Street Art: Taking a closer look – Unterwegs. Aufgefallen.

A brick building with several murals and small objects on its façade.

London’s East End is where we begin looking more closely. In Ely’s Yard at the Truman Brewery, large murals, an Invader pixel mosaic and small objects share the façade.

A black-and-white crane on a tall brick wall.

ROA’s crane on Hanbury Street — one of the large animals we encounter in the middle of London.

A circular web of dark threads forms a face on a white wall.

A thread portrait by Perspicere: from a distance we see a face; up close, a dense web. Our guide shows us that street art doesn’t always come from a spray can.

A large face in pink, purple and turquoise on a wall.

On Fashion Street, Mr Cenz combines a portrait with vivid shapes of colour that seem almost liquid.

A small dark sculpture on a post in front of a window.

Another form of street art: a small sculpture by Jonesy on Brick Lane, near Fournier Street. Without a tip from our guide, we would have missed it above our heads.

Two simplified figures with large eyes on red doors, overlaid with lettering.

“A Couple Hold Hands in the Street” by STIK on Princelet Street. The two simple figures hold hands; later lettering overlaps the image. Our guide describes such additions as part of the scene — even on works by well-known artists.

A large black-and-white male face on a rough wall.

A portrait by Vhils in Ely’s Yard, drilled into a concrete block. The broken surface is part of the face — a very different way of working with a wall from painting a mural.

A densely covered surface with small portraits, lettering and colourful stickers.

Stickers, faces and messages packed into a tiny space. Layering is part of this form of art.

A large portrait with the word Gucci on a building façade.

Gucci on the street — our tour also reveals the blurred boundaries between wall art and advertising.

Black-and-white fantasy figures and small houses on long stilts painted on a wall.

Phlegm’s imaginary world on Heneage Street: figures on stilts, towers and little houses.

A cartoon figure with grey hair, a red nose, a striped body and a fork.

A figure by Sten and Oli. A narrow strip of wall is enough for their small, slightly unsettling world.

A face stretched sideways in green and purple across a wall.

CPWON, also known as Claudio Picasso, stretches a face reminiscent of an ancient sculpture across the entire wall.

A street corner covered with paste-ups, an angular black-and-white symbol and colourful motifs.

A mural by London artist and illustrator Tom Blackford for his graphic novel series “Pigboy”. Above it is HELCH’s “H” tag. Very different visual styles meet on this corner.

A blue cartoon figure with a red eye mask, a blowpipe and a bag bearing a Brazilian flag on a wooden gate.

Cranio’s blue Indigenous figures are his signature. Representing Brazil’s Indigenous peoples, the character is central to his social and political commentary.

A portrait and large colourful letters on a dark roller shutter.

The closed shutter reveals an image that can disappear when the shop opens. Also in the picture: our guide.

A colourful face with yellow hair among lettering on a red background.

Boris Johnson as a clown: Sam Sure supplies the face, Ante the lettering. A political comment.

A portrait of two people made up of many small spots of colour.

“Joe’s Kid” by Jimmy C shows a woman as a little girl with her grandfather Joe. The two faces emerge from countless individual spots of colour.

A large mural of a man wearing a hat and holding a long pole in a boat.

“Mateer Tan – The Land is Calling” by Mohammed Ali. The boatman evokes Bangladesh and the ties many people in the East End maintain with their roots.

A colourful portrait of Shakespeare with a skull beneath a bridge arch.

Shakespeare by Jimmy C on Clink Street, near the Globe Theatre. We took this photograph on a later visit to London’s South Bank.

A colourful sign reading Wynwood Starts Here, with an arrow.

“Wynwood starts here” — a neighbourhood where even the signpost is street art.

A red car in front of a long wall of black-and-white faces against orange.

Faces from Patrick Church’s “Dearest Boy” world at Barcelona Wine Bar. The red car adds a splash of colour of its own.

The entrance to Wynwood Walls, with palm trees and murals.

Wynwood Walls — street art presented as a museum.

A large green childlike figure with a muscular upper body and blue trousers.

“Temper Tot” by Ron English at Wynwood Walls — a cartoon character on the scale of a sculpture.

Two large monochrome portraits on a tall wall above smaller colourful works.

El Mac’s “A Love Supreme (Wynwood Saints)” honours people from Miami.

A reflective octagonal sign bearing the word Dream in front of a colourful wall.

“Dream” by Scott Froschauer.

Three children in superhero costumes on a wooden fence, with comic-book lettering and a speech bubble.

Joe Iurato combines intricate, photorealistic stencil portraits with classic comic-book elements. “Meanwhile...” and the thought bubble “...at Wynwood Walls” give the work a playful connection to its Miami setting.

Three white astronaut figures on a pale surface against a dark background.

A large mural by American artist Daniel Arsham at the Billionaire Boys Club (BBC) flagship store in Wynwood. The photorealistic painting is based on his well-known “Eroded Astronaut” sculpture series.

Large colourful lettering reading Today is the Day on a multicoloured wall.

“Today is the Day!” by Peter Tunney. Tunney combines lettering with collages of newspaper pages, advertisements and other found material.

The façade of Wynwood Garage, covered in a dense black-and-white pattern of lines.

Wynwood Garage, with a façade by Faulders Studio. Even the car park catches the eye here.

A pale portrait above a wall covered with colourful eyes and figures.

“What is Out There!?”, a collaboration between British street art star D*Face (Dean Stockton) and Miami-based Hoxxoh (Douglas Hoekzema). Above it is the third portrait from El Mac’s “A Love Supreme (Wynwood Saints)”.

A yellow diamond-shaped road sign covered with stickers and markings.

Not every sign was conceived as an artwork. This one has made room for many small contributions.

A large pale face surrounded by curving, root-like forms.

“Lumen” by Daniel Popper in Wynwood — a face among forms that suggest roots and branches.

A multicoloured circular mural with a figure at its centre and a One Way sign in front.

“Good Times. Good People” by Hoxxoh and Deih: a cyberpunk figure at the centre of a colourful vortex. In front stands a perfectly ordinary One Way sign.

Bright Miami lettering among stylised leaves and flowers.

This colourful pop art mural, with bright pink “MIAMI” lettering, palms and hibiscus flowers, was spray-painted live onto a shipping container by local contemporary artist Roc Sol (Adrian Gonzalez) and his creative team, Project Roadmap.

A large gorilla portrait on stacked shipping containers.

A gorilla on shipping containers — and a bottle of Modelo beside it. In Wynwood too, murals and brand advertising overlap.

A blue rubbish bin painted with a black-and-white animal face.

Even the bin gets a face.

A large colourful helmet and other motifs on a low wall in front of palms and a modern building.

Murals, palms and new buildings side by side — art is part of a changing neighbourhood here.

A crowned, colourful skull beside a male portrait with red lettering on the forehead.

Wynwood is also known for loud, uncensored messages. Not exactly a flattering portrait of Elon Musk.

A blue cartoon figure with a red headband and a Brazilian flag on its trousers.

An old acquaintance at Wynwood Walls! This is the signature Indigenous character of Brazilian street art star Cranio (Fabio Oliveira) — the same blue figure we found on the walls around London’s Brick Lane.

Several colourful murals in two rows around a doorway.

Jay Kaes and El Pez painted the upper of these two containers for HIVE Wynwood. Below, more figures and lettering meet.

A painted woman seen through glass, overlaid with reflections of the street.

Sometimes the viewpoint adds another layer to the art. Taken through the windows of a Wynwood café, this photograph catches a huge mural by British street artist D*Face.

A blue cartoon figure whose open mouth is filled with colourful padlocks.

Little love locks fill the cartoon figure’s mouth. The painted surface becomes a three-dimensional collection.

A low, brightly painted building in front of a pale tower block and an empty forecourt.

“Loveism” by Hec One Love: a small word against a curtain of splashed colour.

A painted woman with a hat and spray can against lettering and a subway train, with a bicycle in front.

This work on the outside wall of the Museum of Graffiti takes us back to New York in the 1980s.

A turquoise snake painted across several steps of a staircase.

At “Wynwood Jungle”, a lifestyle complex, a snake stretches across several steps. The image only comes together from the right angle.

A colourful mural of a woman with a child among plants and birds.

“¿Qué será del Caribe en el futuro?” by Rafique and Ekosaurio asks what the future holds for the Caribbean. A Taíno woman with a child stands among plants and birds.

A woman in pink and green wearing a bonnet, painted on a dark wall.

Wynwood is known for its tacos too.

An elaborate façade with golden ornaments, eyes and an entrance.

Diagonally opposite Miami Yoga Garage, where we practised Ashtanga yoga for a week: a façade full of eyes, faces and golden ornaments.

A green face and pink eye shapes beneath golden decorations.

A closer look.

A long wall of blue and purple lettering, with a row of small wheeled delivery robots in front.

A robot conference in the shade of the art! A fleet of autonomous pavement delivery robots lines up against a bright purple-and-blue wall, as though holding a secret meeting.

A One Way sign in front of a wall of black-and-white faces with orange accents.

“A New Beginning” by British multimedia artist Patrick Church, once more. For us, the street sign belongs in the picture too.

A narrow alley with colourful walls, people and overhanging greenery.

Toronto’s Graffiti Alley — south of Queen Street West, our walk takes us through several blocks of murals.

A large orange-red portrait with glasses and a dark hat against a graphic background.

Nick Sweetman and Shanehuss created this portrait together. Beneath the glasses and hat, the face seems to melt.

A yellow shape with lettering in front of a densely painted wall.

The yellow Wu-Tang Clan symbol and “C.R.E.A.M.” point to hip-hop. Around and behind them, the wall of lettering continues.

An eagle with outstretched wings above part of a portrait and colourful shapes.

An eagle above a portrait, signed Sun.of.Aquarius — the artist name of Andre Mandela Lopez. Images sit close together in Graffiti Alley.

A stylised white bird with outstretched wings and white lettering on black.

Among all the colourful walls, this black-and-white bird stands out.

A corner of an alley with large black-and-white and colourful murals.

Even the ceiling is painted: animals, crowns and planets above garage doors and pipes.

An Athens street with painted walls, trees and parked vehicles.

Wander away from the familiar ancient sites in central Athens and the city shows another face on almost every corner. This photograph captures the atmosphere beneath its concrete arcades.

A yellow façade with a balcony, a densely painted ground floor and motorcycles.

Beneath an elegant classical balcony with wrought-iron railings, the wall has become an unruly open-air gallery.

A large colourful mural on a pink wall above rounded arches.

“She Who Protects” by Aristeidis Lappas: a contemporary Athena for Athens. The large mural near Omonia was commissioned by Onassis Stegi.

An orange figure with a white headdress on a blue door.

A little figure signed “Exit 26”. We encounter the character and its tag in different parts of the city.

A densely painted façade with a face, a window and parked scooters.

It reminds us of our first encounter with street art in London: an organic mix of techniques, styles and artists, side by side and on top of one another.

A mural of a reclining man across windows and wall surfaces, with a car in front.

“No Land for the Poor” by WD, 2015, in Exarchia. The reclining man takes up an entire façade.

A detail of the painted man’s face beside a window with a roller shutter.

Up close, we can see how WD incorporates the window into the body.

A dedication to poor and homeless people written on a wall.

The dedication is part of the work: to poor and homeless people here and around the world.

Scooters parked in front of large pink and green letters.

Right at the foot of the Acropolis. In Athens, street art occupies far more than one long alley.

Colourful murals behind a rusty metal grid.

Art behind steel reinforcement mesh.

A large painted television test card extending across several parts of a building façade.

The entire façade of a residential building in Kolonaki has become a monumental television test card. “No Signal” is by Greek artist Panos Sklavenitis.

Two painted figures holding signs with messages in English.

“This is all because of EU” — “you’re so dracmatic”. Two philosophers turn the euro crisis into a pun on Greece’s former currency, the drachma.

A stepped brick side wall with large vertical lettering against a blue sky.

GECO. The Italian graffiti king is known across Europe for extreme, often illegal “rappel bombings”: abseiling from rooftops at night to claim otherwise inaccessible façades with a paint roller. Here, the bright white words “SO HIGH” beneath the letters are his own comment on the feat.

Clasped hands pointing downwards on a tall façade against a blue sky.

“Hands”, 2011 — Pavlos Tsakonas turns Dürer’s praying hands upside down. Manolis Anastasakos and the Kretsis crew helped realise the work.

A circular blue ornament with concentric patterns on a pale wall.

Even in Exarchia, not every wall feels like a political statement. This intricate circular mandala sits alongside the neighbourhood’s often more forceful graffiti tags.

A black-and-white mural of a long-haired girl looking at a blue globe.

“My World” by INO, 2021: a girl looks at the Earth. The blue accent is characteristic of many of his works.

A painted woman with butterflies on a tall, narrow façade.

“Aephoria” by Melina Koan, also known as m.koan: a woman and butterflies on the façade of Play Theatrou Hotel.

An old door with a black-and-white face, stickers and lettering.

A face by Sonke on an old door, surrounded by stickers and lettering. His black-and-white figures accompany us through many parts of Athens.

A row of low buildings with murals, shops and people.

“ΑΛΛΑΝΤΙΚΑ” — cured meats. Between the murals, the old shop signs are still visible.

A reclining grey figure in the style of an ancient sculpture against orange shapes.

“Heracles and Nessus” by Robert Vargas. Ancient figures and vivid orange meet on this wall in Psirri.

Three laughing faces in pale colours and angular fragments on a building wall.

Above Iroon Square in Psirri, Alexandros Vasmoulakis’s faces are laughing. Below, people sit over coffee or souvlaki.

Black-and-white faces with flowing lines on a street corner.

We keep meeting Sonke’s black-and-white faces and their flowing hair around Athens too.

A dog’s portrait with a crown, flames and a tag bearing the name Loukanikos.

Loukanikos, the dog of the Athens protests. Billy Gee, Alex Martinez and N_Grams dedicated this mural in Psirri to him. During the protests of the Greek financial crisis, he was repeatedly photographed between demonstrators and police and became internationally known. TIME featured him in its 2011 “The Protester” issue too. After his death came this memorial: a crown, flames and the words “DOGS OF WAR NEVER DIE!”