One of Barcelona’s best-known pieces of public art is a 30m long blood-red mural intended to raise awareness of HIV and AIDS. The mural was painted in 1989 by American artist Keith Haring, who was diagnosed HIV positive three years earlier. Famous for his graffiti-inspired artwork on the New York Metro, Haring was invited to…
Tag: street art
Fer Llenya: Gonzalo Borondo’s Tribute to Castellers
One of the most striking pieces of street art in Barcelona’s Poblenou neighbourhood was painted by Spanish artist Gonzalo Borondo for the 2015 Open Walls Conference. The painting’s title, Fer llenya, is a term used by Castellers (the people who build human towers) and refers to the collapse of a tower. It’s easy to assume…
The Shark of the Carmel Mural: El Tauró del Carmel
The Tauró del Carmel is a large mural depicting a giant shark made out of hundred dollar bills that was painted in 2009 by Italian street artist Blu as part of the Influencers street art festival. The original shark mural, which was twenty-five metres long, was meant to represent the insatiable appetite of capitalism which was…
Panorama by Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada
Panorama is a 28m high composite portrait which was painted on the facade of the Centre Civic de Sant Martí as part of the 2015 Open Walls Conference. Cuban born artist Jorge Rodríguez-Gerda combined elements of 10 local women to create a portrait that represents the neighbourhood as a whole. The idea behind the composite portrait…
La Carbonería – From Urbanistic Innovation To Graffiti Covered Squat
In a city replete with stunning modernista architecture designed by renowned architects such as Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner, it may come as a surprise to find that, for many years, one of Barcelona’s most photographed buildings was an abandoned squat whose most notable feature was a huge street art mural. The building…
Jardins de les 3 Xemeneies – Barcelona’s Graffiti Park
Jardins de les 3 Xemeneies or Gardens of the three chimneys is the most urban of Barcelona’s urban parks. Located near Montjuïc in the Poble-sec neighbourhood, the park gets its name from the three brick chimneys, which are all that remains of an early 20th-century power station built by the Barcelona Traction Power and Light Company.…
Discover the Awesome Graffiti and Street Art of Poblenou
Over the last few years Barcelona’s once industrial Poblenou neighbourhood has begun a steady transformation from area full of disused factories to one of hi-tech office blocks, stylish hotels and modern apartment buildings. Many of the abandoned factories have been torn down. Some have been restored and converted into offices. Others stand derelict awaiting redevelopment, trapped in a kind…
The First ÚS Barcelona Street Art Festival
The ÚS Barcelona urban art festival took place on the site of the old Encants Vells market on February 1st 2014. The event was sponsored by Barcelona city council and the Rebobinart organisation. The idea behind the festival was to make use of a part of the city which is undergoing transformation to promote urban…
Badalona’s Fish-Kite Mural
The impressive Fish-Kite mural was painted in 2010 by a group of artists from the Identidad(es) initiative. The initiative was sponsored by Badalona city council and aimed to develop social cohesion through several different urban art projects. The mural was painted on the exterior walls of four terraced houses in the Barri Groc district of Badalona,…
Surprising Street Art in Poblenou
Barcelona has lots of street art and public art, ranging from graffiti to large and impressive statues and murals by famous artists. On my way to the beach this morning I noticed this interesting series of modified road signs at the bottom of the Rambla del Poblenou. There are about a dozen of these “modified”…
