Urban art, through graffiti, murals and other stencil artworks, has left its mark on the streets of the cities of Portugal.
Whether it is in protest or purely aesthetic, each art piece tells a story.
Street art in Lisbon, best global spot?
Elected by the English newspaper The Guardian, as the best city of street art in the world, Lisbon is now the nerve center with a vast amount of street works. On glass containers, facades of disused factories, or inhabited buildings, art is revealed at every street corner and illuminates the Portuguese capital. Why did Lisbon become the ultimate spot in a few years? This is explained due to the strong presence of good artists, the environment and climate. In short Lisbon has all the conditions for expressing oneself freely.
Today Portugal has an inexhaustible source of talented Street Artists. Some are already famous and have created works all over the world, others just emerging, overflowing with creativity and will undoubtedly be on the top of the scene in a short time.
Here is a selection of urban artists “Made in Portugal” you must absolutely know.
Established Street artists from Portugal
Bordalo II (Bordalo Secundo) was born in Lisbon, 1987. I belong to a generation that is extremely consumerist, materialist and greedy. With the production of things at its highest, the production of “waste” and unused objects is also at its highest. “Waste” is quoted because of its abstract definition: “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure”. He creates, recreates, assembles and develops ideas with end-of-life material and try to relate it to sustainability, ecological and social awareness. read also my article: “Bordalo II an artist turns trash into street art masterpiece”
Vhils is a Portuguese artist. Alexandre Farto aka Vhils has developed a unique visual language based on an aesthetics of vandalism derived from his background in illegal graffiti. He works by shaping the surface layers of walls and other mediums with non-conventional tools and techniques, establishing symbolic reflections on identity, life in the urban context, the passage of time, and the relationship of interdependence between people and the surrounding environment. Since 2005 he has been presenting his work around the world in solo and group shows, art events, institutions, and site-specific interventions. He is represented in several public and private collections in various countries.
Pantonio is a Portuguese artist, from the islands of Azores. Known by his huge dimension murals, depicting flows of animals in a characteristic style
Daniel Eime part of a fresh new wave of Portuguese street art is a master of stencil, combining his wizardry of detail with other techniques including abstract lines, altogether shedding different light and shape to his subjects. Degree in set design, he has worked a couple of years in this area but since 2011 that he lives exclusively for street art.
Odeith was born in 1976, in Damaia (Portugal). He held a spray can for the first time in the mid 1980s, but it was in the 1990s, when graffiti began its dissemination throughout Portugal and began to leave its Portuguese birthplace, Carcavelos, that the artist had his first contact with graffiti and its movement.Currently, back in Lisbon, he assumed painting as his main activity, having created large scale murals for major national and international enterprises such as the London Shell, Kingsmill, the Coca-Cola Company, Estradas de Portugal, Samsung, Sport Lisboa e Benfica (football club) and several Portuguese city halls such as Câmara Municipal de Lisboa and Câmara Municipal de Oeiras, amongst others. Amid all the events he participated in, we highlight: Meeting of Styles (Alemanha), Museum of Public Art (Louisiana, EUA), MuBE – Brazilian Museum for Sculpture (São Paulo, Brasil), 1st Bienal del Sur (Panamá) and the Berardo Collection Museum’s 2nd anniversary party.
MRDheo always related to Art, when he was three years old he began to copy sentences from newspapers and magazines and drawing on his own. Always rejecting any kind of connection to a school or Art course in his childhood, he developed his own techniques, which enabled him to evolve without direct influences. As an autodidact, the first contact with graffiti appeared at the age of fifteen and soon his drawings turned into countless letter studies. Months later he did his first street painting and started to meet other artists to whom he related and that motivated him to carry on. Today – after 17 years of continuous work – Mr.Dheo collaborates with well-known international brands and companies although he keeps the street as the perfect place to create. Versatile, he dedicates himself mostly to photorealistic productions which, together with graphic components, gives him a very personal style in constant growth and development. He took his artwork to more than 40 international cities in countries such as USA, China, Brazil, Colombia, South Africa, Dubai, Israel and all over Europe.
VIOLANT is a very famous muralist and street artist from Portugal.
Emerging Street Artists in Portugal :
Nomen was born in 1974 , is one of the pioneer of street art and Graffiti in Portugal.
Ram is the name under which Portuguese visual artist Miguel Caeiro born in 1976 has been operating since he began painting illegally in the streets in 1997.
KAS (Kas Art) was born and raised in Porto (Portugal) and now lives and works in Brussels (Belgium). His passion of art began at a young age. His father also a painter was a major part of his childhood and had big influence on him.
He started painting graffiti in the streets in 1999, self-made artist has learned informally from some greatest graffiti artists in Portugal. This artist had the opportunity to make graffiti projects for several national and international companies. He is participated in various street art events in Europe (Italy,Greece,Malta,France,Netherland,Belgium,Portugal,Ireland etc.) and realised various international exhibitions. In recent works he mixes photorealism and puzzle patterns giving a 3D effect to his works.
Bigod , João Domingos (Born in 1992) a.k.a BIGOD, graduated in Fine Arts and Multimedia, began painting in 2014, on small Street Art related projects. First experienced a spray can during summer vacation with his cousins who were already painting and from there he never stopped painting.
In painting he develops two distinct lines of work.
– Pictures from the past and customs of the people.
– Deconstruction of portraits
Including geometric shapes, with colors or only outlines.
SKRAN is an amazing and very creative street artist from Almada, Portugal
André Nada is a Portuguese Street Artist. He realizes huge murals with a completely unique style.
All pictures by courtesy of artists
Stunning, as always. Every time I look at your posts, I start making more art. Your blog is inspiring.
thank’s