Here Are the 10 Best Places in the World to See Street Art, From George Town in Malaysia to Bushwick in Brooklyn

Desperate to see some art, but
eager to maintain your social distance? A street art walking tour
might be just the fix. 

Street art, of course, has had a controversial and rapidly evolving
history. Once considered mere criminal vandalism, street art later
found an eager audience in the downtown New York art scene
of the 1980s.
More recently, street
artists have been coveted by auction houses for creating high-price
auction lots. Now it may be poised for another transformation: into
the safest and most socially
responsible art form around.

And luckily, it can be found in
cities in every corner of the world. So if you’re keen to go
exploring art-covered warehouses and painted facades, here are 10
neighborhoods and cities where locals can be sure to safely enjoy
art in the open air. 

Shoreditch,
London

A historically gritty district
in the East End, Shoreditch’s lanes and alleyways are famously
covered in world-class and ever-changing murals. Unlike some street
art destinations, Shoreditch is all about what’s new and exciting,
with much less emphasis being put on preservation, so visitors can
never be quite sure what they will find.

A few exceptions to the
out-with-the-old ethos do exist, however, including Banksy’s
“Designated Graffiti Area” at the Cargo Club, as well as works by
Spanish street artist Stik (famous for his stick-like figures),
whose works have stood the test of time. Some good places to begin
exploring are Rivington
Street, Princelet Street, and Fashion Street, but make sure to take
time to wander the side alleys as well.

Melbourne,
Australia

The coffee shop-lined
hipster-haven of Melbourne also happens to be one of the premier
street art destinations in the world—so much so that it’s hard to
pinpoint a single district to focus on. Insiders say to head to
Central Business District and work your way through Federation
Square, with the nearby streets of Flinders Lane with Flinders
Street. Cobblestoned Hosier Lane is another locale at the heart of
the city’s scene, where you can dazzle over the layered collages of
murals on every surface. 

As for landmarks, the Wellington
Street high-rise mural by Adnate is among the most iconic. Other
local tags to look out for include those by artists Rone, Dvate,
Mayo, Ling, Phibs, Makatron, Ghostpatrol, Heesco, AWOL crew, SDM
crew, SmugOne, and Herakut. For those interested in the history of
street art, the can’t-miss work is a mural by Keith Haring, who
made it during a visit to Australia in 1984. The work was lovingly
restored in 2013 and is one of the best-preserved murals by the
artist in existence.  

São Paulo,
Brazil

The Brazilian government legalized street art in 2009, and in
the decade-plus since, numerous artists have claimed the urban
fabric as spaces for their visions. Rio de Janeiro and São
Paulo have battled it out for the title of best street art
city, with each producing world-famous street artists. But for
enthusiasts looking to find a consolidated mecca of street art, São
Paulo’s Beco de Batman (aka Batman alley) can’t be missed.

The open-air gallery curls through a winding alley and is
bursting with a continuous stream of colorful creations. Other
worthwhile neighborhoods for exploring include Cambuci and the
trendy Vila Madalena. Keep a lookout for works by
city-natives Os Gêmeos (twins Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo)
along with works by other lauded Brazilian street artists including
Kobra, Nina, Vitche, and Nunca.

Valparaíso,
Chile 

The city of Valparaíso, or
“Valpo”, as its nicknamed, was once a famous stopping port for
European ships en route to the West Coast of the United States;
during the second half of the 19th century, the hilly city
experienced a surge of wealth and earned the nickname “Little San
Francisco.” But with the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, the
once rich city fell into economic despair.

It was during the Pinochet
dictatorship in the 1970s that street art emerged as a form of
protest and resistance. After the regime fell, street art was
legalized in Valparaíso and is often financially supported by the
local government. Though murals are popular throughout the city,
the neighborhoods of Cerro
Alegre and Cerro Concepción are particularly rich in offerings.
Look out of works by the local artists Cuellimangui, Inti, and
graffiti duo Un Kolor Distinto, composed of Sammy Espinoza and
Cynthia Aguilera.

Wynwood,
Miami 

This hip enclave pops with
Miami-appropriate colorful murals and finds its street-art center
at a park known as the Wynwood Walls. For the past decade, an
international set of artists have been invited to paint the area’s
once abandoned warehouses.

The project, kicked off by area
landlord Tony Goldman in 2009, began when he first
invited 12 artists,
including Futura 2000, Kenny Scharf, and Swoon, to create a series
of murals. The area
also has a certain claim-to-fame as having the densest cluster of
street art murals in the United States. 

Lavapies,
Madrid 

Madrid’s humming center of
multiculturalism, Lavapies, is the Spanish capital’s vibrant street
art center. The Esta Es Una Plaza garden is a great jumping-off
point for street art explorers, and there you will find emerging
Spanish artists alongside more well-known names.

The Madrid Street Art Project is behind a lot of
the area’s colorful transformation thanks to their “Muros”
(“Walls”) project, which brings together artists to fill the area’s
numerous, rather dreary, cement walls. Be sure to look for painter
Ángel Aragonés’s Trampantojo–Reloj de sol de la Casa de la Vela, a trompe l’oeil
sundial painted by the artist in 1984. And close-lookers should
keep their eyes peeled for works by the Spanish street
artist Jonipunto, whose
works are purposefully diminutive in scale and meant to be
discovered like hidden treasures.

George Town,
Malaysia

Street art is typically thought of as an unsanctioned act of
creative rebellion, but in this city, the street art scene was
fostered by a top-down bid for urban renewal. In 2008, George Town
was named a UNESCO world heritage site, and to honor the occasion,
the city commissioned local artists Baba Chuah, Julian “Lefty”
Kam, Reggie Lee, and Tang Mun Kian to create dozens of street art
sculptures to reflect the daily lives of the people of Penang.

Perhaps the defining innovator of the city’s street art scene is
the Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic, who first came to the city
in 2011 and began to transform the city’s walls with life-like
tableaux murals. His Kids On A Bicycle is far-and-way
the most well-known mural in the city, and remains a popular
tourist destination. For the cat lovers out there, Zacharevic also
created a mural project titled 101 Lost Kittens to
highlight the issue of strays in the city, resulting in many hidden
images of cats around the city.

Oberkampf, Belleville, and
Ménilmontant, Paris 

These three neighborhoods are
out of the typical Paris tourist routes—but for street art lovers,
they are certainly worth an afternoon of exploration of their
narrow, winding streets.

The Parc de Belleville has works
by street artists such as Seth, Kenor, and El Pez adorning its walls and pillars. The area is
most famed, however for Le M.U.R., an organization that oversees a wall
in the Oberkampf neighborhood as a canvas for an ever-changing list
of international artists. Typically, new murals are completely
redone every two weeks, with painting taking place in the daytime
for those who want to see the process in action.

Bushwick, New
York

New York City is the birthplace
of street art, and is still arguably the best place to see it in
the world. During the 1970s and ’80s, the Bronx and Manhattan were
the movement’s epicenters, but over the past 30 years, the largely
industrial neighborhood of Bushwick in Brooklyn has been
transformed into the most famous street art locale in the United
States.

During the late 1990s and early
2000s, artists were attracted to the area’s inexpensive rents and
large spaces—and their creative inspirations soon sprawled outdoors
and onto urban walls. Behind much of the neighborhood’s rotating
murals is the Bushwick
Collective, a nonprofit street art organization that brings artists
from around the world to paint murals at designated
locations.

Cape Town, South
Africa

In South Africa, street art has had a contentious history, and
during the Apartheid, it was punished severely. Over the past
decades, however, both Cape Town and Johannesburg have emerged as
playfully competitive street art hubs, though some would argue that
Cape Town artists ignited the Joburg scene. But for enthusiasts
looking for an immersive experience, there’s no beating the
bohemian Cape Town neighborhood of Woodstock, which is often
described as an open-air gallery for the sheer number of works that
can be seen along with the nearby enclave Observatory, nicknamed
“Obs.”

There, visitors should be sure to look out for the tags of South
African native Nardstar, who is considered one of the leading women
street artists in the world. District Six—the formerly
close-knit community that was destroyed by Apartheid-era forced
removals—is another area worth visiting. Its walls are now covered
in mural documenting the country’s political history and the fight
for justice and equality.

The post Here Are the 10 Best Places in the World to See
Street Art, From George Town in Malaysia to Bushwick in
Brooklyn appeared first on artnet News.