2019 was a pivotal year in our progressing world history, but then again, what year isn’t? Perhaps the most memorable advancements to be noted throughout the last year don’t lie in the problems that occupied our minds, like climate change, terrorism, or financial inequality. Perhaps, instead, the greatest change worth noting is our collective response to these issues. As long as the world exists, there will always be problems. This is an unfortunate yet persistent fact. As our species grows older, the best we can hope for is that we become a little more adept and little more compassionate in dealing with our issues. In turn, the issues will hopefully become more sophisticated, more worthwhile. As a revolutionarily-inclined art form, street artists often tackle humanity’s most pressing problems in their work. The murals of 2019 highlighted a certain softness and intelligence in grappling with these issues. In honor of seeking better problems in this new decade, we’ve compile our top fifteen murals from 2019 to show how artists are becoming even more effective in making the statements society needs to hear.
Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada at the Westin for Street Art For Mankind
In April, Cuban artist Jorge Gerada partnered with the nonprofit organization Street Art For Mankind to bring a touch of disconcerting peace to midtown Mahattan’s hectic streets. Gerada’s work adorned the Westin hotel with a child gazing skyward, surrounded by delicate foliage. However, the mural possessed a heavier, more pressing message than its initial appearance left on. In his efforts for Street Art For Mankind, the artist sought to bring attention to forced childhood labor. As such, Gerada included reflections children in unfair conditions in the child’s wide eyes. The result is a large-scale piece of work with a subtle, haunting message in the throes of New York City’s bustling center.
in Aalborg for Out In The Open Fest
In June, American artist Oliver Vernon completed a strikingly vibrant and complex mural for Kirk Gallery’s Out in the Open mural project in Aalborg, Denmark. The result benefitted from the immense effort he poured into it: Vernon painted for twelve hours a day over the course of two weeks to transcribe his preliminary sketch onto the massive facade. Vernon’s non-figurative piece for the festival immersed viewers in a portal to another dimension, one where color and energy swirl in ecstasy.
Dulk mural on biodiversity for Grenoble Street Art Fest in France
In June, Spanish street artist Dulk joined Grenoble Street Art Festival in France to complete ‘The Guardian,’ a mural that draws attention to dwindling lynx populations. Dulk typically paints in a colorful style that often feels childlike, and ‘The Guardian’ highlighted the best elements of his approach. His lynx smiles so sweetly, with bright, sparkling eyes, that the viewer feels nearly moved to join conservation efforts on the ground floor. However, with ‘The Guardian,’ Dulk also acknowledges the greater issues surrounding extinction; our planet relies on biodiversity to survive, and one specie’s disappearance can harm countless others. As such, the artist included birds, eggs, and a dinosaur skull, another consistent motif in the artist’s work that reminds us when there’s trouble afoot. Only the colors and sweet faces could distract from such doom.
‘We Are All Immigrants’ by Axel Void in South Central Los Angeles @ Maya Angelou High
In August, America artist Axel Void joined a talented lineup of rosters commissioned to paint murals for Maya Angelou High School in south central Los Angeles. For his contribution, titled ‘We Are All Immigrants,’ Void drew inspiration from a photograph of a Mexican-American family that the artist snapped while exploring the surrounding neighborhood. The purpose of painting from this image, according to Void himself, was to emphasize “our palpable and quotidian truth. The people we live and spend time with and the interaction between us.” ‘We Are All Immigrants’ creates a beautiful record of the day he spent at a BBQ with the family in his photograph, but it also acknowledges the realities of daily life that often gets swept away in the grandiosity of muralism as an art form.
’Above the Clouds’ by Artez in Belgrade, Serbia
In August, Serbian street artist Artez completed ‘Above the Clouds’ in Belgrade, Serbia. The artist called this mural his “most challenging project so far” due to its massive scale and placement on a face located on the roof of a gigantic building. ‘Above the Clouds’ utilized several elements of the artist’s work, such as books, foliage, and figures caught in thought. However, ‘Above the Clouds’ rises to the best of his work from 2019 for its immediacy. Whereas many of the figures found in Artez’s work are placid or dreamlike, the girl depicted her rocks back in her chair as if startled, nearly knocking over the potted plant behind her. It’s an interesting choice for an artist who may have experienced some worry of his own while executing the piece.
’Tide’ by NEVERCREW in Bayonne, France for Points du Vue street art festival
In October, Swiss street art duo Nevercrew continued their latest series of work with a contribution to Points Du Vue street art festival in Bayonne, France titled ‘Tide.’ The mural continued exploring their recent ideas of the relationship between the natural and human worlds as depicted by large, swarming tangles of sea creatures. According to Nevercrew, this approach to composition attempts to react “directly to reality, to human action and to human influence, with a direct focus on environmental changes.” In ‘Tide,’ the experiment with the idea further by instead stacking the whales on top of each other in an ascending order which coincides with the lightness of each whale’s hue. Nevercrew explained, “Here, on a first level, we want then to recall the human act of compressing nature through exploitation, pollution and physical appropriation of space. The seven whales, at the same time swimming in their element and laying on human ground, are shown in a moment of balance between sinking and floating, between collapsing and moving, between depths and surface, between attraction and repulsion, between dirt and clean, in a delicate and specific instant that shows the emergency.” ‘Tide’ was a fascinating new chapter in an exploration worth continued attention.
’The American Dream’ by Jofre Oliveras during Art Basel in Miami, Florida
In December, Spanish street artist Jofre Oliveras completed ‘The American Dream’ in Miami, Florida during the city’s infamous Art Basel festivities. The time and place for this mural fit its message perfectly. In ‘The American Dream,’ Oliveras makes a tongue-in-cheek jab at the realities of life in Miami, where cost of living outweighs average compensation and a lack of social assistance leaves those struggling in the dust. Oliveras has a knack for creating murals whose beauty almost masks their sometimes scathing messages. The colors in ‘The American Dream,’ are incredibly rich, contrasting in a way that captures attention. However, upon closer inspection to details, the viewer understands the irony of this individual sleeping on the streets under the flag belonging to the nation that vows to offer the best opportunities for every citizen.
’Opening Lines’ by Pat Perry, joint mural project in Maine and Iraq for One Blue Sky
In August, American artist Pat Perry completed the ‘Opening Lines’ project in partnership with One Blue Sky, as part of their endeavor to connect elementary students across oceans and cultural lines between the United States and Iraq. For the project, Perry depicted a different child in each community where the project took place: Biddeford, Maine in the US and Soulaymaniyah in Iraq. Each child is representative to their own local culture. In the US, a light haired boy in a baseball cap holds a phone to his ear while in Iraq, a dark haired girl surrounded by tapestries does the same. Each individual mural also features painted messages alongside Perry’s work, allowing them a deeper connection to the themes of tolerance and curiosity exhibited throughout the project. In each community, Perry’s work stands as a reminder of the importance of education on both an intellectual and emotional level, along with the beautiful innocence and potential present throughout childhood.
’ZOGJTE (Birds)’ by Sebas Velasco & Axel Void for Mural Fest Kosovo
In September, American artist Axel Void partnered with Spanish street art for their collaborative effort, ‘ZOGJTE (Birds),’ completed for Mural Fest Kosovo. ‘ZOGJTE’ utilized the powerful history of the Roma people to illustrate “where cultural flux is severed by political edges.’ As a nomadic people, the Roma have suffered historically tenuous relations with the country’s they’ve sought to inhabit. Their story encourages us to question what it means to be a citizen of this world. With ‘ZOGJTE’ Void and Velasco highlight the human nature of this question, showing a couple creating music on the nighttime streets. This choice, painted in a style that blends the best of both artist’s capabilities, seems to state that one’s personhood has less to do with the boundaries they belong to than it does their capacity for art, for joy, for existing in every single moment.
Loretta Lizzio in Brunswick, Australia in the wake of New Zealand mass shooter
In May, residents of Brunswick, Australia invited Loretta Lizzio to paint a 75-foot tall mural on a local silo iconic to the city’s skyline to honor the victims of the March 15 terrorist attack in Christchurch, New Zealand. Thanks to massive community organization and crowdfunding efforts, Lizzio painted a powerful image of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden consoling a woman while wearing a hijab. Lizzio’s photorealistic rendering of this immensely powerful moment served the Brunswick residents’ goal to foster love and kindness while paying homage to Arden’s exceptional leadership.
’Strength of Memory’ by Fintan Magee in Papeete, Tahiti, curated by ONO’U Tahiti
In March, Australian street artist Fintan Magee painted ‘Strength of Memory’ in Papeete, Tahiti, for an opportunity curated by local organization ONO’U Tahiti. This stunning piece covered the entire outward facing facade of what appears to be a residential building in thick swaths of magenta formulating the image of two individuals sharing a deeply emotional moment. ‘Strength of Memory’ steals breaths with the power of its figures stances; one man leans over his knees, arms outstretched in what could be anguish, while another woman embraces him wholeheartedly from behind in an act of comfort. The raw emotionality of this moment is enhanced by Magee’s painterly style and his attention to detail. Both feature traditional garb and the tattoos adorning the man’s arm seem to harken to local culture as well.
’Beholders’ by Jofre Oliveras in Stavanger, Norway for Nuart Festival
In September, Spanish street artist Jofre Oliveras tackled the migrant crisis in his work, titled ‘Beholders,’ completed for Nuart Festival in Stavanger, Norway. ‘Beholders’ effectively conveys its message not just through the artist’s photorealistic style, but through his conceptual prowess. With the mural, Oliveras depicted a now-iconic image of a boat full of migrants struggling to make landfall to safety in a new land. However, Oliveras takes this image’s potency one step further by depicting a girl in front of the photo, snapping a picture of it with her smart phone. As a result, Oliveras comments on our greater cultural apathy regarding the plight of others, whether they be immigrants, the impoverished, or the like. In one minute gesture, Oliveras entreats viewers to re-think the way they interact with this world’s many conflicts.
’Rewild’ by ESCIF in partnership with Splash and Burn
In August, Spanish street artist ESCIF partnered with Splash and Burn for an incredible undertaking simply titled ‘REWILD.’ For the project, ESCIF created a series of murals that mocked and drew attention to consumerism’s malignant command over our world, especially in the face of our impending climate crisis. The project took its inspiration from a UN announcement that our planet only has twelve years remaining (at this rate) before a global catastrophe strikes due to lack of environmentalism. Approaching this problem through the lens of wasteful palm oil plantations, the crown jewel in ‘REWILD’s’ repertoire comes from the land intervention staged by ESCIF. The artist carved an enormous rewind symbol into 360 hectares of a palm oil plantation in Indonesia which was recently acquired by Splash and Burn’s charitable partners. The rewind sign symbolizes hope, imploring viewers to seize this opportunity to evade permanent damage to our beautiful planet.
‘Process of Acceleration’ by Aaron Li-Hill in Grenoble, France
In June, Canadian artist Aaron Li-Hill travelled to Grenoble, France to paint ‘Process of Acceleration,’ a tribute to the awe-inspiring beauty of scientific development. Li-Hill’s work always stuns with its visceral dynamism; viewers can almost hear the whirs of Li-Hill’s figures and feel the wind generated by movement flying by their faces. In addition to these consistent elements, the artist included a sophisticated nod to the area, featuring an architectural drawing of a particle accelerator called the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility which is found in Grenoble. Portions of this machinery are incorporated throughout the mural. This subject matter related not only to Grenoble, but to art itself, and was inspired by a conversation between the artist and French scientist Marine Cotte who utilizes the ESRF to study the degradation of paint and artworks. Without knowing all this, a viewer could get lost admiring the delicate shading Li-Hill uses to depict the fold in his figure’s garments. ‘Process of Acceleration’ stuns in both its technical and conceptual advancement.
Pejac in El Dueso Prison, Spain
In May, Spanish street artist PEJAC travelled to Spain’s oldest prison, Penitentiary Center of El Dueso to breathe new life into the institution’s fortified walls. The prison is actually located in the artist’s hometown of Santander, lending further emotional potency to his work there. PEJAC completed three separate works at El Dueso, including ‘The Shape of Days,’ ‘Hidden Value,’ and ‘Hollow Walls,’ each providing a bit of their own lightness and paying homage to “the value of the human condition, its resistance to adversity, the need to create, and its desire, above all, to leave a mark.” In a comment regarding the project’s significance, PEJAC stated, “a prison itself is a place wrapped in harsh reality and at the same time, I feel that it has a great surrealist charge. It is as if you only need to scratch a little on its walls to discover the poetry hidden inside.”
