Floor, walls, walls... Street art surprises you in every corner of the city!
Now that there is no other option but to postpone all our travel plans -not to cancel, everything has been said-, it is time to learn to enjoy the small pleasures that give us the warmth of home . One of them, despite the fact that it often acts as a double-edged sword, is the social network par excellence that He gives us so many little moments of evasion every day: Instagram.
From it, a whole world of possibilities opens up to us with which we can travel without leaving home , it will suffice to enter our profile and dive a little beyond our followers (or followed) to discover jewels such as some of the best urban art artists of the moment . All of them are true diamonds in the rough with which it is possible travel the globe from north to south and from east to west , admiring his work and dedication to art in all its versions.
Each one with their style, layout and philosophy of life, make this world, a more inspiring and beautiful place thanks to its creativity through street art . The one who paints on a surfboard Below sea level , the one who does about road signs , the one who creates works when nobody sees him while the rest of us sleep, the one her angel wings make us dream of something better or the one illuminates an abandoned mansion with his works , are just some of the works that we will be able to find in the following Instagram accounts that already accumulate tens of thousands of followers.
Shall we start with this journey through the best urban art of the moment? And don't forget to hit the 'follow' button! These open-air museums are waiting for you just around the corner...
Ready for an artistic journey from home?
Hula (@the_hula)
You will recognize his work because he is not like the others. This young man named Sean Yoro -although everyone knows him under the artistic name of Hula-, he was born 29 years ago on the island of Oahu in Hawaii and has since he was 18 years old dedicating himself together with his brother Kapu to his great passion: street art . He is in charge of creating the works while his brother immortalizes them and captures them in video or photographic format.
But his thing is not buildings or murals to use, but he uses surfaces that are above, below or very close to a common element: water . In all versions and extensions of it, whether in a lake, glacier, river, ocean, waterfall or forest, this aquatic element is always present in most of his works.
“With every project there is a specific message or goal in mind. The general scope of my overall body of work would be create a dialogue and awareness about current environmental or social issues . I try to find new perspectives for tell new and unique stories through art ”, Hula tells Traveler.es when talking about why his work always revolves around explore the limits of nature.
Where lies the magic of his work? Most of his creations are ephemeral as they are in locations full of nature . They practically merge with elements such as water, air or sunlight, making it impossible for them to remain impassive over time.
“At the beginning of my career, I did my best to make my mural permanent. Unfortunately, when working with nature it is impossible, so little by little I began to accept it and I realized that I felt the freedom of knowing that my work would have that temporary life and in this way too I was forced to be in that moment to capture the fleeting moments ”, comments the Hula artist himself.
banksy (@banksy)
Impossible to make a selection of the best urban art references of the moment and not include to the revolutionary and iconic Banksy, probably the artist we most want to know his identity (or maybe not, and in that mystery lies part of the success of his work). Although there are dozens of hypotheses about the artist's real name, there is none that 100% proves his identity.
Banksy began by mapping out his work in the early 1990s in Bristol -the city where he was born-, and since then he has not ceased to leave his mark on different parts of the globe, most of his works being a claim of social or moral denunciation to different issues such as the treatment of refugees, war, corruption, climate change, society... all of this with irony or satire as a common denominator.
The artist's works always fall like a bucket of cold water, raising blisters in some sectors and invite us to reflect on the world in which we live . Throughout these last three decades, we have seen his personal stamp from his hometown of Bristol, passing through London until reaching Palestine, Gaza or France . His most expensive work to date was sold in October 2019. for 9.9 million pounds and it is the work Returned Parliament (Involution of parliament).
Lula Goce (@lulagoce)
The precision of her drawing and the realism of her murals have consecrated the artist Lula Goce as one of the best of her generation. She was born in Vigo, graduated in Fine Arts in Salamanca and specialized in Graphic Design and Artistic Creation. in various schools in Barcelona she is passionate about urban art.
“She always liked to paint in the street, on the walls and in those public places likely to be intervened , a creation that she was alternating with exhibitions and murals in art centers and galleries”, she acknowledges when talking about her beginnings. Among her references are artists of the stature of Paola Delfín, Hyuro, Faith47, Etam Cru...among many others!
In the words of Lula Goce, street art “is the art that eliminates the white cube of the gallery and the museum to develop in a more relaxed environment, made on the street and whose primary purpose is to intervene in the urban spaces themselves . It is an art where the artist comes to the viewer and not the other way around , where the spectator varies depending on where you place him, art for the neighborhood and ultimately, for the common passer-by”.
Your favorite work of hers? without a doubt Her favorite mural is the one she painted in Vigo because it is made in her house and because her models are part of her family, they are her son and her niece . “It is important because of what it meant for me, for the city and for the neighbourhood, being one of the first to be built in Vigo”. Pure art.
Clet Abraham (@cletabraham)
If you drop by Florence Apart from seeing her signature on countless traffic signs -her greatest artistic canvas of hers-, you will also be able to enter her studio (Via Dell'Olmo 8R) located in the Oltrarno neighborhood and an ideal stop on the way up to Piazzale Michelangelo or to the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte.
This Italian city has not been the only one in which the street art artist Clet Abraham has spread his ingenuity and creativity , but it was the first and that is perceived from the first moment you set foot on any pedestrian crossing in the historic center.
One of his favorite works is L' Uomo Comune (The commoner) , one of his first works that is not a sticker, but a statue: “I placed it without any authorization on one of the bridges adjoining the Ponte Vecchio and it was intended to be a way of respect human beings who face their personal, daily struggle . The reactions were and continue to be amazing!” acknowledges the artist.
Clet was born in 1966 in Brittany and left France to settle in Italy after finishing his studies at the Rennes Academy of Art and over the years he became a true full-time painter. “With the great public recognition and world travel, I found my personal balance between oil painter heritage and new skin as a street artist ”, tells Traveler.es the creator himself.
For Clet Abraham, street art “is a free expression of an individual in the public space that breaks with the limits of accepted and institutionalized art and he is accepting that his work ceases to be his the moment he leaves him on the street ”. It is right there where the magic of street art resides.
Colette Miller (@colettemillerwings)
Global Angel Wings is the longest-running project with the greatest impact of the American artist who has specialized in street art since 1999 as a form of maximum artistic expression. Her mural of angel wings in Los Angeles -the first of many- was painted in 2012 after a long time of being haunted by the idea from the depths of his interior: "I had the vision of the giant wings on the walls of the city, the wings would represent for me the divine in all humanity, the true self ”, acknowledges the artist herself.
Thanks to social networks, the mural of angel wings that was initially drawn illegally went viral almost immediately and in recent years it has become one more stop for every self-respecting tourist or local in the city of Los Angeles . And it has not stayed there, in these last eight years Colette Miller has left her mark in more than 10 different countries and her angel wings are located both in streets, as in buildings, museums, windows, hotels...
For her, this work aims at “the need to remind humanity that we are the angels of this Earth ”. Said and done. Of course, prepare your mobile if you ever come across any of his murals... The like is more than guaranteed!
Rone (@r_o_n_e)
In 1980 he was born this Australian artist based in Melbourne (Australia) that he has great recognition worldwide but especially in the country where he was born. His large-scale creations, usually of people and more specifically of female faces , they are a declaration of intentions towards the beauty of decadence.
What he originally supposed a job decorating skateboards , little by little these were becoming small and he began to use dilapidated buildings to showcase his work in a big way.
His last great staging was the project of he empire , which as we told in Traveler.es a little over a year ago " It's a melancholy journey through time and space ”. In it, the urban art artist change the street for an abandoned mansion in which he collects his creativity in murals distributed among the different floors of the uninhabited house.
all of it accompanied by the ingenuity of interior designer Carly Spooner in which he also complemented Rone's staging with more than 500 antique pieces distributed throughout the rooms of the mansion . Her latest news from him? The artist's works over 20 years of work will arrive in book format in June 2020.
Okuda San Miguel (@okudart)
“I started painting on the street in 1996, mostly in abandoned factories and that it seemed that nobody paid attention to them, but that for me and my group of friends they were hidden treasures that nobody wanted. In those places is where I started to express myself and work on murals in a big way . This made me study Fine Arts and caused the academic and the street to merge, becoming just one and the showcase in which to express myself”, the street artist tells Traveler.es Okuda, one of the great national icons of the street art scene.
More than in urban art itself, Okuda San Miguel -artistic name of Óscar San Miguel Erice- find the referents of it in the History of Art itself for example artists such as El Bosco or reinterpretations of paintings such as The Last Supper or La Gioconda , although he is also inspired by his colleagues on the street, of course.
One of his most immediate future projects that will be published as soon as this quarantine is over is his first textbook Coloring the world where preference is given to the word over the stroke and in which there is “ 11 chapters that respond to 11 icons of my works with all the messages and concepts, all of it applied to personal life experiences ”, as stated by the artist Okuda himself.
starfightera (@starfightera)
The queen of graffiti has her name and face: although her real one is Christina Angelina In the field of urban art, she is known as Starfightera. This young artist who has mastered spray paint like no one else has been making her way into this profession for years, where the stroke and creativity are two of the most important factors to take into account.
Although Christina -based in Venice (Los Angeles)- had been creating for much longer, her global fame came when Google featured her in her Google Art Project's street art collection in 2016 . Since then she has become part of one of the most recognized artists on the street art scene , not only in the United States but also around the globe.
In a profession in which the male signature predominates, Starfightera she fights daily with her works so that women's work is given the value, attention and deference that it deserves . Therefore, many of her murals recreate female faces and figures with a degree of realism which is surprising and captivating in equal parts.
** Shall we start this artistic journey right now? **