Category Archives: Lodz

smaller things in Lodz

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Lodz Poland is home to many large murals that have been funded and promoted by organizations such as Urban Forms Gallery (Fundacja Urban Forms). Although not as common as in some cities, there are smaller works to be found – paste ups, stickers, and stencils by a number of artists. These are ones that I saw the day that I was in Lodz back in May 2022.

below: Putin as the devil, a Nazi devil surrounded by skulls and death.

paper pasteup graffiti with image of Putin with Nazi swastika on his forehead, fangs for teeth, and phallic devil's horns on his head. He is surrounded by a ring of small skulls

below: blue hand grenade

paper paste up on a metal sidewalk box, a large hand grenade made of repeating blue and white geometric pattern

below: Gu-tang Clan dog headed hand grenades plus a 2020 view of Earth.

below: A pasteup on a sidewalk box in Centrum that shares many similarities with the 2020 Earth above.

people walking past on the sidewalk, beside a metal box with a 2020 paper pasteup of a man in black hat, suit and tie, holding a red beating heart in his hands, picture has an elaborate border. Under it are 2 identical posters. Also a Lodz Poland street sign, Ulica Stanislawa Moniuszki, in Centrum.

below: This balck and white dog head features on many gu-tang works…

below: …. such as this one.

black and white paper paste up slap of a dog's head with upright pointy ears, a symbol of gu-tang clan graffiti artist or artists

below: A 3fala portrait of Katarzyna Kobro (1898-1951), a Polish sculptor.

a 3fala paper pasteup portrait of Polish sculptor who died in 1951, Katarzyna Kobro,

below: Man with a beard.  More on 3fala (if your Polish is good): TrzyFala

a 3fala portrait of a man with beard and mustache, laughing

below: 3-D mask with a square nose and eyes closed

three dimensional graffiti, a mask attached to a concrete wall. top part is painted blue with word LAD in white, bottom part painted to look metallic, brassy, eyes closed, square nose

below: A masked swordsman painted on a fence

spray paint graffiti on a wood fence

below: An abstract painting that was pasted to a wall.

abstract painting on paper that was pasted to wall and is not peeling and fraying at the corners, in blues, yellows and reds

below: A pink balloon dog crosses the street at the crosswalk. The sticker on the left says “Moje ciato, moj wybor”, or: my body, my choice.

below: A grumpy, angry bald man growling at the world.

small graffiti pieces on the exterior wall of an abandoned building, on plywood covering a door is an eye with legs, three small heads on exposed brick, and a larger painted, line drawing face of a scowling man with no hair

below: A house for a body?  Or a house with legs?  Whatever it is, it seems to be wearing adidas shoes.  It too is angry and letting the world know it.  Random words, win, and sugar.

below: Flower

black marker on white, drawing of a flower, on a metal sidewalk box

below: square happy faces

below: Lodz, No Surrender

black stencil of two people in balaclavas, with text underneath that says Lodz no surrender

below: Small pink happy cat with twinkling yellow heart.

sticker on yellow box, cat shaped with rounded bottom, blue eyes, black whiskers, pink fur, yellow heart above its head

below: A bird? and its shadow

two women and a faded heart

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below: A red headed woman wrapped in a blue shawl and holding a white rose.  White roses are symbols of purity and innocence as well as love and affection.  Traditionally the Virgin Mary is depicted with a blue shawl or similar clothing.  The mural is ‘Oblicze Piękna’, painted in 2018 by Paulina Nawrot.  The title translates to Face of Beauty, or Vision of Beauty.

below: A faded woman sits by her telephone in a 2014 mural by Russian artist, Morik as part of Galeria Urbans Forms.

mural by Morik of a woman sitting on the floor beside a telephone, with large plant leaves around her, monstera deliciosa.
close up of part of a mural, a woman's head with large leaves from a monstera deliciosa house plant.
close up of part of a mural, an old fashion telephone with the receiver off the hook and lying on the floor. A woman's hands and bare feet are by the phone.

below: Another faded mural, this one shows an anatomically correct heart with half of a butterfly on each side. Above the heart grows a large tree. The mural was painted in 2015 by Puerto Rican artist Alexis Diaz and is titled “Czuć” (or in English, “Feel”)

on the side of a building with a small tree partially blocking the view, a faded mural. An anatomically correct heart in the center bottom with a large deciduous tree growing from it. A butterfly, cut in half, sits on either side of the heart.

Bird Watching

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“The Vision of St. Dominic”, 2017, by Paulina Nawrot and Ola Adamczuk, one of three murals sponsored by the Dominican order of Łódź in honor of its 800th birthday.

mural by Paulina Nawrot and Ola Adamczuk in Lodz, of St. Dominic sitting in a tree reading a book white a flock of bluebirds fly
mural by Paulina Nawrot and Ola Adamczuk in Lodz, of St. Dominic sitting in a tree reading abook white a flock of bluebirds fly

below: Part of one of the other St. Dominic murals. There are three birds in the mural.

blog_flight_large_birds

below: ‘Ptak” by Axl Studio, aka Alexander Mehlhorn, 2016

mural of a girl standing by a large hummingbird, fence is blocking part of the mural.

below: Chasing the bluebird but not quite able to catch it.

part of a mural, a small blue bird is facing a larger blacker bird with a yellow beak.

Artur Rubenstein and a butterfly

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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.

small green space in front of large colourful mural by Kobra featuring a portrait of pianist Artur Rubenstein

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.

close up of face of Artur Rubenstein in a mural by Kobra in Lodz Poland
a wall in Lodz Poland with some faded text as well as a large painting of a butterfly.

people in the abstract

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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.

mural by Klone of two people upside down on the side of building, one figure is missing a face because there is a window there, figures drawn with contour lines in black and white
street scene in Lodz Poland with parked cars, sidewalk, stores, and other buildings, a mural is partially visible

Another large mural in Lodz featuring abstracted human forms is this sort of art deco style painting.

mural on a white apartment building

The third is this mural called “Gentrification” by Tone aka Robert Proch (d. 2019). It was painted in 2013.

close up of a mural by tone in Lodz Poland

mural by Robert Proch, tone, of abstract people swirling

Photos taken May 2022