Plovdiv street art

While walking around the city of Plovdiv I found a lot of great street art.

below:  A floating candle in the night sky,

mural of a man from behind, one hand behind his back , the other hand in the air just released a candle, or is reaching for the candle

below: Behind the Drama Theatre in Plovdiv, on one of its bright red walls, is a large mural by Bozko. Is this older man in a jester outfit a political statement?

a large mural of an older man in jester outfit, with arms crossed in front of him, make up on his face

below: These red walls were also painted with a large horizontal mural (next three photos).  A woman sleeps among purple flowers.  Is she dreaming of skulls and hands?  Is it a nightmare?

below: As much of the mural as I could get in one photo.

below: Another woman sleeps but with books as her pillow.   Transported into dreamland by the words she’s read.


below: Bloody Romance by Ernaste Nasimo

the story of romance, a mural by ernesto nasimo of a man giving a blue flower to a woman with shoulder length brown hair, on a red background

below: Another painting by Nasimo called “The Chain Rockers”.  It looks like he has just broken the chain with his teeth.  Behind the head is an open book with words written on the pages.  On the left is “raja-vidya raja-guhyam pavitram idam uttamam pratyaksavagamam dharmyam su-sukham kartum avyayam”.  On the right is the partial translation of this Krishna text into English: “This knowledge is the king of education, the most secret of all secrets. It is the purest knowledge, and because it gives direct”

mural on a wall of the head ans shoulders of an older balding man with beard, moustache, and large white teeth. He has an angry look on his face. his collar is in Bulgarian colours, red, yellow and black. An open padlock is in his beard and a chain runs across the lower par tof his face but it lookslike he has just broken it with his teeth

below: Watermelon seeds make the eyes and nose of the watermelon face… but then he eats the watermelon?  Two paintings by Viktoria Georgieva and Nikolay Bozhinov, aka Mouse and Nikkawhy

two murals side by side, one by mishka the mouse, and the other by aleksi varna. on the left is a watermelon cut open, seeds form a happy face, and the mural on the right is a person in round glasses eating a slice of watermelon

below: A boy with a large black bird painted on a box.

a painting on an electrical box on the street, of a boy with round orange glasses holding a large black bird

below: Four eyes, one of which is the handle for the box.

below: Cupid in browns pointing his arrow at an unsuspecting victim.

a small graffiti piece of a small chubby partially naked cupid with an arrow ready to shoot from his bow.

below: Bare toes, blue jeans, and a striped sweater.  A comb in one pocket and a little critter in the other.

below: Some whimsical, cartoon-like characters on a blue cloud.

small mural of a group of cartoon-like characters standing on a blue cloud, signature is mora.

below: She’s wearing flowers in her hair – is that hair being held up with chopsticks?

mural of a woman with large glasses and two flowers in her hair. she is holding something blue in one hand

below: A very long tongue from a happy frog wraps itself around a dragonfly.

below: My Bulgarian is non-existent so I’m not sure what this says.  Covered in tattoos and puffing on red smoke as he takes a rest on his bike.

mural of a bald man with a mustache on bike with lake and sunset behind him, puffing on red smoke, covered in tattoos,

below: And last, a quiet cup of tea by the mail box in the shadow of little triangular flags hanging across the street.

All in white, like a silhouette, a tall lamp stand with three lamps at the top, a woman sitting beside a table with a tea pot and a vase on it.

four Adnate faces on Wellington

On an apartment building that is 20 storeys high, there is a large mural painted by Adnate.   Apparently it is the tallest mural in the southern hemisphere.  Recently completed (Sept 2018), the mural consists of four faces of residents of the public housing building.

adnate faces, four, on a 20 storey high apartment building

below: The top of the mural features the face of a young Vietnamese girl

a young girl and an older woman's face in an adnate mural

below: First grader Arden

young boy's face in a mural by adnate

below:  The face of Badria Abdo, from Ethiopia, who arrived in Australia in 2006 via a Kenyan refugee camp where she spent seven years.

below:  On the bottom is a man recently arrived from West Papua (Indonesia).

a black man's face in an adnate mural

Chopper Lane, Collingwood

Chopper Lane is a small dead end alley that runs off Perry Street in Collingwood. This bright blue mural is at the end of the lane.

below: I can’t read the signature at the bottom right, any ideas?

looking to a dead end lane, Chopper Lane, wall is painted like a blue sky with a few clouds, text written on it.

Text in the mural:
“I meet love and I lose it,
I sense it, I reject it,
I pursue it,
I find it in small things
Like
When I stop to look at the sky
And I wonder
About You”

upper part is remains of a mural showing just a pair of woman's eyes, in blue, mural on the bottom of women working

below: The signature at the bottom right of this one is utama.co and lingerid.  Unfortunately, I cut off the signature on the left (partially visible here).

mural of two women

red and silver graffiti on a wall underneath a row of windows with frosted glass

below: One Mob

street art painting of a man topless with arms over head in victory, with text underneath that says one mob

below: Mural of a sugar glider, a small nocturnal possum.

street art mural of a sugar glider, a small rat-like rodent

I’m not sure if it’s still Chopper Lane after it crosses Perry Street, but you can continue walking north.

below: Looking across Perry Street from north to south.

devil mural on the right, then looking across the street to another wall and garage door on Perry Street in Collingwood, that is painted with street art

below: On the paper it is written: “Sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all.”  Even if it’s the devil from the TV show “Futurama”
futurama devil in a mural, yellow colour, blue text graffiti, devil is holding a hand written paper that says sometimes a deal with the devil is better than no deal at all

gold letter text street art with a picture of a woman in broad rimmed hat and purple and orange sunglasses

coloured lines, abstract, street art painting

below: A knight in no armour but a helmet spearing open a spray paint can.

street art painting, man on horse with long lance, or sword, on horse back, horse rearing up on hind legs,

text street art in an alley in Collingwood Melbourne

street art picture of a blue spray paint can being held by a blue hand, can has mouth wide open showing white teeth and red tongue.

below: I’m not sure it’s “street art” but it was too cute not to include here.

a row of stuffies behind a rusty metal grille in front of a window.

below: A closer look.

close up of three stuffies behind a rusty metal grille in front of a window.

looking into a back yard from an alley, drawing on white door, an old chair in front of the door.

below: Two pasteups on a pole

a row of spoons drawn on a piece of paper then used as a pasteup on a pole

black and white pasteup on a pole, outisde, with some red spray paint covering parts of it.

below: Oh!  It looks like I was spotted!

man on a balcony above a garage is looking down into the alley, another garage door has street art sprayed onto it

door in a fence in an alley covered with street art, textual

If you walk to the end of the lanes, you’ll find yourself on Bedford Street where there is another mural by Lingerid.

large painting of a man's head on the exterior wall, surrounded by grey words

striped klones

Klone Yourself mural, from the 2016 Montreal MuralFest, features two black and white striped upside down human-like figures

below: The hand on the sidewalk that supports the figures.

part of a larger mural, a black and white striped hand in on the ground, supporting two upside down figures

below: The figures take up the whole of the side of the house (4 storeys?) and are marvelously placed.  Their feet are against the roof and the windows of the building are their faces.  One figure is resting a hand on the corner of a window.

two large humanoid figures upside down, striped black and white, windows of the buildings are the faces of the creatures in the mural

Klone Yourself is a Ukrainian artist who lives in Tel Aviv Israel.

Athenian stencils

below: A television family.   The rabbit ears are quaint.

little black stencil of a family, parents have televisions for heads, standing in a row, all holding hands. seen in Athens Greece

below: Crying eyes

black stencil of a woman's face, just the features, she is crying and black tears are running down her face

line drawing, in black, stencil, woman's head with face partially obscured by a red bandana over her mouth and nose

below: Throwing each other away. Are any of us really disposable?

small black stencil of a person throwing a smaller person into a garbage can

below: A more positive message – butterflies and love

two metal boxes on the street with stencil graffiti, both with red background, one has many black butterflies and the other has a boy giving a flower to a girl, in silhouette

below: I suspect that it’s a protest that is political in nature but because of my lack of Greek I’m not sure.

stencil graffiti, circle with a pair of scissors diagonally across it, with words R.A.W. cuts and then some Greek words below it. seen in Athens Greece

below: I think that this is the face that is stenciled the most.  Che Guevara may have died in 1967 but his face lives on.

black stencil, che

Athens has lots of concrete pillars on its streets and many have graffiti on them.  The next few photos are some of those pillars.

stencil on a concrete pole with two people walking past it. stencil is a woman. seen in Athens Greece

two stencils of women, the top has covering over mouth and nose, the other is a line drawing of a woman's head and shoulders in profile

black stencil of a woman on a concrete pole

creatures and faces, Thessaloniki

below: A large mural in Thessaloniki by DAL and Faith47.

large mural on the side of a building, a woman in profile with her hair tied up, a feathery black bird above her

below: The unspeakable truth

graffiti on a grey wall, a tree growing in front of it, a man in armour and old fashioned aviation goggles on his forehead, holding a creature with human like face and arms trying to break out from behind bars

below: Large owl in purple and white with pink eyes staring at you.

below: A mad dog (wolf?) with teeth showing, chasing a man in green.

mural of a very large wolf, or dog, head with open mouth and large sharp teeth showing, chasing a man dressed in green, looks like the man is almost in the dogs mouth, small enough to fit whole man in the mouth

below: All you see are the blue eyes… veil by vales?

motorbike parked in front of a mural of a person with head covering and veil

below: It reminded me of the story of the Trojan horse.   Or you can think of it as two modes of transportation, then and now.

drawing of a horse with its back covered with a blanket, on a wall covered with small green horizontal lines, a motorbike is parked in front of it.

below: Encircled in purple

small street art painting, purple, circle shape with woman's profile in it, in light blues and oranges

below: How is your Greek? I haven’t a clue but I hope it’s not too profane. When I tried a google image search, it came up with maps of Thessaloniki – is that a clue? I thought the image was more like a bird.

Green wall. Topless woman street art. Grey feathery object beside her. Also words written in Greek.

below: Making music. Once again the words are written in Greek so I don’t understand them.

street art painting in black and white on a red wall of a musician, signature is buz 2012

below: White tigers on a wall. Mama and her two little ones along with some paste-up faces.

three white tigers on a red wall, a parent tiger with two cubs (kitts?), some other pasteups on the wall too

below: Death sneaks up from behind. Colourful.

graffiti and street art on a low wall in Thessaloniki, with leaves of trees above the wall

below: Oh no! Another picture with a motorbike!

two large white ovals with faces drawn in black lines, one continuous line for each face. A motorbike is also in the picture

below: A skeleton between the windows.

below: A fence to keep the cows in, even if it’s a wind up cow. You probably can’t see it, but someone has written “go vegan” by the cow’s tail. The signature seems to be shogun1.de

below: This octopus seems quite happy with his ride!

below: #ironik in English,

Street art and graffiti on a wall including a blue skull. Two white posters have been pasted on top, both by ironik. Words in English. One says

below: oink, oink, grunt, grunt. A wonderfully real looking pig albeit a purple one.

Mural on a wall that includes a realistic looking purple pig. Also words (signature?) Bepia Me Xdona

below: Be yourself even if you’re blue.

below: Skull and head.

below: Not even skin and bones, just bones but bones with wonderful detail.

small street art piece, black background, white skeleton of small animal such as a cat or dog, very realistic skeleton

below: His sunglasses match his tongue.

a large face painted on a garage door, yellow skin, purple sunglasses and purple tongue

below: Skane, sorc and zombie with a tongue

three ugly creatures drawn and painted on a metal door

below: Little blue man and a signature that I’m not sure about.

street art, short little purple man with oversized head, fabric mask over his nose and mouth, one arm up raised. on the other side of the mural is a creature with large eye and three monstrous teeth

below: Two faces in white and orange.

two street art faces, one white and one orange, both with lines drawn in black

black line drawing of a man on a graffiti covered door, top painted orange and bottom of man painted green

To find out where we’ve taken picture of street art, check our “Locations” page!

Kadikoy murals

‘Muralist Istanbul’ is an annual mural painting festival that has been running in the Kadikoy area of Istanbul since 2012.    Most of the murals on this page are from 2013 so you know that this is only a sample of what can be seen in Kadikoy!

 

below: The bottom part of “Occupy Antarctica”.  What is missing is a clock and a red fez – both are above the penguins.  Painted by B. Shanti.

a small blue car is parked in front of the bottom part of a large mural in Kadikoy Istanbul, a group of penguins on top and some text street art on the bottom

below: Two purplish horsemen separated by a column of windows,  by Franco Fasoli aka Jaz (from Argentina) called “One against One” painted in 2013.

large purple hued mural in Kadikoy, two horsemen facing each other with a column of windows in the middle, by Argentinian artis Jaz

 

below: The text says Captain Borderline.  The title is “Sufi of Kadikoy/Totem” and it is the work of Dabtar from Germany.  Dabtar is a member of the Captain Borderline Crew (as is fellow German, B. Shanti, above).

large mural in Kadikoy Istanbul, a man, clownish features, black bears, standing up,

 

below: “Resistencia” by Inti. Skulls on the wrists and an apple in hand.

large mural by inti in Kadikoy Turkey, person with hood, holding an apple in hand,

below: A closer look at the bottom part of the mural that is in the shade.   An ace up the sleeve.

details of inti mural, hand with tattoos

below: Eyes on the balloon, watching as it rises over the vacant lot. “Balao ” by Brazilian artist Claudio Ethos, 2013.

large mural in Kadikoy on the side of a building, hot air balloon, on the side of a building, vacant lot beside behind hoardings covered with ad posters Painted by Brazilian artist Claude Ethos

below: “In Dreams” by Freddy Sam (aka Ricky Lee Gordon)  An elephant at night, under the moon and stars.  Most of his murals are in shades of grey.

a large mural of a realistic looking elephant at night, in grey tones, moon and stars too

below: I couldn’t find any information on this mural.

large mural in Kadikoy of an abstracted face in yellow, blue, red, and green, eyes looking out onto the street

If you plan to visit Kadikoy, do a bit of research online first and save yourself some time! Images and the locations of most of the murals are on the internet.

Carrer de Sevilla, Valencia

Carrer de Sevilla is a short street in the Russafa district of Valencia.  On the exterior walls of 24 Carrer de Sevilla, an empty building, there is a selection of interesting street art.

below: Across the top of the pasteup on the left it says, “hasta el infinito y mas alla” which equals “to infinite and beyond” – this tribute to David Bowie is by Disneylexya (more below).    The black and white woman with 4 eyes is by CKTN aka Chikitin Valencia

two pasteups on a wall, one is a tribute to david bowie that says hasta el infinito mas ala which means to inifite and beyond

below: Detail of the David Bowie tribute pasteup

detail of pasteup graffiti tribute to david bowie, hands, arms, and guitar

below: Another 4 eyed woman by CKTN

black and white paste up by CKTN on a wooden door of a woman's head, she has 4 eyes,

 

below: This mural is the work of Vynz + Hyuro.  It has been defaced/censored, in the original, the woman on the left is naked.  Did someone object to the nudity?

mural on a wall, three women, one in the middle has a red bucket over her head, she is reaching out to the one on the left who has been defaced (port painting). by vynz and hyuro.

below: Intricately drawn flowers by Lily Mixe .... or is the one on the right a bug?

intricate drawing of flowers and stems in black and white by lily mixe

below: Team work, David de Limón’s black ninja character joins forces with Disneylexya

David da Limon black ninja character, with a red heart, with a spray paint can in each hand and spraying while riding on a dragon like character drawn by a different artist

below: Another disneylexya pasteup creation

very detailed drawing, black on greens and yellows, man like figure,

small paper pasteup in pastel colours of a young girl in pigtails hopping on a blue and white semi circle

damaged pasteup of the back of a woman in short skirt and shoulder length hair.

Quito Ecuador

There is a lot of street art in Quito.   It covers a lot of concrete walls that are part of the city’s infrastructure (supports for elevated roads, walls around buildings, etc).   Here is some that I saw in February 2018.

below: Two people, one inside sitting pretty in pink and one outside.

grey and white painted stencil of a man including head, upper body and one arm. on a yellow wall beside a window with a pink window frame. There is a sticker or pasteup of another face in the window looking out. Quito Ecuador

below: A bird in flight.  One wing looks like flames while the other wing resembles water.   Signed by yo-ho-ho.

street art in Quito Ecuador, a bird in flight, one wing looks like flames and the other wing looks like water, painted by yo_ho_ho. mural in Quito Ecuador

 

below: Many, many faces in pink.

on a wall with ivy growing over the top of it, many faces in shades of pink , overlapping each other. mural in Quito Ecuador

 

below: Part dragon and part fish?

on a yellow wall, behind a small tree, a colourful painting of a dragon

 

below: A painting by BEGO

on a house beyond a white fence, a painting on the upper storey of a woman with red hair and red flower

 

The next few paintings were on a wall surrounding an house that was falling down.

on an old stone wall, two animal heads, a dog and a cat maybe.

painted in blue, a pig with sunglasses and crossed arms, words say smoky pig

on a crumbling stone wall is a large green face with many pink eyes, and pink liquid spewing from his mouth

 

below: This is the last of the photos from the ruined building – note the broken bottles across the top of the wall.  That’s very common in Quito… although electric fences seem to be replacing broken glass as a means of keeping trespassers out.

mural of a boy's head in profile, short hair, wearing goggles, all in blue shades

 

below: Crab (lobster?) hands

stylized painting of a man upper body with large crab hands, lack hair and blue writing (illegible) on both sides of his head.

below: Laughing and pointing

large man's face with laughing open mouth, moustache and short hair, pink shirt collar, hand with index finger pointing , mural in Quito Ecuador , Hecho salsa

 

below: Someone stole an orange cone.

graffiti on a wall

 

below: Covering his mouth and I don’t think that it’s because he’s coughing.

mural in Quito Ecuador , large red face with a blue hand covering its mouth

 

below: Me

wall painted part red and part blue. on the blue part is a large ME in white with black border. Quito Ecuador graffiti

 

below: Pasteup over his face, a mouse and a mousetrap

part of a larger mural with soldier, wearing helmet with three gold stars on it, someone has put a red dot in the middle of his forehead, also a pasteup now covers his face, with a rat on it, mural in Quito Ecuador

 

below: Another gorgeous bird.  Signed by Pagach? (Pagache?)

mural in Quito Ecuador , realistic painting of a bird with a black and yellow head.

below: Painted on a rusty metal gate.  Reaching for the skull.  I am not sure of the words but if it’s “ponte y las alas” that translates to ‘stand and the wings’ but there are more letters.  Any ideas anyone?  Painted by Aster in 2017.

on a rusted metal gate that is locked closed, graffiti of a person with outstretched arm, as well as a skull

 

below: Resiste

small paste up of a face and star with green and red parts

below: Graffiti behind the fence

graffiti on a wall beside an outdoor stairwell, behind a chainlink fence in Quito Ecuador

 

below: Supay Corpus in a residential area.

 

below: Someone likes to paint underwear, men’s brief to be more specific.

large black and white painting of a pair of men's briefs, underpants in Quito

 

below: A very realistic portrait of an old man with one green eye open.

realistic, and large, painting of a wrinkly man's face, one eye open and one closed. The open eye is green.

 

 

faded red concrete steps leading to a black door with a metal grille covering it,also some graffiti tags. Two bottle brush trees are in front with their red flowers

 

circular pattern painted in black and white with a cat's face ferocious in the center circle, painted mural

 

And last, there were some word stencils….

below: #2mayo and “ecuador ama la vida” which is ‘ecuador, love life’ is now someone’s love note to Mina.

two black stencils, the first is a raised fist with the words #2mayo and the other says ecuador

below: “Sigue to corazon & disfruta el viaje” which means “follow your heart and enjoy the trip”.

black stencil on grey concrete, sigue tu corazon a disfruta la viaje, written twice

 

below: Natura Insurrecta?  and “Mineria responsable cuento miserable”.  The direct translation for the latter is “mining responsible, tale miserable”.

green stencil on top and black on the bottom that says mineria responsable cuentu miserable