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"QUANTUM SHOT" #687
Link - article by Avi Abrams


      Bleak Walls Transformed by Creativity

      Urban landscape can be drab and featureless - but not when artists are
      spicing it up with spectacular wall paintings, as shown in this article.
      Some murals can be considered realistic illusions, some have educational
      and historical meaning, some can be labeled as "kitsch", but all of them
      are welcome splashes of color and creativity in the city's day-to-day
      life.

      
      (Restoration of the Fine Arts Museum of Brussels, photo by
        Maxime)

      We'll start with a cheerful building in Tarragona, Spain:

      
      (images credit:
        Jesus Garrido,
        David Mari Frasquet, see details
        here)

      A beautiful one found in Campestang, France (left) - and an intriguing
      painting on the old door in Rome:

      
      (images credit:
        Pappe,
        Piterart)

      Ornate balconies in Barcelona (left):

      
      (top left image credit:
        Santi)

      Apartment buildings in Holland (if not for paint, they would definitely
      look depressing and bleak):

      

      Portrait murals are especially effective when painted on dilapidated old
      walls, speaking about passage of time, life and real values:

      
      

      Here is a series of buildings in Lyon, France:

      
      
      
      (images
        via)

      And a more psychedelic variety from Russia:

      
      
      (image
        via)

      Something strange arrived in Berlin (left image); and a magenta fish found
      in Japan:

      
      (left image credit:
        Piterart)

      The sailing ship on the right was spotted in Brussels:

      
      (right image credit:
        Eliseo Oliveras)

      A couple more from Paris, sent in by Stan Barets:

      
      (photos by Stan Barets)

      I took this photo in Cannes, France:

      
      (image credit:
        Avi Abrams)

      The following wall paintings are in Jerusalem, and reflect the city's
      multifaceted past:

      
      (images credit:
        Nathan)

      Germany is full of the wonderful murals, especially in Bavaria, where it
      became a traditional folk art:

      
      (image via
        Genador)

      
      (image credit:
        Avi Abrams)

      Very sophisticated mural in Quebec, Canada:

      
      (image credit:
        Vince Arno)

      One in Belfast, Ireland:

      
      (photo by
        Nikakoj)

      Back side of the Gooderham Flat Iron Building in Toronto:

      
      (photo sent in by Jim Sellen)

      Looooong 3D Murals by Eric Grohe

      Here is an artist who really breaks the monotonous geometry of official
      buildings, parking lots, and shopping malls, with his own marvelous
      perspective and 3D illusions. Eric Grohe has an impressive array of
      projects on his
      site, check
      them out. Bucyrus Area Community Foundation, Ohio:

      

      Here is how he makes an endless wall of the shopping mall actually...
      attractive:

      
      
      (images credit:
        Eric Grohe)

      Swimming pool mural:

      

      Chamber of Commerce, Bucyrus, Ohio:

      

      Here is another wonderful example of wall 3D paintings, but I'd like to
      know who the artist is:

      
      
      (image via)

      Various 3D Wall Paintings, all spectacular:

      Many are by trompe l'oeil ("trick of the eye") muralist and artist
      John Pugh:

      
      
      
      
      (images credit:
        John Pugh)

      What you've just seen is not in any way three-dimensional, it's all a
      trick, an illusion... Here are some places (walls) on which this wonder
      unfolds: a sidewalk in Sarasota County Health Center, Florida...
      all-too-realistic wave in a sidewalk in Honolulu, Hawaii...the
      'earthquake' wall on Main Street of Los Gatos, California, was created
      following a real earthquake there in 1989...

      

      "Tunnel Vision" at AgFirst Building in Columbia, South Carolina:

      
      
      (images credit:
        John Pugh)

      Here is another transformation trick by mural painter
      Dominique Antony
      - boring grey facade of the Paris’ Saint-Georges Theatre, shown
      before and after:

      
      (images
        via)

      Some of the "trompe-l'oeil" in Belgrade, Serbia:

      
      (image credit:
        Ninello52)

      Beautiful wall painting in Rome, Italy:

      
      (image credit:
        Pier Giorgio)

      Montpellier, France (on the left)... and a perspective illusion in Madrid,
      Spain (bottom right):

      
      (images credit:
        Jean-Louis Zimmermann,
        Ana Alas)

      Very nice painting on a wall of a bakery in Dijon, France:

      
      (image credit:
        Nils Andriessen)

      Extreme animated crowd by Kenny Scharf, in NYC:

      
      (see more
        here)

      These people are watching you.... somewhere in Russia (they would,
      wouldn't they?):

      

      
      (mural in Warsaw, Poland )

      
      
      (images via)

      Even creepier is this mural (location unknown):

      

      Using Colour... to the Max!

      Gaudy but impressive colors of the Ramenskoe apartment district in Moscow:

      
      

      Is this the utmost in urban psychedelics? The whole apartment complex
      painted in unbelievably bright colors... Looks interesting enough, but how
      would it feel to live in the middle of a paint explosion or a rainbow gone
      nuts?

      
      
      (images
        via)

      Colourful painted apartment buildings of Tirana, the capital of Albania
      (post-communist efforts to brighten up depressing old urban blocks):

      
      
      (image credit:
        David Dufresne)

      Gorgeous, almost glowing Caminito district in Buenos Aires,
      Argentina:

      
      (images via 1,
        2)

      The richest colours combine into a feast for the eyes:

      
      (image
        via)

      Now... how about some fun in the ghetto? This was exactly the mission of
      two Dutch painters
      Jeroen Koolhaas and Dre Urhahn
      - to go to the poorest section of Rio de Janeiro favelas (slums) and paint
      it in the cheerful way, with active participation of people who live
      there:

      
      
      
      (images via)

      Perhaps the most famous mural of all: "Apple Corp." (that is the Beatles,
      not Steve Jobs) wall on Carnaby Street in London:

      
      (image via)

      Banksy's wonderful mural / graffiti gracing a wall of an "UP" building
      slated to float into the clouds:

      

      And while you're painting the wall, you might as well have some lunch and
      a card game break ("Compagnie les Passagers" street theater):

      
      (image credit:
        Rogiro)

      This post will be the first installment in a series. Please send us the
      photos of cool murals you spotted around the world, and we'll make up the
      second part from your submissions (send it to "Suggest a link" email).
      Good hunting!

      CONTINUE "PAINTED CITY BLOCKS"! ->

      See the rest of our "ARCHITECTURE" category ->




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YOUR COMMENTS::

14 Comments:

Anonymous Jordi said...

"Even creepier is this mural (location unknown):"
I think it was located in Murcia Spain in "Castillejo" neighbourhood but the building was demolished.
This one I think it is from the same artist and located in Juan Carlos I avenue, Murcia Spain.
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/23627494

___  
Anonymous procuradores puente genil said...

wooow, this is real? is fantastic, berlin wow

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Also check out the famous murals of Orgosolo, Sardinia:
http://www.google.com/images?q=orgosolo+murales

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Beautiful set!

Under the caption, "The sailing ship on the right was spotted in Brussels:," the mural image to the left of the sailing ship image is of the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon:

http://maps.google.com/maps?client=safari&q=oregon+historical+society&oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&hl=en&hq=oregon+historical+society&hnear=Oregon+Historical+Society,+1200+SW+Park+Ave,+Portland,+Oregon+97205-2483&ll=45.5161,-122.682492&spn=0.001804,0.004128&z=19&layer=c&cbll=45.516011,-122.682539&panoid=UIaH6p3nUh6SdcB42c8L-w&cbp=12,121.48,,0,-13.87

___  
Blogger Unknown said...

Could it be Paul Kidby, the artist that drawed the mural with the ship and the maps? (the one with the light sandy colors)

___  
Blogger Chris Stone said...

The murals painted in Bucyrus, Ohio were done by Eric Grohe. Definitely center pieces for the community.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Actually, the people watching mural (somewhere in Russia...) is not in Russia at all, but Tartu, Estonia

___  
Anonymous Bookworm said...

"Even creepier is this mural (location unknown):"

Depends on your interpretation, I guess.
A young girl's father often looms large in her life (girl on a swing hanging from one of the big guy's fingers.),

___  
Anonymous Currie said...

Check out this Sheppard Fairey Mural in his home town Charleston Sc http://53cannon.com/site/index.php?s=sheppard+fairey

___  
Anonymous Jay said...

The one in Toronto can most famously be seen in David Cronenberg's The Fly in a scene between Geena Davis and John Getz

___  
Blogger Patrick said...

I walk by this one every day in downtown Portland:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenbmiller/2728426939/sizes/o/in/photostream/

Another angle:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joeshlabotnik/3707230247/

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Después de ver todo esto, quien puede pensar todavía que la pintura ha muerto?Larga vida al arte!Larga vida al color!/After seen all this, who can think painting has dead?Long life to the art!Long life to the colours!

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I couldn't find the name of the artist, but here is what he has posted himself: http://guardian-graffiti-alphabet.blogspot.com/2009/09/3d-graffiti-interior-wall-painting-art.html.

அருமை, அருமை! உங்கள் இணைய தளம் இனிதே வாழ்க!
(I have been a longtime fan of DRB, but this is my first comment, and I can't help a comment in my mother tongue! decipher if you can!)

___  
Anonymous Paul Watson said...

It’d be funny if they pranked the artists by covering the wall with DrawIt paint and it washes off when it rains. *Scuffles off to find the nearest artist painting platform*

___  

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