Tanini’s colours and shapes

Posted on June 5, 2022 by Mary C

As I walked around Tirana I saw several examples of murals by Albanian artist Eljan Tanini. This blog post features three – a whole building covered by his shapes and colours, a tall vertical mural, and last, a wall with four panels.

below: All sides of the building are covered with whimsical playful shapes in Blloku.

a our storey building with stores at ground level, covered with mural of shapes and colours, lower floors have grey background, upper level has yellow background, painted by Eljan Tanini
close up of some of the windows of a building with the mural that is painted around them

below: Street scene on Rruga Myslym Shyri with the bottom part of Tanini mural showing. This mural was painted as part of MurAL Fest 2018.
street view, pedestrians on sidewalk, umbrellas over fruit stand, shops, bottom part of mural by Eljan Tanini

tall mural by Eljan Tanini

below: Four panels in a concrete wall have abstract paintings by Tanini (one on the left, with a blue background, is not shown).
yellow building in the background, concrete fence with recessed panels that have been painted with bright coloured abstract paintings
a panel from exterior wall painted byEljan Tanini, abstract shapes and colors on orange background

graffiti on an old building

Posted on November 2, 2020 by Mary C

What looks to be an abandoned house in Guayaquil that has some street art and graffiti on it. Some nice painting, some scribbles. Animals too – cat, dog, mouse, and bird.

cat mural on a boarded up door

street art and graffiti on an abandoned building in Guayaquil Ecuador

graffiti on an old house

painting of a yellow cat with abstract details in green and purple

red blobs on yellow, some blue line drawings of cat, dog, and mouse,

Keeping Mary Company

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Mary C

Like many corners in Rome, this one in Trastevere has a religious picture on the wall. Here you can see Mary, Jesus, and a couple of angels as well as ‘Ave Maria’ above the picture in what looks to be neon lights. This Mary is accompanied by the words Ricordo Delle Missioni Imperali Borromeo, Marzo MCMXLIX (i.e. 1949). Ricordo delle meaning “I remember”, or more loosely, In memory of”

Mary now has a lot of company.

wall in trastevere rome with graffiti on it as well as a picture of the virgin mary .

below: Crying but still punk Eiknarf sticker as well as a “Volti Spenti” soulless man on his phone, or no face no ego, by Luther Posca

two slaps on a wall, one is a frog standing upright with a bottle in one hand and the words crying punk, by artist eiknarf. the other is a black stencil of a man with blank face taking a selfie on his phone. Instead of facial features he has the words volti spenti which are Italian

below: A black stencil of a woman with long hair and a red Thauma at the tip of what looks like a long green tail with little suction cups on the bottom.

a long green lizard tail graffiti with a picture of a woman thauma beside

below: A Jesus face, tifa toro on his cheek, and a cat by Guaro

black and white cat poster paste up by guaro and a jesus head with the words tifa toro

below: Paste-ups and wheatpastes don’t last forever. 1. In the top right corner are two drawings by LUS57 of women doing things. One of them is vacuuming the universe – Saturn and the stars should be quite clean. 2. Little Qwerty pieces fun to find – this one with the yellow hoodie doesn’t seem like much but I think the bottom half is missing. 3. Last, the little red balloon is the top of a tiny Exitenter painting.

some old faded and partially torn wheatpaste paste ups on a grey wall

below: These are in better shape. 1. A papaya by Per Dispetto whose art centers around that fruit. 2. A large red and white cat mouth open wide and eating an origami cat whole by Krems. 3. The tree with its light green flowers was created by stelleconfuse. 4. Zeta’s little man in gold and black has a post-it note on this torso.. it’s bent so it’s not easy to read by the words ‘sempre’ and ‘indefinable’ are there and it was signed by someone called Jenny (I think!). Zeta’s instagram shows many variations on this man theme. 5. The little cat is “signed” but I can’t read the writing very well; it looks like BZQueen? and Confused Cat. 6. The two animals in the top right corner are a mystery.

many slaps on a grey wall

below: 1. Mr. Minimal, superhero in his blue underpants and flowing cape. 2. A character out of science fiction or just outer space…?, by Winston Smith. 3. And last, Lovers by K2M.

a black and white picture of a spaceman as well as a lovers paste up by K 2 M.

below: Two more ladies hard at work by LUS57. Above them, God wants to undo his creation work in a play on Michelangelo’s famous painting on the the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

graffiti on a wall. one is a poster of Michelangelo's sistine chapel creation where god points finger at man, but this time, ctrl + z is written on top, the computer shortcut for undo. There are also two little drawings by L J S 57, women working, women in old fashioned clothing, one is sorting straw and the other is sweeping

old fashioned like poster of a woman in an orange top with words zoom and vroom

The next few are small pieces that I saw nearby but not on the corner with the above.

black and white stencil on a wall looks sort of like a face made of rounded shapes, with word namea or nanea

a red stencil on a concrete wall of a man with goatee

below: A dog stamp. A play on the Romulus and Remus symbol/statue that you see around Rome. Is there significance to the XXX? This is the work of Gu Tang Clan

motorcycles parked in front of 2 poster street art pieces. one is a play on Romulus and Remus wolf statue and it is by Gu Tang clan. it is made to look like a postage stamp

looking across traffic to a curved wall on a corner with graffiti on it

The previous blog post was also about graffiti in Trastevere. You should be able to find it by scrolling down. If not, this is the link: Trastevere slaps

Trastevere slaps

Posted on March 4, 2020 by Mary C

On Christmas morning, while walking around Rome, we discovered a wall in the Trastevere neighbourhood that was covered with paste-ups, stickers, and other small graffiti. Some of it was made by well known street artists, others by those who remain anonymous. If you know the name of the artist who created any of these, I’d love to hear from you. This is what we saw:

many slaps, stickers, etc, on a wall

below: Red nose boxer with black eyes by MIMI the clowN as well as hands vainly reaching for green dollars by levodopa_046_. A very small pair of very high heeled shoes sneak into the left side.

red nose graffiti by Mimi the clown

below: Fishes Invasion stickers and paste ups can be seen in many places around Rome. They all feature Invader Fish, a two legged walking fish with big lips. The fish actually started in New York City in 2015 and has spread around the world since then.

fishes invasion graffiti

a wall covered with stickers and pasteups

slaps on a wall including a red and white poster of two people kissing

below: ‘Volti spenti’ translates to ‘dull faces’ which is a comment on the poor guy taking a selfie with his phone. The cat is probably the work of Guaro and there is a yellow chick that wants you to know that it’s not a nugget.

volti spenti graffiti as well as a babushka doll and a dinosaur

black and white slaps and stencils

below: The woman on top is by C-ska

slaps on a wall, poster

many slaps

below: To Live and Let Live – Street art against hate.

black and white paste ups

below: Bottom right is an elaborate black and white drawing by Lus57 of a woman who appears to be wearing a long dress but on closer look it’s actually a man’s torso and a tiger skin. She is holding a rifle in her hand. In contrast, there is a woman with bright copper hair and wild sunglasses – the work of stickermaidberlin.

posters and stencils on a wall

below: The bottom half of a Smilin’ Croc above a black and white portrait of a woman by Y-Tong and a big-nosed K2M man with an orange heart.

smilin croc graffiti as well as a big nose by K 2 M, also a black and white pasteup of a woman

below: Even Santa Claus helps spread the word about the Fishes Invasion although the pink and blue tiger seems to have an opinion about that.

fishes invasion graffiti with Santa Claus

below: The Fonz says plant a tree because it’s cool.

thauma red stencil graffiti

below: A purplish blue snake-like fish bites itself. There is also a small C-ska sticker of a woman with a heart in the place of one eye.

long purple fish biting itself

below: My Dog Sighs, a crying eye on page 120 of an old book – with the photographer (selfie?) reflected in the eye. Also, another C-ska piece – a woman with a bird cage for a head… meaning?

eye and red streak painted on a page of a book, now is graffiti, beside a pasteup of a woman with a birdcage for a head

Revolution Wall 2

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Mary C

The other day I posted some pictures of the art on the boards around the United Nations ESCWA building in Beirut (Feb 20, Let Lebanon Live). The pictures in this blog post are from another Revolution Wall, by Art of Change, in the same neighbourhood.

below: A rotten orange by dew (Ali Kadado) & renoz (renozoner).

below: Wings of Freedom

below: Close to a real heart

below: The count down is upside down

below: An archer fires red hearts in a painting by Lea Bou Habib

below: Stencil by markghsoub aka Markus

below: Throwing dice in a painting by Zein.

below: Two pink mice

below: Protesters throwing red hearts, not just any hearts, but hearts with the Lebanese cedar tree.

below: A Lebanese flag with the red stripe made of hearts, Our love for this country will overcome your greed for the green.

below: Three panels of bulls, cows, and words by Selim Mawad

below: Close up of the middle panel

Scroll down to the previous blog post for more of Selim Mawad’s work.

Black & White Power

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Mary C

In Rome there is a long line of murals by Italian artists Sten and Lex that line both sides of the same street, Via dei Magazzini Generali. On one side, on an orange wall, are portraits of famous people.

long orange wall with large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

On the opposite side of the street is a shorter blue wall with pictures of common people.

large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

below: A Pope

pope and others, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

The portraits were made with a combination of stencils and painting.

girl, middle aged man, woman, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

three people, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

woman in hard hat giving peace symbol with hand, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

below: Barak Obama

Barak Obama, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

elderly woman with glasses and yellow sweater, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

below: Elvis & others

Elvis Presley and a rapper, large portraits by sten and lex, Italian street arts, in a mural on two sides of the street, of famous people and common people,

The one different picture is the panther, a symbol of power, with a woman’s face superimposed on it.

a large panther head in profile, with mouth wide open and teeth showing, a woman superimposed onto the side of the face of the panther, mural by sten and lex called black and white power

Roman faces and clown fish

Posted on January 29, 2020 by Mary C

“The Fall of the Gods” can seen on Via Ostiense. It is a 40 metre mural painted in 2015 by Carlos Atoche and Mexican artist Luis Alberto Alvarez. In it, images of ancient Roman statues have fallen and are now underwater.

faces and fish on blue background, painted mural on wall with barbed wire above it, another mural on the wall beyond as well

bearded man face, lying on his back, with a flying fish passing beside him

old mural of clown fish and faces on a wall

clown fish in mural

in a mural, a clown fish swims beside a swordfish

corner of wall, painted face, mural on both sides of the corner, rental bike, jump, parked in front

a man seated, with one foot on the other knee, bending over with hand on foot that's resting on knee

face of grey bearded man with curly hair, eyes closed, painted in a mural

wall with old mural, pieces of wall, breaking off, tree beside woth motorcyle

bike parked against a post in front of mural with a whale

below: This was above the mural

an old Barbie doll caught in a barbed wire fence above a mural

Pictures of the mural back when it was freshly painted can be seen on Carlos Atoches’ website.

another Casablanca wall

Posted on November 14, 2019 by Mary C

A low wall in the older part of the city… if I remember correctly it might be on one side of a taxi parking lot? As I was taking pictures, an older man stopped to talk to me about the paintings on the wall. I think that he said that a group of students painted it.

The mural is full of Casablanca scenes such as this image of the Hussan 2 mosque.

below: Typical Moroccan tile work.

below: Curly metal railings and grilles like this can be seen all over Morocco.

below: The Moroccan flag is a green star on a red background.

London Police in Hollywood

Posted on August 26, 2019 by Mary C

As part of the Downtown Hollywood Mural Project (in Florida) there is a playful mural by The London Police, painted in 2014.

full mural by The London Police on a wall beside a parking lot in Hollywood Florida

The main character is one large smiley face astronaut and the supporting cast consists of numerous miniature astronauts.

close up of big smiling astronaut face looking at a tiny astronaut, in a mural by The London Police

in a mural in Hollywood Florida, five small astronaut characters with ropes as they try to climb up

a pipe comes out of a wall, painted on a mural, small astronaut characters are coming out of the pipe

in a mural, a large black wrench that syas adjust on it T L P signature on mural, 2014, Hollywood FLorida

The above photos were taken in July 2017 .

Perry Street, Phibs

Posted on December 8, 2018 by Mary C

In Collingwood (Melbourne), on Perry Street, there is large mural painted by Phibs in 2015. A portion of the bottom of it has been tagged over. I only have two photos of it (taken December 2018), each is roughly half of the mural.

On the right side:

upper part is part of a mural by phibs in blues and greys of fish, drawn with lines and circles, the bottom part is a large blue tag.

and on the left side.

a street art liion in blues, stylized, also a fish, on a wall under a window and beside a door, by phibs in 2015, on a street in Melbourne Australia

This is a screenshot from google street view (filmed August 2017) which shows the right hand side of the mural as it once was.

screen shot of google street view of the phobs mural on perry street in melbourne

Link to Phibs’s website

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: wall