the indoor gallery

below: A large metal door or gate that various people have left their mark on.

below: Top of the box, two portrait pasteups by Jeremy Novy, as well as two white hands.

below: Just smile on the frame of what once was a mirror. This was contributed to the space by navarriky.

below: A black and white image that is starting to peel.

below: On the other side of the entrance, is a wall that has served as a canvas for a few artists.

below: “The Asseastant” by FALCO, A nude but athletic thrower of life rings. Saving someone? On FALCO’s instagram page there is this description of the work: “”THE ASSEASTANT“ is a message of hope, altruism and activism. It highlights the media absence of hundreds of thousands of human beings who perish braving the seas to escape war, famine or misery vs 5 rich passengers on a touristic submarine cruise.”

below: A head of a large red heart, love, with a halo, the work of Faben,

below: Little girl destruction, a black and white by Dutch artist N888K

below: Barbie and the riot police. She gracefully dances in her tutu as they haul her away. Graffiti on tiles.

below: Hello Flynn and an ice cream cone with a very long tongue

below:words

Treeftsteeg

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Mary C

There are a number of lanes and passageways that connect the canals/roads Singel and Herengracht in central Amsterdam. One of the narrowest of them is Treeftsteeg.

below: Entrance to the alley, from Herengracht.

Various messages and symbols of peace – “I Love Kherson”, a girl waving a large Ukranian flag, “Love no War” (Love not war?), a white dove with wings of blue and gold, “Love makes a house a home”. In addition (under the word Kherson) there is a portrait of George Yurri Shevelov (1908-2002). His CV is long but in general he is most known for his research proving that the Ukrainian language has a separate history from Russian.

below: The portrait of the man in the top left corner is of Taras Shevchenko (1814 – 1861), a famous Ukrainian poet. Moving right, the woman at the top with the orange background is the former Queen of the Netherlands, Queen Beatrix. Third from the left is Ukrainian writer and feminist Lesya Ukrainka whose work spanned the late 1800s and early 1900s. On the right side there is an image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy although it is not the clearest picture.

anti war, pro Ukraine graffiti in an alley

below: Commemorating the sinking of the Moskva, a Russian ship in the Black Sea near the beginning of the war.

below: arrow showing the way to Kharkiv

below: caricatures

below: The narrowness of Treeftsteeg. Along with the pro-Ukraine messages, there are a few black and white portraits.

bicycles parked and leaning against walls in a very narrow alley

below: These portraits are part of “A Paper Monument to the Paperless” is an ongoing project headed by Dutch artist Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries.

portraits, posters on an alley wall, part of A Paper Monument to the Paperless, a project by Domenique Himmelsbach de Vries

Platanenweg ten + one

Posted on October 28, 2023 by Mary C

The “If Walls Could Speak” festival in 2019 was an Amsterdam Street Arts (ASA) project whose aim was to create 10 large murals, each on the end of a row of apartments on Platanenweg in Amsterdam Oost. These are the ten murals.

Blue metal sign affixed to brick building, street sign, Platanenweg, in Amsterdam

below: First, “In Case of Lost Childhood, Break Glass” by Leon Keer.

below: This mural is a Sjem Bakkus & IVES.one collaboration and is titled “De appel valt niet ver van de boom.” (in English: The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree).

mural by cobra on the end of a lowrise apartment building, cursive word cobra, a bright red apple, a mouth with a mustache in black and white

close up of part of cobra mural, painting of bright green apple beside a real window

below: A mural by British artist Dan Kitchener of a Japanese Geisha as well as a street scene on a rainy night.

mural by Dan Kitchener, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night, Japanese geisha girl

mural by Dan Kitchener, street scene in Japan city on a rainy night

below:aka Painting by Studio Giftig (aka Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek) – a bare footed woman in mid-air with a few pigeons.

Large mural by Studio Giftig,Niels van Swaemen and Kaspar van Leek, of a woman and a pigeon

part of Studio Giftig mural, pigeon beside a small real balcony

close up of woman in mural by studio giftig

below: A bird with pink, green, and turquoise feathers is keeping an eye on the balcony. It was painted by Dopie.

large mural on the side of an apartment building, a large bird, with pink head, green neck, turquoise and green body, pink legs and feet.

below: Lots of arms and hands holding boxes in a mural with the title of “Carrying Belongings” by Case Maclaim.

mural by Case Maclaim, hands holding boxes, on the side of an apartment building in Amsterdam

below: A boy under a tree with a creature (dragon?) in his hands. The text says “When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic”. It was painted by German artist Hera (one half of the artistic partnership, Herakut).

a young black boy kneels under a tree with a small dragon in his hands. a second dragon sits on a branch of the tree and is looking down. Text in the mural says When it comes to settling disputes, compassion is more useful than magic

below: The symbol of Amsterdam, the three white X’s on a black stripe with a red background. It is based on the city’s coat of arms which features a red shield with a black band and three silver St. Andrew’s crosses. The same design is found on the Amsterdam flag. Mural was painted by Kash (aka Friso Kasher) and Chuck (or Chuckone)

mural with symbol of Amsterdam on it, red background, black stripe with three white St. Andrews crosses

below: This girl and her little pink heart are part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, “Wherever you come from, here you are welcome.”

part of a large mural by Julieta XJF, a girl with bangs (hair fringe) is holding a little pink heart

mural with a large white bird and a girl with little pink heart in her hand

below: Three of the buildings with the murals on them.

a street scene, three lowrise apartment buildings with murals painted on the street facing side, trees,

below: “Beter een goede buur, dan een verre vriend.” (English: “Better a good neighbor than a distant friend.”) is the title of this mural by Smug One. mural by Smug One, an older man's portrait, wearing light blue baseball cap and light blue hoodie

Smug One mural of an older man, large, on the end of an apartment building

below: Although it wasn’t part of the 2019 festival, this mural by DFace is across the street from the others. “I feel so incomplete” reads the text. It is actually a few years older than the other murals that I have shown here.

D Face mural in the style of Roy Lichtenstein, a blonde woman with bright red lipstick looking back over her shoulder, with text, I feel so incomplete

Eyes on the Streets

and feets on the ground. Graffiti, street art and murals seen while wandering the streets and alleys of our colourful world.

Category Archives: Amsterdam

beside Straat’s door

Treeftsteeg

Platanenweg ten + one