A small collection of graffiti has accumulated on Chiasso dei Baroncelli, a small street in central Florence. This is what it looked like the day I walked past….
below: This is a copy of “The Schoolgirl” by Swiss artist Albert Anker (1831-1910) with a couple of very subtle changes. The book that she’s holding now appears to be Chinese as does some of the lettering on her chalkboard.
below: The last few are black and white photos that the artist (WAP?) has then painted a part of – usually just one colour per print.
below: A Seileise stencil of a young girl with a small green plant in her bucket.
below: In the Ehrenfeld neighbourhood, Venloerstrasse intersects with railway tracks and this is the graffiti that covered one side of the arch before the street passes under the railway bridge.
A closer look at most of it –
below: Her shoes match her glass of red wine as she sits in a comfy chair. The other woman is a portrait by DISH and she sports bananas in her ears.
below: Fishes Invasion dominates this section of the wall…. but it’s not just an ordinary fish, it’s Joker Fish.
below: Lisson One yellow face among an assortment of little graffiti artworks.
below: A bird with a long white neck sits above 3 mall lids – a heart for love, a symbol of peace, and a yellow smiling face to represent happiness (or harmony?)
below: Seen here – A yellow woodpecker, a green and pink turtle, and an excitable little duckling who is looking for love.
below: The words are very small, but they say, “No place for love, peace, & harmony in this world”. But another little sign proclaims that “the heartest drug is LOVE!
below: Sheeptown 1 euro stamp, Candy by cinnirelli, End gender racism by lille-illus
below: Fight 4 ur rights. Plus a very small “Aut of Order” where a rainbow flows out of his head as it is tied up by several tiny people.
below: Feel the vibe.
below: Swordplay
below: “Be Kind to your mind” and “Das leben ist schon (life is beautiful)”. Both are by bierdeckelstreetart whose artwork is mostly text based.
below: A platter with one puppy and one kitten, and the words “immigrants food service” written above. But further down the wall, a young white boy and a young black boy walk arm in arm.
….Yet another lane in the Central Business District in Melbourne that has street art on its walls.
below: Two bald men, two pink robots.
below: Two different men. On the right, Julian Assange, of WikiLeaks fame, is painted on a roller door. On the left is a portrait of a different man, Ethan Joker, by Lushsux.
below: Bob Marley
“You say you love rain But you use an umbrella to walk under it. You say you love sun But you seek shelter when it is shining. You say you love wind But when it comes you close your windows. That’s why I’m scared when you say you love me.”
below: A mix of different paste-ups and stencils including an astronaut’s proclamation that “We are the Chosen Few” and a UFO with an enormous brain.
below: A closer look at “We are the Chosen Few”
below: Catwoman on the run with a blue bag from DeliveryBunny.
below: Bad Habits – Riots not diets!
below: The Breaking Bad LEGO guys are in Higson Lane too. There is also a little Robbo-T guy with crossed wrenches – a skull and crossbones motif!
below: Cute penguins and a big fuzzy penguin, by Lukas Kasper
below: On the left, another Lukas Kasper painting – this time a lizard. On the right, a brilliantly coloured falcon’s head by Silly Sully
below: Melbourne Moments
below: Revolution on the Television Head, or something like that. A women’s revolution? It’s the work of Salvo, aka Matthew Domenic Salvo.
below: “It’s okay to change your mind” written on orange beside a Tinkerstrumpf paste-up of a young woman and her guns. She has appeared in London and Cologne as well here in Melbourne.
below: On the right, a sort of portrait of a woman, or at least the skull of one.. with sunglasses.. and then overlaid with yellow, orange, and red stripes (by v-Is_4_vasso) The one in the middle is either a restaurant menu or an artwork meant to look like a menu – whichever the case, she has a red octopus on her head. Last, the very pink face on the left looks a lot like Princess Leia.
below: Ronald McDonald is saving a seat for you.
below:Robbo-T has ripped his heart out but the two young ladies haven’t noticed.
below: Black and white photos of somewhere in Melbourne.
… a few things seen as I walked around Dusseldorf on a rainy day.
below: At the train station – not really street art? But it’s a colourful addition to a grey platform.
below: One of the original pieces of street art in Dusseldorf is this large yellow Monkey that appears to be painted by a group of smaller monkeys. It was painted in 1969 by the Majo Brothers. The title is, appropriately “Affe” which is German for monkey. You could probably call it Der Gelbe Affe, or the Yellow Monkey.
below: Joseph Beuys is memorialized in this large portrait – he was a native of Dusseldorf who was influential in the development of the city from the 1960s until his death in 1986. One of his famous phrases is, “Everyone is an artist”.
below: Complex and largely symmetrical in shades of pink and purple is one way to describe this mural by HowNosm (or How & Nosm), a partnership between brothers Raoul and Davide Perre.
below: This is a large-scale, monochrome mural realistically depicting a person’s feet as they stand. They are wearing old boots (or shoes) and you can also see the bottom of their pant legs in the image. The artist was Hendrik Beikirch (aka ECB).
below: “Meat is Murder” he says as he holds out a sausage.
below: “No more wore” written on the Ukrainian flag.
below: Floral dog on a black and white slap, image by Christin Wenga.
below: Sad face with a blotch of yellow on his forehead.
below: “Nix Gelernt?” Nothing Learned?
below: In the center, raising the flag but it has been altered from the original photograph of the American the flag being raised at Iwo Jima on 23 Feb 1945 to an Anarchist flag. In the bottom corner is a small League of Legends sticker
below: His burning inside produces enough hot air to keep him afloat. There is a word written on his T-shirt which might give some clue as to the artist who created this large paste-up but I haven’t been able to find any answers online.
below: The thirteen of hearts and a pinwheel of robotic arms.
below: mmm
below: A bright green potted barrel cactus “growing” on a concrete wall.
below: Another dusseldorf monkey, not so big this time.
below: A lot of advice packed into a small space. “Don’t Panic”, “Be Big”, as well as “Never ever on a first date”.
below: Red head.
below: Framed twice.
below: For aspiring photographers – here is one way to display your work. Do you think that is effective? Worth the effort?
below: I’m not sure who it is, but they have very big black and blue lace-up shoes.
below: “Siamoises” – What looks like twin cats in red dresses is actually a row of identical kitties, but the spotlight is on those two. A mural by Mono Sourcil, aka Maxlie Martel.
below: Designed by ANYO – squirrels with different coloured hats. I have only shown two, red and turquoise, but there are many more out there….. how many have you seen?!
below: Giraffes
below: A wish for peace and love, amor et paix, for Ukraine.
below: A small portion of a large mural by Pantonio showing two of the many birds in the mural – a large bluish black bird and a cute little purple and white bird.
below: “Mechanic Bird” by Dede Bandaid & Nitzan Mintz, with text: “Of my dozens of keys, the smallest one opens home”
below: This rendition of Daffy Duck is the work of Simon Beaulieu – throwup “text” says Simple.
below: Dog (wolf?) with laser eyes.
below: It’s an animal, right? The blue creature on the left. It was painted by Cryote and the whole panel was a collaboration with Labrona and Waxhead.
While walking around the Byward Market in Ottawa, I saw a lot of traffic control boxes at intersections that were wrapped with old black and white photos. This is the result of The Capital History Project, a collaborative effort between Carleton University, the Workers History Museum, and the city of Ottawa. These boxes first appeared 2017 and they are/were all over the city. I am not sure how many there still are …. but here are a few of them….
below: Petigorsky’s shoe repair. Mr. Oscar Petigorsky in front of the store that he and his wife Nina ran, 1930s. The store was at 289 Dalhousie Street.
below: The sign on the side of the horse drawn wagon says “”Tea and Coffee Warehouse, W. Cunningham, Grocer, Wine Merchant”
below: “Ottawa band Modern Rock Quartet at Cafe Le Hibou”, photo by Dave Sproul circa 1970. MRQ was formed in 1967 and over the next few years they played with many top rock groups of the era. According to Wikipedia, their first live performance was at the Prime Minister’s official residence – that would be Pierre Trudeau.
below: Sam’s? Buy & Sell
For a complete story of these boxes, see the Capital History website. There you will find an interactive map showing the location of all the boxes.
Back in 2014, Vytenis Jakas decided to turn a residential courtyard into an art gallery.
below: Charlie Chaplin oversees the entrance to the yard. The black plaque above Chaplin’s head is in memory of Juda Zupavicius (1914-1944) who was a lieutenant in the Lithuanian military and a chief on the Kaunas ghetto police force. In 1941 the Jewish residents of this area were forced out and had to relocate to the Kaunas ghetto. Zupavicius was also one of the leaders of the underground resistance during WW2.
below: The words under the photo of the couple: „Čia 1939 m. – 1941 m. gyveno Dita ir Juda Zupavičiai. Juda buvo vienas iš Kauno geto pogrindžio vadovų, žiauriai nacistų kankintas neišdavė geto vaikų slėptuvių. Dita buvo kovos bendražygė“ (English translation: “Here in 1939 – 1941 lived Dita and Juda Zupavičiai. Juda was one of the underground leaders of the Kaunas ghetto, he was brutally tortured by the Nazis and did not reveal the hiding places of the ghetto children. Dita was a comrade in the struggle”)
below: Venus probably never had to do the grocery shopping
Yard Gallery
Upon noticing that the neighbours living in the yard had become alienated and had forgotten the common past of the yard, the artist Vytenis Jakas started creating a “Yard Gallery” – a courtyard surrounded by apartment buildings built in the inter-war period. In the past, the yard inhabitants knew each other well, communicated warmly, celebrated holidays together, and supported each other in troublesome times. The yard had a large table, a fountain and a sculpture, the Dapkevicius sisters grew flowers, and lilacs grew near the windows of the neighbour Regina. Over time, the population and the social environment changes, the number of cars increased, and the yard space became too small.
Seeing this situation, Vytenis Jakas, with the help of other artists and neighbours, turned the derelict yard into a centre of attraction, the open air “Yard Gallery”. Various artistic projects are implemented here: Portraits of the Jews who lived in this house before the Holocaust, along with the current residents, characters of various works are painted on the facades of the apartment buildings; mirror mosaics and stained glass windows are created, and community events are organised, with community festivals celebrated together. “
I saw these three posters on street art covered walls in Athens.
They are both part of an award winning series by Brazilian photographer Fabricio Brambatti.
below: “My Sweet Paradise” by Fabricio Brambatti a.k.a. Urso Morto
The small print on the bottom right of these two posters says:
” This is a poster part of the Guerilla Exhibition – https://void.photo “
below: “My Sweet Paradise” by Fabricio Brambatti a.k.a. Urso Morto
below: Near the top right corner is another poster from the “My Sweet Paradise” series – the photo of the man lying on a black and white tiled floor. He is bleeding. There are many posters by #ironik on this wall as well.
Eyes on the Streets 