I have to say, the street art in Reykjavik has blown me away! It’s everywhere…and it’s big! Icelanders apparently see a wall and say “Now that is alllmost big enough to be worth my time.” Love it!
The entire side of a building as an old photo album! Un-real!
See? Big!
There doesn’t seem to be a street art tour here, so I’ve just been snapping away as we come across pieces…which seems to be every block or two. Our guide on our snorkel tour (yes, we went snorkeling here in Iceland!) said he’s really started noticing it over the last decade or so. The graffiti isn’t very advanced, but the urban art is pretty spectacular. He also said the art continues into the suburbs, but we won’t have time to make it out there, unfortunately.
Here we go with some of my favorite pieces:
A close-up of one of the “photos” from the photo album building. Such talent!
This one is for my mom who’s always loved mushrooms. What could be better than a mushroom of mushrooms?
This is one of the few pieces we’ve seen with interesting graffiti…though unfortunately the design was too big to show the graffiti in the photo! Darned cars blocking the way of quality art. Hah!
Wonderful elephant tagged over.
Here, I was about to say that the elephant painting was “ruined” by the taggers, but I’ve come to realize how temporary street art is. The artists put their work out there with the understanding that someone else might come along and paint right over it. Personally, I think of this particular example as the tagger marring the work since they didn’t really do anything with their tag, but it’s interesting how I no longer feel upset about it from the artist’s perspective.
From an acorn, the mighty tree will be painted…
Is this that tree? Maybe not, but it is a cool piece literally two houses down from our guesthouse.
I wonder if this is the same artist as the 2nd photo I posted? They used the same overall shape to their design…
One thing I noticed is that a number of the pieces we’ve seen focus on animals…and not only the ones you’d find here in Iceland!
From flying fish…
to cats and dogs and mice…
From puffer fish…
to birds on a branch. Icelanders love their animals!
Of course, it’s not all animals…
At least not all REAL animals!
Or perhaps one might call them animals in a different sense of the word!
Let your imagination run wild!
Icelanders aren’t limiting themselves to just walls!
Not actually a painting, but the spray can that made it happen! Note that it doesn’t have a nozzle. Apparently you can buy different nozzles to give you different size sprays!
One name kept popping up again and again on the walls – Sara Riel. I wasn’t sure if that was a person or meant something in Icelandic, but it turns out to be a she and she’s quite the artist. Sara did a number of the works here: the acorn, the mushroom, the crazy fanciful animals that are above and below the Frankenstein-like monster. Not sure if she has any work outside of Iceland, but she’s sure done a lot here in Reykjavik over the last 5 years.
Sorry I can’t tell you anything about the other artists, but with all the amazing work, it won’t surprise me if someone starts up an informative tour someday soon. A fine reason for us to come visit Iceland again!
Two art lovers enjoying the street art of Reykjavik!
If these have inspired you and you’d like to see more, here are links to all my previous posts on street art and graffiti we’ve found around the world!
I love Sara Riel’s mushrooms and the acorn. Hope to find more of her work. And the 3 birds on a branch. They are a type of bee-eater that lives in…ready?…Tanzania. How’s that for a loop around your travels?!!
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