If you follow my Instagram, you probably already know that I have spent two weeks of November in Portugal. It was amazing! I saw so many cool artworks and discovered artists I didn’t know before. I visited Porto and Lisbon. Both are wonderful but when it comes to Street Art, I was more impressed with the second. From pichação to large scale murals, the city of Lisbon is covered with art. I took some street art tours in both cities, and wondered by myself. Here is the sum up from my trip.
Porto
I took a free walking tour with a very friendly and knowledgeable girl. Unfortunately she did not have much passion for the urban art scene. She focused mainly on public art and general history of the city, which partially had something to do with street art. But we didn’t really learn much about the local scene. Nothing about the underground art. For me personally, the tour lacked authenticity. I didn’t feel like the guide was really immersed in the field, and she even admitted that this was not her favorite tour.
On my own, I discovered several murals thanks to some online articles. Here are the links:
Here is my selection of the most interesting artworks:
Mural by Frederico Draw, portraying an old man, overlooking the river Douro.
He is welcoming the people entering the city from Luís I Bridge.
Beautiful mural near Trindade metro station by Hazul and Mr. Dheo.
Old woman by talented Daniel Eime
Enigmatic character by a spanish artist Sam3
My absolute favorite mural in Porto! A blue cat fits with the #azulejos that are a great tradition in Portugal. The mural is based in the tiniest street in the city and was created by a spanish artist Liqen. Cats played an important role in the port, eliminating the rats who are known to spread diseases. Porto still lets the stray cats run free and they are super adorable.
If you want to see more photos from Porto, check out the album on Facebook:
Follow Street Art Tour Paris on instagram to get access to all the photos and videos in real time.
Lisbon
After the so-so experience in Porto, I dug deeper to find a more authentic experience. During the pandemic I took an online tour with Street Buddha, which has already sparked my interest. On the spot I booked a tour with Vero from Lisbon Street Art Tours. And I really enjoyed it. Vero has a background in anthropology and she had a unique perspective on the movement. She also is a part of a collective Yes you can Spray that helps to create more art on the walls of Lisbon. She had a deep knowledge of the topic, and explained the differences between graffiti and Street art quite well, which I find quite important. She was also very open and friendly and answered a lot of our questions and gave a lot of recommendations for those interested in exploring other Street art neighborhoods on their own. And wow, there were so many!
I took a massive amount of pictures during the tour, and later while wandering on my own.
Here are some of my favorite artworks from Lisbon:
Italian artist Andrea Tarli opposes the use of selfie sticks.
Vhils is one of the most famous street artists in the world, and so I cannot skip his name when writing about the city he comes from. A little proof that I was there in person – our little hummingbird sticker in the foreground.
AddFuel also takes his inspiration from #azulejos
Jacqueline de Montaigne proves to the world that women can be great muralists too.
D*Face has a massive mural near the Oriente train station.
Of course I needed to travel into the middle of nowhere just to see this mural by INTI. It is the last mural that he painted for his triptych “Madre Secular”. The second one is in Paris, and the first one in Marseille.
Awesome mural by OzeArv
Obey decided to pay a tribute to the history of Portugal – precisely The Carnation Revolution, that overthrew the authoritarian regime, producing fundamental changes resulting in transition to democracy and the end of the Portuguese Colonial War.
This old mural from 2010 by Os Gemeos, looks pretty damaged already. But I had to go see it anyway. I mean.. It’s Os Gemeos y’all!
Another wonderful female artist – why aren’t there more? Tamara Alves.
I found this intriguing mural by Violant totally by mistake. Sometimes it’s good to get lost in the city to discover such treasures.
The entire city is covered with those fantastic assemblages by Bordalo II. It would be fun to see one next to the museum which hosts some of the paintings by Artur Real Chaves Bordalo – his grandfather.
My absolute favorite artist in Lisbon is actually brasilian! I don’t know what it is about those paintings by Utopia, but I feel such a strong attraction to them. It just makes my heart warm whenever I see one.
If you want to see more photos from Lisbon, here is the Facebook album with all my photos:
Again, on instagram you’ll get access to all the photos and videos in real time.
If you want to share your own experiences and review the tours you took around the world, please tag us on your blog/insta/fb – I am very interested to know what were your favorite cities and who were your favorite guides.
Kasia,