Street Art Brings Color To Ecuador (GALLERY)

by Libby Zay on

New York, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Melbourne are just a few of the cities known for street art. But that doesn’t mean the streets aren’t being spray painted, wheat pasted and stenciled in other cities – and more importantly, it doesn’t lessen the messages these artists are trying to get across. One such place is Ecuador, where graffiti tells the stories of the state of life and what it’s like to live in the country. Locals in the country’s capital city have a saying that there are “no blank walls in Quito,” and for the most part that’s true. Even in those instances where there is a blank wall, it probably won’t be long before it turns into a canvas. Click through the image gallery below to see a collection of street art images from across Ecuador (including some from Baños de Agua Santa, where Jessica Festa recently documented graffiti). Whether you consider street art a nice artistic touch or an act of vandalism, these images show a unique perspective.

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Photo Of The Day: Concrete Jungle

by Jessica Marati on

When you’re traveling, art can pop up to surprise you in the most random of places. This elaborate piece of rooftop graffiti was captured by Flickr user Aviv from the heights of Parc Guell in Barcelona, Spain. Judging by the comments on Flickr, this street artist might just give Gaudi a run for his money.

Does your image of surprising street art belong here? Upload your favorite shots to the Gadling Group Pool and your image could be selected as our Photo of the Day.

Photo of the day – Lego man hearts Tel Aviv

by Meg Nesterov on


They say all art is subjective, and no artform is more contentious than graffiti. Some might say even a detailed mural is defacing public property, while others might consider a bawdy limerick on a bathroom wall to be social commentary. In recent years, artists like Banksy have elevated graffiti to public art. This Lego fellow cleverly rendered in 3-D shows his love for the city of Tel Aviv, taken by Flickr user mjlacey, as a great example of fun and positive street art.

Submit your favorite street art to the Gadling Flickr pool and we may use it for a future Photo of the Day.

Street art comes alive at the Sarasota Chalk Festival

by Melanie Renzulli on



Go to any major tourist city, particularly a city with a car-free, pedestrian-friendly center, and you’ll likely find street artists honing their craft, using just chalk as their medium and pavement as their canvas. Within hours, these street painters are able to create everything from spot-on renderings of the Mona Lisa to 3-D chasms that look so realistic you fear walking too close to the painting’s edge. Street painting is always a treat to come across. But, like all street art, chalk art is not organized. So it’s not an activity you’ll typically find on your weekend arts calendar. That is, unless you’re in Sarasota.

This week, the south Florida city of Sarasota hosts the Sarasota Chalk Festival, an annual event during which the world’s best chalk artists transform South Pineapple Avenue into an open air performance art space. In its fourth year, the Chalk Festival will focus on “Pavement Art Through the Ages,” paying homage to the art’s centuries-old Italian roots. In particular, the festival will showcase historical street painting, giving artists the opportunity to depict on pavement hundreds of years of Italian culture. The festival will also feature a 24-hour chalk painting competition modeled after the Grazie di Curtatone Madonnari, the very first street painting festival that took place in Mantua, Italy, in 1973. Madonnari, by the way, is the Italian term for “street painter.”

And then, there’s the 3-D art. Legendary chalk painter Kurt Wenner, an American artist who helped popularize anamorphic, or 3-D, street art, will be on hand to demonstrate his technique for creating three-dimensional chalk figures on a horizontal plane. In all, approximately 100 artists will decorate downtown Sarasota with dozens of mind-blowing street paintings that will all fade away shortly after the festival ends.

The Sarasota Chalk Festival runs through November 7.

Photo of the day – street art in Taiwan

by Meg Nesterov on


There’s a lot happening in this photo: some street art, an intriguing flavor of popsicle, cool sneakers, flammable substances near a lit cigarette, the Asian art of effortless squatting. Overall it’s a very interesting street scene, captured by Flickr user marisoleta in Taipei, Taiwan. Looking at more of her photos, it seems like a fun destination, full of temples, tall buildings, and weird foods we all love to photograph on our travels. It’s always great when a travel photo makes us want to learn more about a place.

Have you taken any good street scenes to get us curious about a destination? Upload ’em to the Gadling Flickr pool and we may use it for a future photo of the day.