Street art world tour

Some graffiti-friendly cities through the eyes of a Tulsa documentarian

This is a list of the cities that I have visited over the last 3 years where I have noticed a considerable amount of street art. Not only in the amount and quality, but also in the way the city and the other people of that place interact with the art.

Street art is created by one to be enjoyed by all. It’s simple things like painting a light pole or drawing a funny picture on the side of a building, to huge murals with complicated story lines and interesting plot twists.

Beautifying your city is street art. If Tulsa is anything, it is a giant blank canvas, not only for development, but for art as well. Nothing rehabilitates an area like the mix of art and people. Art is used to break up the mundaneness of everyday life by adding new perspectives and alternative ways of thinking.

I don't consider myself a street artist. I am a documentarian, photographer, and visual craftsman. But I have had the luck and pleasure to travel to some of the best cities in the world for art. Being a skateboarder, I feel more in tune with the city because I spend half my day, everyday, out in the streets, listening, watching, and learning.

This list is not in numerical order. Art can't be judged. Art can't be won. It can only be enjoyed and used as a vehicle for self expression, social awareness, and in its simplest form—something pretty for your eyes to look at.

SANTIAGO, CHILE // Art is a big deal in Chile. One of the most colorful neighborhoods in STGO, "Bellavista" (beautiful view), is full of murals, graffiti pieces, tags, characters, and everything in between. This city is about the same size as Tulsa but with 8 million people, with subways, buses, and everything else that a dense city life brings.

BERLIN, GERMANY // Berlin was the third-largest city in the world pre-WWII. It was often referred to as one of the art capitals of the world during that time, rivaling Paris. Things are different now, but the raw history that this Eastern German city has experienced has helped shape its art and culture that we know today. Artists from all over the world have been flocking to East Berlin since the wall came down. Cheap, urban living mixed with a citywide blank canvas equals primetime for artists, especially those of the street variety.

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO // With more than 30 million people roaming around, it's not hard to imagine some great artists coming out of the Mexican capitol. The culture in Mexico is much more vibrant and saturated than here in the US. Houses are painted bright colors such as green and pink and orange. Paint is reapplied every couple months to keep the color looking fresh. Artists are commissioned to paint murals on homes in this most literal urban jungle.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK // One of the homes of modern graffiti, New York is a bellwether when it comes to street art, or any type of visual expression for that matter. Some of the most well-known and interesting street artists come out of this steaming urban metropolis.

VALPARAISO, CHILE // This small port city in Chile is all built on hills—kind of like San Francisco, but more compact. The whole city is painted, from the houses to the businesses. People take pride in the murals on homes here.

LONDON, ENGLAND // As one of the worlds biggest and leading cities, London is full of interesting and thought-provoking street art. Southbanks is a legal graffiti pit and skate park along the Thames—the images yielded by a Google search are enthralling.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA // I lived next door to the "Donau kanal" (Danube Canal) in Vienna. This canal stretches throughout the city on one of the biggest rivers in Europe. Artists are given plots of wall and paint murals that are sometimes 2-3 stories high. The art is refreshed every couple of years and it makes for quite a colorful scene as you ride down the canal by boat.

SAN JOSÉ, COSTA RICA // This small capital of Costa Rica boasts some of the most colorful walls on this list. The area around Costa Rica's main university, UCR, is covered with art from artists from all over the world. It is not legal, technically, from what I have heard, but mix that in with legal graffiti walls under highway overpasses and you have quite a good incubator for public art.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA // When you think of graffiti or street art in the USA, nothing comes to mind as quickly as LA. This sprawling city creates a perfect landscape for artists to climb, dig, jump, zig, and zag to see who can get "up" the most. Getting "up" means getting your name or character as high and as noticeable as possible.

LYON, FRANCE // Lyon has something similar to Vienna with its legal walls running along the rivers of this smaller town in the southern middle of France. Artists use the walls of this densely built city as a wall to communicate ideas or humor with fellow citizens. It is eye opening how much you will see when you never use your car to transport yourself around a city like this.

STUTTGART, GERMANY // One day while we were out skating the streets of Stuttgart, we came across a place called the "Graffiti Hall of Fame." It was on the underside of a bridge. The walls were graced with gallons and gallons of vibrant paint. Curving letters and interesting characters lined the walls. Each piece was signed by its master and left for the whole city to appreciate.