Winter break in Lisbon

DSC_5389_01
Cane Morto (Italian crew)

How can one not fall in love with Lisbon! When you walk the streets of this city, in tourist areas or less known places, you see art everywhere. Graffiti, tags, and a diverse array of street art explodes on the walls. Add to all the illegal activity Vhils’ UnderDogs project, and you end up going from surprise to surprise at every street corner.

Lisbon was hit hard by the 2008 economic crisis. As a result, a lot of buildings of the city were abandoned by their owners, quickly enlarging the playground of graffiti and street artists making the city attractive to many international artists.

It’s now a kind of “street art place to be”, which is okay, but you soon find yourself torn between the pleasure of discovering new stunning art pieces and frustration caused by having already seen photos of so many of the murals on the internet. Still, better to share the artwork than not, so here’s some Lisbon street art from Cane Morto, Vhils, Créons, Sumo, Exit-enter, C215, Tinta Crua, Os Gemeos, Kraken, Sam3, Ericailcane, and Mr.chat.

DSC_5491_01
Vhils
IMG_0836_01
Cane Morto
IMG_0839_01
Créons (Belgian artist)

Continue reading “Winter break in Lisbon”

The Underdogs – making room for street art in Portugal

The Underdogs project is a new venture from Vhils and a number of other (primarily Portuguese) street artists who are trying to gain more awareness for street art in Portugal. Some of the artists included in the group include Vhils and Tosco. Vhils tell Vandalog that the core of The Underdogs is a drive to make a platform for showing and uplifting street art in Portugal in a variety of different ways.

I’m still not 100% sure of everything that the project will involve, but their launch event is taking place this Friday at Vera Cortês in Lisbon. For that event, The Underdogs have teamed up with Pictures on Walls to show some prints by Blu, Steve Powers and others. In addition to being an art exhibition, the launch event will double as the launch of The Underdogs’ first book, a book about the Portuguese street art scene and its history.

For more info about The Underdogs and their launch party, check out Target’s blog.

This could be the start of something pretty interesting. If you’re in Lisbon, definitely something to check out. Let us know how it goes.