Off the wall

Murals are the new metropolitan art brightening up cityscapes

WALK through the backstreets of Estepona and count the massive murals adorning its high rise buildings - you could be forgiven for thinking Banksy had paid the town a clandestine visit. Ranging from homages to Miguel de Cervantes to celebrations of the town’s seafaring history, the diverse daubs, that number nearly 50, are a prominent part of one of the Costa Del Sol’s most aesthetic towns. But Estepona is not the only place to have fantastic murals, as we demonstrate here.

2 This stop-you-in-yourtracks mural with its nod to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights can be found in Ordes, Galicia. The work of Italian artist Blue, it features a tribute to vegetarianism with produce praying to a blender.

4 It’s not always apartment blocks or houses that are illuminated by murals. Here, the Plaza de Armas bus station in Sevilla has a sleeping girl offset by eye-catching vivid colours.

3 Street artists Shepard Fairey and D*Face teamed up for these two murals in Malaga. Located next to the Centre for Contemporary Art (CAC), the pair were created for a street art festival.

5 The Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz is known as the ‘Painted City’ for its murals which are featured on a walking tour. ‘The Thread of Time’ recalls its medieval past when it traded in fine fabrics.