by Liz Conaty
Street art used to be considered a mar on the appearance of a city. Now, however, some street artists are highly valued, and many cities encourage the creation of beautiful street art. Some building owners and city manages specifically request street artists to design beautiful art for their cities. Cities with high-quality street art are more beautiful, and stand out from the standard designs and artistic structures commonly seen in most cities. Cities that use street art empower young artists socially, and sometimes politically, and gives these cities a sense of identity and individuality not seen in other cities that lack street art decorations.
The following seven cities show outstanding street art designs and empower their citizens to make the city beautiful and improve their everyday lives. It is worth visiting these cities just to see the beautifully decorated streets and buildings.
Berlin
Berlin contains a unique look in both building design and street art. As an older city, many of the buildings are ugly and old. Street art brightens up the ugly buildings and brings a sense of youth and purpose to the city. The art inside Berlin captures the youth culture and current political views of Berlin’s youth. Berlin mainly features quick, spray paint art done by local artists. However, many foreign artists have also added their mark to Berlin’s walls. Popular icons and abstract art bring a mix of old and new artistic styles to the city.
Buenos Aires
In Buenos Aires, you will find many outstanding instances of beautiful and unusual street art. Notably, you can find a large, detailed purple monkey, an amazing abstract tree house art design, crazy crocodile-inspired art on trains, and many other unusual art pieces throughout the city using art styles from abstract modern to traditional ancient Asian art.
Budapest
Budapest contains some of the most varied and beautiful street art in the world. A tour through the city will reveal incredible art designs and traditional spray-paint art. You can find pop-art cartoons, political artistic statements, futuristic art, caveman-like simple designs, and highly detailed wall murals that take months to complete.
Melbourne
The city of Melbourne in Australia is worth visiting just for the art. The city contains entire streets filled with abstract, colorful designs from hundreds of different artists. Another popular art style in Melbourne is street pop art, featuring popular items like crayons, cartoon characters, and robots.
London
In London, much of the street art uses natural textures. One famous piece of art is made up of wood pieces added to a bush cut into the shape of a sneaker. The wood looks like the laces on the shoe. You will also find political graffiti, as well as murals and designs of famous literature characters as well as popular characters of today and more abstract paintings.
Paris
Paris has been a city of cutting-edge art for hundreds of years, so it is no surprise that it is at the forefront of street art designs as well. Some of the art that lines Paris’ streets are impressively detailed, looking much like art from bygone eras. Figure drawings are a popular street art design in Paris, as are stencil drawings, and artistic displays that highlight current social struggles in France.
Cape Town
You won’t find acrylic prints in Cape Town. The art featured in this African city is a mixture of traditional African artistic styles and modern graffiti designs. Huge artistic displays dominate industrial buildings in Cape Town, featuring stencil-style art in bright colors in addition to large murals featuring traditional African culture. Many of Cape Town’s art is designed to inspire people to live better lives.
If you want to start improving your city and making your buildings unique through the use of street art, an art consultancy group is a good place to start. An art consultancy group can help you choose art that matches the feel of a company or city in a large art display that will add to the appearance of the city rather than taking away from it. Local artists are also excellent at creating large art displays on various topics.
Liz Conaty is a part time blogger and full time struggling artist. Convinced that beauty will save the world, her latest medium has been acrylic art.