Street art of Porto

Last weekend, in an effort to escape the low hanging grey clouds that never seem to rise this time of year in London, I hopped a 2 hour flight to Porto for a bit of winter sun and to see the burgeoning street art scene.  I wasn't disappointed with either.

For those who have never been, Porto is the 2nd largest city in Portugal.  Famed for its Port wine, the city was dubbed a World Heritage City by UNESCO in 1996.  As with other cities in Portugal, it's a bit dilapidated, quite cheap and very welcoming.

I spent much of my time getting lost down the various alley ways that plunge towards the Douro snapping pictures of the impressive art that was covering most walls.

Aside from the one gallery I went to, I have no idea who these artists are but there was a lot of skill and originality in most of the work.

The one gallery I did go to featured the work of Rui Sousa.  You can see his work here.  He was born in Valongo, Portugal in 1980. He graduated in fine arts (Faculdade de Belas Artes do Porto), and currently works in Porto. He´s uses the body as an object of study and observation, an element that can be viewed from various perspectives and approaches.  You can see some of his work below.

Rui Sousa

Rui Sousa

Rui Sousa

Rui Sousa

The rooster image was popular owing to the legend of the cock in Portugal.

Thought this was pretty creative.

This person has the image in a lot of locations using a different mixture of messages and colour with the same stencil.

There was a lot of free hand paint but there was the occasional stencil

This was one of the more creative ideas I saw.  This image was stenciled throughout the city and you can see the 'edition' size next to it (16/1000).  I didn't see 1000 but I wouldn't doubt if there were that many. 

More of the birds, think these were 22-24/1000.

Really liked this one.