Delhi is a city that is known for its art and culture. Thankfully, one doesn’t have to visit boring museums or exhibitions to get the hang of it. There is a certain art which is closer to home, more public and open for viewing to anyone. This art form is Graffiti which is spread across the mundane walls of the city and consists of drawings and paintings by world famous artists. Here is a list of the top street-art pieces that should not be missed by any art lover in Delhi.
1. Lok Nayak Bhawan, Khan Market :
This beautiful mural consists of a face split in two which took close to four days for artist Okuda, from Madrid, to bring to life. This was his first project in India influenced by capitalism and the way it is manipulating people’s lives as well as the meaning of life in general. The surreal pop art uses a lively colour palette to bring out the contrast in the paintings and inspire awe-struck reactions.
2. Lodhi Colony, Meherchand Market :
The observation of DALeast when he came to India from Chinese province of Wuhan, were the many birds around the city. He decided to capture this scene in a huge wall painting on the side of Lodhi Colony. Using exterior emulsion paint as well as spray paint he made an array of pigeons, crows and the likes converging into one hole on the wall. Some of the part of the wall was deliberately kept vacant by the artist so that it may look as a contributing background.
3. Delhi Cold Storage Building , New Azadpur Mandi :
It is one of the biggest wall murals in Delhi. The painting represents Axel Void or Alejandro Hugo Dorda Mevs’ representation of life’s mundane nature which took him 3 days to finish. There is a singular candle in the middle of the painting with the word zindagi (life) written on it while a couple of fruits and a knife are scattered on the bottom. It is part of his collection of paintings called “Mediocre” which is spread all across the globe in countries like Columbia, Argentina, Europe amongst others.
4. Delhi Police Headquarters, Indraprastha Marg, Balmiki Basti, Vikram Nagar :
Street Artists Association in Delhi teamed up with the Delhi Police in 2014 to make this huge portrait on the latter’s walls during one of its annual exhibitions. Armed with dozens of paint cans and brushes, duo of Mr Beikirch and Anpu Varkey reached the office and started their work on painting the biggest portrait of Mahatma Gandhi on the headquarter walls. According to the artists as well as the police officials this will bring a sense of pride and patriotism to the Street art festival as well as make the citizens feel passionate as they look up at the Father Of The Nation.
5. Shahpur Jat :
The street has a reputation of being the most colourful one in Delhi where youngsters can be found taking selfies with their favourite art piece on the walls. Almost every other wall is adorned with some or the other thought provoking mural. All this is majorly due to it being the theme places for the Street Art Festivals. From angry birds, mythological creatures, realistic pictures to just about anything one can imagine, the representation can be found adorning the walls of the street. Multiple artists from Japan, Taiwan, Brazil and Germany have contributed into making this place the little street art that it is today.
6. Tihar Jail Wall :
The Street Art Delhi event gifted one of its biggest peices of art for a beautiful cause. The festival ended with artists coming together to draw on the walls of Delhi’s Tihar prison for hours and adorn it with the verses of a poem written by the inmates which took almost 2 weeks to complete. Hanif Qureshi, the mind behind the art and design of the painting was more than happy to take up the project as he wanted to banish the stereotypes with regards to the place. The 986 meter long painting was inaugurated by Delhi Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung and now represents a more artistic side of the otherwise ill-reputed area.