In this hectic life, we are left with no time to take a look at our surroundings. Even if we are able to squeeze in some time, most of us would rather be a phubber. Well, if we take a break and raise our heads, we will find an array of street murals that bring us a new perspective to the city that seems boring to us.
Street murals is a type of street art that is gaining its popularity in Hong Kong. In recent years, a lot of brands have their eyes on street mural arts and have the walls of their shops, restaurants or buildings decorated with eye-catching murals, in order to build brand awareness and inject a sense of art into the city. Also, the Street Art & Mural Festival is organised every year by an arts organisation HKwalls to promote street mural culture.
One of the famous street murals in Hong Kong must be the ‘3D rainbow bear’ by the Spanish artist Okudart in 2016. Situated in Sham Shui Po, the colourful bear brings a new life to the old building and changes the image of the neighborhood. Eye-catching and outstanding, the mural is formed by the interlocking of geometric shapes in rainbow colours.
Besides the ‘3D rainbow bear’, there are other murals created by overseas and local artists around Hong Kong, especially in the Central and Sheung Wan area. Perhaps you will recognise some of the murals below.
Elsa Jean De Dieu
www.elsajeandedieu.com
Having moved to Hong Kong from Paris nine years ago, Elsa Jean De Dieu specialises in beautifully unique wall textures and oil paint finishes and has casted her spell over quite a lot of buildings over the years. Most of her work are colourful smiling portraits, leaving a positive, happy impression on everyone.
BEDU, Gough Street
Lush Spa, Soho Square
Victoria Secret, Sai Street
Anhao Wellness, Ladder Street； Baristabygivres, Shelley Street
Dan Kitchener
www.dankitchener.com
Dan Kitchener, a UK street artist, is well-known for his unique rainy, neon filled city scenes and geisha’s. He has left his traces on the walls around different corners of the world, e.g. the UK, Spain, Germany, United States and Japan to name a few. Specialises in epic-scale murals that look almost real, he paints wet city landscapes with fine details glowing with neon colours.
Stanley Village; Graham Road
Chi Residence, Jonathan Road
Roof top mural, Mong Kok
Alex Senna
http://www.alexsenna.com.br/
We can find murals painted by the Spanish street artist Alex Senna in many parts of the world. Hong Kong is no exception. Taking inspiration from everyday life, his work features lanky black-and-white characters that revolve around love, friendship, family and solitude that bring a hint of warmness to the city and touch the people’s hearts.
NOC, Gough Street
45 rpm
www.instagram.com/45rpmwhat/
Working around the globe, 45rpm is a UK-based multidisciplinary artist that specialises in street murals and dabbles in anything that is creative. He once used ‘Goofy and Nonsense’ to describe his murals as the protagonists’ emotions and gestures are spooky and playful like those we can find in comics. He wants to spread happiness through his murals.
Lok Hing Lane
Zoie Lam
www.instagram.com/zlism
Local illustrator Zoie Lam has created a virtual planet namely ZLISM, the home of a group of quirky and lovely aliens. Zoie applies different mediums and fluorescent colours in brilliant hues to her murals to portray the happenings in the planet. Through her drawings, she hopes to encourage positive thinking in people and motivates people to chase their dreams.
Square Street
Neil Wang
https://www.neillhw.com/
Deeply affected by Japanese arts, culture and collage art, local art freelancer Neil Wang is versed in using black-and-white lines and abstract patterns to bring his ground-breaking ideas to life. One of his murals harbours East Asian aesthetics that there is an Asian female wearing Chinese qipao adorned with flowers and bold lines.
Square Street
Long Feng Hao
Sources of Information and Images:
HKwalls
Elsa Jean De Dieu
Dan Kitchener
Alex Senna
45rpm
zlism
Neil Wang
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