The best murals of 2018

JANUARY

GLEO. The year began with this colorful piece by Gleo, painted in Hermosillo (Mexico). “Primitive Soul” perfectly shows the vivid style of the Colombian muralist. It’s bright colors and symbolic objects recall the indigenous culture of her country.

MARCH

MONKEYBIRD. TThis 20-meter tall stencil is by the French duo Monkeybird. It was made for the 50th anniversary of 68’s student protests, which spread all over Europe. The protagonist is designed by assembling pieces of different statues from the Louvre Museum, which produced the mural.

BANKSY. Аnother productive year for street art icon Banksy. This mural on the legendary Houston Bowery wall in New York City speaks against the controversial incarceration of the Turkish journalist Zehra Doğan, sentenced to jail for painting a picture.

APRIL

PICHIAVO. Тhe Spanish graffiti duo Pichiavo visited Lisbon in April for their solo show at Underdogs Gallery. After the show, they drew a stunning mural by the sea. It’s a typical ‘fusion’ style mixing ancient gods with colorful throw-ups derived from their background in graffiti.

APRIL

BLU. The Italian activist BLU painted this beautiful mural to support a protest in Valencia. The neighborhood, being destroyed by the unstoppable growth of the port, forced many families to move away and reshaped the urban and social plan of the whole city.

JADE.The Peruvian artist Jade Rivera painted this beautiful mural in Santiago for BarrioArte Project. It’s titled “Buscando la Verdad” (Looking for Truth). It’s a mix of melancholy and sweetness. It became a recurrent image in Jade’s production throughout the rest of the year.

VHILS. This orangutan was made in Indonesia by Vhils. Due to unregulated farming practices of palm oil in the region, there are only a few hundreds of examples of Tapanuli Orangutans left and the local NGO Splash and Burn invited the Portuguese artist to address the issue to an international audience.

MAY

HERAKUT x ONUR & WES21. “As long as you are standing, give a hand to those who have fallen”. That’s what’s written on this spectacular, eight-handed mural. It’s painted in Berlin by the German duo Herakut and the Swiss artists Onur and Wes21. A collaborative mural that invites to cooperation.

BOSOLETTI x YOUNG JARUS. Half of this mural is painted in negative. It requires a filter on the camera to be decrypted. If you apply the ultraviolet filter, the other half of the mural switches to negative. What a great interactive collaboration by Bosoletti and Young Jarus in Berlin!

MTELMO MIEL x JAMES BULLOUGH. Curated by Berlin’s Urban Nation, this mural isn’t just a collage of body parts from people of different nationalities. It’s a cross-ocean collaboration between the Dutch duo Telmo Miel and the American artist James Bullough. Urban Nation’s UNity Project aims at visualizing similarities instead of differences.

JUNE

OS GEMEOS. In June, Os Gemeos painted “The Giant of Düsseldorf”. The peculiarity of this mural lies in the way the two Brazilian twins used the unique shape of the building. As usual, the mural is filled with their hyper-detailed yellow characters, which give life to an intricate narrative.

JULY

FAITH47. On the uneven surface of a majestic building in Tenderloin (a dodgy area of San Francisco) Faith47 painted a symbolic white flag in various stages of motion. “The Unbound” is inspired by today’s struggle for equality and the socio-political context of our deeply unfair society.

AUGUST

FINTAN MAGEE. An impressive mural by the Australian Fintan Magee in Boulogne-sur-Mer (France), featuring one of his surreal images. It depicts a man on a bike that is about to melt. The detail is explained by the artwork’s title as “The Heat Wave”.

APHLEGM. This beautiful site-specific mural by Phlegm was painted in August on the Isle of Wight. It depicts one of Phlegm’s iconic characters holding the town of Ventnor on his back. Many of Ventnor’s buildings and landscapes that inspired the work are recognizable in this amazingly detailed mural!

OCTOBER

MARIO MANKEY. Realized for Berlin Mural Fest, “The Anthropocene’s Syntom” is about the human impact on the Earth’s geology and ecosystem. As significant as to constitute a new geological epoch according to some scientists. With this large-scale mural, Mario Mankey highlights the issue of global warming and questions if humans deserve a future.

MILU CORRECH. Painted during Draw the Line Festival in Italy, this is the workThis tribute to Ancient Greeks’ goddess Hecate was painted during Draw the Line Festival (Italy) by the Argentinian muralist Milu Correch. Hecate is associated with magic and witchcraft. Two very popular topics in all the tales and legends from that area of Southern Italy.

HYURO. While painting this stunning mural, Hyuro was inspired by the difficult history of the Dutch city of Heerlen. The time when coal mines were closed altogether during the 1950s and many people lost their jobs. However, as Japanese people do by filling the cracks of their vases with gold, the artist suggests that such experiences make us stronger.

NOVEMBER

ETNIK.Etnik’s abstract shapes arrived in Jacksonville (Florida) for GNV Urban Art Project. Inspired by water, this massive mural (12x45mt) refers to Plato’s geometry and his icosahedron. A solid of twenty faces, hence the title of the mural – ‘Eikosi’ – which means twenty in Greek.