ozmo | Eyes on the Streets

There is a housing development in the Zaspa area of Gdansk, built on what was once an airfield. There are many lowrise and midrise apartment blocks surrounded by green space. Starting back in the 1990’s, the large end walls of some of these apartment buildings have become canvases for street artists. Each year a few more were added.

path across a vacant lot towards a church and some apartment buildings. Two of the apartments have large murals on the sides of the building

below: Clemens Behr 2012

large mural, abstract shapes in shades of brown by Clemens Behr

below: “The Last Judgment Alive in Pixels” by Piotr Szwabe, 2017. This mural is inspired by the altar of the Last Judgment by Hans Memling from 1472.

below: From 2014, Eternia by Gaulicho. It shows “shows a world within a world, a micro and a macrocosm, the eternal cycle of day and night, birth and death, rise and fall.”

below: Chopin w Blokowisku (or, Chopin at Housing Estate), inspired by an unfinished portrait of Frederick Chopin and George Sands. Mural by Piotr Szwabe.

piano theme mural, with a couple sitting by a piano, river of white and black keys coming from piano

below: Painting by Pawel Paulus Mazur – balancing act, trying to make ends meet. 2014

exterior mural of a man balancing on one foot on a coin on edge

below: Magenta horse with clownish rider in a painting by Lucas Parbo, 2012. Another mural with money in it – “An apathetic rider with a standard displaying indifference and protected by a dubious shield with the figure of a modern-day European currency.”

mural of a blue knight with armor and shield on a red horse. Horse is standing on two hind legs. Shield has a euro symbol on it

below: New Idol is Coming, by Tomasz Bielak, 2010

mural of a baby bundled up in the middle of a red starburst explosion. New idol

below: The words are a line from the poem “Under One Small Star” by Wislawa Szymborska “Truth, please don’t pay me much attention./ Dignity, please be magnanimous.”, Painted by Opiemme in 2014

mural by opiemme on the end of an apartment block in Gdansk

below: Ancient ruins in a modernist space; a mural by Pawel Karczewski with help from painters “Bąkowski and Roman”. 1997

with some large trees nearby, a large mural of the ruins of the Roman coliseum in Rome, or any other roman coliseum for that matter

below: Rafat Roskowinski’s portrait of Pope John Paul II (Jan Pawel II) and Lech Walesa, 1999.

below: Also by Rafat Roskowinski (1997) snakes, snails, and some toucans for a big splash of colour.

below: Ozmo, 2009, RnR refers to Rock ‘n Roll as this mural was painted on the 50th anniversary of the first Rock ‘n Roll concert in Poland, held at the club Rudy Kot (Ginger Cat) in Gdansk.

below: A mural by Swedish artist Ekta showing Narcissus cutting off a piece of his own flesh so that he can taste himself. 2011

There are many more murals that I haven’t yet added to this blog. Soon, I hope to catch up soon.

More information can be found at Murale Gdansk Zaspa, Kolekcja Malarstwa Monumentalnego

Photos taken in 2022

Once upon a time, about 2013, on Via Ostiense under the railway tracks, a group of artists painted the concrete walls… Names like 2501, moneyless, andreco, tellas, Martina Merlini, ozmo, and gaia. By January 2020 only parts of them could be seen. This post shows part of those concrete walls as they appeared at the beginning of 2020 (other parts of the bridge to follow in subsequent posts).

The artist 2501 (aka Jacopo Ceccarelli) is known for his black and white striped creations and some of those were still visible along with realistic looking hands and faces that were probably painted by others.

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below: Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet, by OZMO

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below: Another portrait by OZMO

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below: A tarot card with an image of Temperance. She is often an angel and is one of the three virtues found in tarot cards along with Justice and Strength. A woman mixing water into wine was a standard allegory of Temperance in European art.

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below: “#BackToBlue” by Luca Maleonte, the original 2014 mural was tagged over before I saw it and just the top central two figures could be seen.

below: I found this photo online of the mural after it had just been painted.

Luca Maleonte mural #BacktoBlue from Widewalls site — Photo credit: Widewalls

below: The artist who created these is leonardo crudi novecento (Leonardo Crudi) The description of the black and yellow poster on his Instagram is “Alle bestie che strisciano da varie fessure Bisbiglio piano, di mio arbitrio: Prospera Allora mi guardo intorno – ma forse agisco, Sventurato contro la volonta di qualcuno Prigov e gli scarafaggi” Using Google Translate – “To the beasts that crawl from various cracks I whisper softly, of my own free will: Prosperous Then I look around – but perhaps I act, Wretched against someone’s will Prigov and the cockroaches” Prigov refers to Dmitri Prigov, a Russian writer and artist.

below: Helicopter silhouette

Pictures taken January 2020

The next installment of graffiti found under the Ostiense bridge is here – another section

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.

Tag Archives: ozmo

Zaspa murals – 20 years in the making

under an Ostiense railway bridge