Every day, more and more artists are taking their spray cans and getting out there to prove to the world they have what it takes to earn a spot among the most recognized artists. Many don’t use their own names, but they give identity to neighborhoods and areas all across the globe. They remind us of the importance of public art, they call attention to issues like immigration, capitalism, gentrification and inequality and aren’t afraid to use public spaces to raise awareness to pedestrians who walk by their works.
They are not only leaders, they’re also great examples of why street art needs to be supported and celebrated. Many artists are making incredible murals all over the world, using only their Instagram accounts to advertise it. If you want to keep an eye out for the next Roa, Shepard Fairey, Stinkfish or Banksy, here are fifteen street-artists that you should keep an eye out for this coming year:
VESOD
Although creativity is in the Italian street-artist’s blood (his father is also a surrealist painter), for a decade Vesod sought out his own style derived from renaissance art, graffiti and futurism. The result is his ability to harmonize anatomic proportion and futuristic dynamics into three dimensional geometric shapes. Now his murals visit the idea of the eternal present, and have been referred to, on a figurative basis as, “God’s point of view”
JAZOO YANG
Jazoo Yang is a mixed media artist whose work often distorts public spaces to profound ends. With a mixture of concept-focused art and an interesting visual style, Yang’s work questions the relationship between ourselves and the spaces we inhabit. In 2018 she created two new murals for the Nuart Festival using Korean symbols that rallied against gentrification of forced evictions to raise awareness about those who have been exposed to the threat of forced migration.
MOHAMED L’GHACHAM
Mohamed L’Ghacham is a Spanish artist that progressed from the world of graffiti and ended up becoming a classical painter. He’s best known for murals that are scenes from everyday life around him, combined with the visual imagery of late 20th century photography.
UDATXO
From when the Spanish artist began painting bicycles, trams, old cars and urban scenes it’s blossomed into painting people and characters. She seeks to reflect the movement of each individual, simulated with loose strokes of bright colors. The artist usually works with mixed technique to achieve textures, as she’s is interested in reflecting in the work the different layers and effects so each material is noticed and that the color has light and prominence.
PAT PERRY
Detroit-based artist Pat Perry renders wondrous portraits of humans and our relationship to the natural world—that are intricate and based on observation. His multi-media drawings and paintings range from monochrome sketches in handheld notebooks to vibrant murals. In all of his artwork, Perry balances finely worked details with sweeping gestural lines that is as rugged and dark as it is unabashedly beautiful.
MONEYLESS
For years the Italian visual artist has studied and been fascinated by different aspects of shapes and geometrical spaces. While attending a postgraduate course in Communication Design at Isia (Florence), it was then he began to bring his colorful and abstract designs out to the public. Now, he travels around Italy and the world doing exhibitions as well as being part of several collective projects.
AMPPARITO
Ampparito is a Spanish artist who convenes subverting objects, meanings and realities to generate new experiences or situations. Although a wide range of results may arise from the most absolute indifference to the deepest reflection, the beauty of his work is that he uses simple objects that try to explore boundaries between realism and abstraction; changing points of view, distances and scales that causes disorientation and contemplation.
JDL STREET ART
JDL street art aka Judith De Leeuw is a young female urban artist based in Amsterdam that’s specialized in realistic and freehand aerosol portraits. She began spray painting at the age of fifteen on the streets with her friends that were into graffiti. Now, she owns a studio and paints murals all over Europe including Greece, Spain, Switzerland and Germany. She’s best known for creating a candid mural of the late Amy Winehouse.
SATONE
SatOne is an illustrator and artist living in Munich. Originally from Venezuela, the skilled graphic designer discovered his interest in graffiti early in life, coining the term futuristicabstract in which graphic design, illustration and abstract art melt into an inseparable unity.
MANOLO MESA
As a graduate from the School of Fine Arts, the Spanish street-artist’s work combines his pictorial practice with his work of study. His murals are often layered with metaphors about life; whether it’s encounter and solitude, or an iconography about the absurdity of existence. He also tackles mankind’s relationships with nature, and it’s resistance to an increasingly diluted nature within cities. Mesa’s creations can be found all over the world, in cities like Paris, New York, Bulgaria and Valencia.
JADE
Growing up in the district of Chorrillos, with poor teaching at her school, it made the peruvian artist gravitate to painting and drawing. Now, the self-taught artist has been recognized for her large-scale murals all over the world. Along with her work as an urban artist, Jade spends much of her time working in the studio exploring more traditional techniques such as oil and watercolors.
SASHA KORBAN
It was in 2009 that the Ukrainian street-artist moved from graffiti to other artististic mediums including interior design. Now, the muralist has expanded his creativity to be a representation of “characters” (pictures), namely portraits characterized with an entwinement of styles and different techniques (Photorealism, Pop Art, decorative painting, expressive conceptualism, spray, oil, and acrylic paints,). Although he’s participated in numerous graffiti festivals, in August 2014 he moved to Kyiv and put more focus on painting canvases for galleries.
COLECTIVO LICUADO
Colectivo Licuado was formed five years ago, by the male/female duo Camilo Núñez and Florencia Durán. To date they work as a team designing murals that give color and vibrance to outdoor and indoor spaces. Their murals are best known for investigating and combining the culture and tradition of a particular city, or environment, that’s blended with their own aesthetics.
HELEN BUR
Bur uses traditional techniques when in the studio, applying oil to canvas. Conversely, she opts for a brush and roller when painting outdoor murals. Through these diverse mediums, she explores paintings and their ability to provide a contemporary social narrative. Weaving together images from the mass and online media through digital collage, she also examines how the over saturation of imagery and information can leave us in a state of confusion, where our own narratives about our reality are subconsciously formed, creating a position of daily surrealism as the norm. Bur’s work can be seen across the globe from Brazil to India, where she has participated in notable projects and mural festivals, as well as co-directing her own street art festival, Empty Walls.
SAMIR TOUMI
The young Moroccan street-artist, born in Rabat, is distinguished by a humanist pictorial universe. He started with drawing and painting on various media, exposing faces in a most realistic way, before bringing more hypnotic graphic touches … His mastery of facial expressions, wrinkles, textures and identity touches, pushes him to move his work on the walls. His drawings now adorn many walls in Morocco. He is best known for his work with the Moroccan urban art festival JIDAR – TOILES DE RUE.
