Art Walls

Stanton’s large scale installations are heavily informed by history, religion and classics. The Californian studied Illustration at Laguna College of Art and Design but now lives in New York when not exhibiting on the likes of the Berlin Wall and Fiat in Italy. Beau Stanton painted this huge classical style mural which shows how 3D vertical images appear to change as you walk past them. In the 16th century, they were called “Turning Pictures”.

This prolific UK artist uses words and letters as the template for his exciting, bold works. London, LA, Mexico City, Miami, Paris, Dublin, Tokyo, Stockholm and San Francisco have all featured his works, while perhaps his biggest is the ‘Communicate’ mural in Manchester which is 82 metres long.

This tug-o-war between a rat and a group of kids was created by French stencil artist, Blek le Rat. Hailed as ‘the Pioneer of urban art in Europe’, Blek le Rat was one of the first artists to use stencils for creating public art. He has been active for more than 30 years and cites a stenciled portrait of Mussolini as one of his early inspirations.

Londoner Dean Stockton, better known by his alias D*FACE, leans heavily on pop culture iconography and describes his work as ‘aPOPcalyptic’. On the flip side, he also has a body of fine art gallery work. His big street pieces have adorned walls in his homeland, in the USA, Sweden and Australia.

With the acclaim of Banksy and Eine carrying this UK artist on a crest of a wave, it is no wonder his work has attracted attention all over the world. He recently installed a permanent mural in popular New York eatery Vandal, and holds public exhibitions all over the world, from Norway to The Gambia. We love the colour, contrast and style of this colourful bit of street art by Eelus.

EL Seed is a contemporary artist whose practice crosses the discipline of painting and sculpture. He uses wisdom of writers, poet and philosophers from around the world to convey messages of peace and to underline the commonalities of human existence. One of the outside walls of The Green Planet, the fantastic new rainforest centre at City Walk, is now decorated with a gigantic silver-coloured mural which spells out the words of a poem titled Positive Spirit.

A Polish double act who cite Eastern European folklore, mysticism, fantasy and humor as their influence. The pair – Bezt and Sainer – met at Fine Arts school, and have gone on to paint all over Europe, including Norway, Bulgaria, Germany, Austria, Russia, Portugal and Belgium, as well as their own Lodz. This delicate piece is on the side of a building on the perimeter of the pedestrianised complex.

Icy and Sot are two Iranian brothers, originally from Tabriz but now living in New York. As refugees themselves, their work often reflects human rights issues or carries a political message. Two facing walls are the canvases for two huge stencils depicting a woman surrounded by hundreds of birds flying away from her face. From a distance, the birds look like a black headscarf. Somehow one of the women looks more content than the other. The piece is based on the duo’s famous work (and the title of their book) called ‘Let her be free’.

An icon of the street art movement, Brit Nick exploded out of the legendary Bristol scene and now sells out the world over. He has worked alongside film and music’s leading lights, including Stanley Kubrick, and has broken records with original pieces sold at auction.

A Belgian fine artist with one of most original and recognisable styles around, ROA is a pioneer. His work has been the subject of expansive study and he was one of the select few to feature in ‘Art in the Streets’, the first major museum exhibition concerning the history of graffiti and street art.

Australian street artist Rone (real name Tyrone Wright) is known for his stylised images of women’s faces as this haunting piece of street art at City Walk reflects. The portrait is a replica of a wall Rone painted in Havana, Cuba of a local woman called Nadila. In the words of the artist, she has now been “transported to Dubai in a cultural exchange, to look upon the ever-growing landscape”. Rone is prolific in galleries as he is on the street, with works appearing in national galleries of Australia, London and the USA.

This playful piece featuring The London Police’s signature LADs characters is hard to miss as it’s at the entrance to City Walk’s pedestrian zone.

Better known as Vhils, Portuguese artist Alexandre Farto’s work is distinctive due to his method of chipping pieces from the wall surface, rather than painting on it, to create his art (known as his ‘Scratching the Surface’ project). Once you know it, you’ll recognise his work all over the world.

Vhils’ Dubai wall-carving is reported to be inspired by Wilfred Thesiger’s 1950s photography, his Bedouin portrait.