I wasn't prepared for the quantity and quality of all the amazing street art that I saw in Thessaloniki so I just kept shooting pictures. The ones posted here are just a sample of what you would see walking the streets. For better of worse, Thessaloniki is covered in graffiti. Among the graffiti vandals, you will find true expressions of street artists, some at the peak of their craft. There is a lot of anger that is being expressed, and some of the images portrayed by street artists are very dark.
The above first image is possibly one of my favorites. Although dark I love how the artist works with the architecture of the building to make his statement. The second image makes stunning use of a dilapidated structure in a run-down area of the city and uses bold colors in strong opposition to monochromatic framing.
The scale of street art in Thessaloniki varies immensely. I stopped in my tracks when I looked over my shoulder and was captivated by the large image. Wow. The stencil in the second anti-nazi image (text imploring us to "banish nazis") can be found in several locations in the city, the artist making copious use of the statement.
These are probably the same artist (WAPS) at work. I've seen the scrunched tin can in more than one location and I really like the depth and shading provided by the black and white rendering.
These are great examples of street art hiding in plain sight. You could easily walk right past them without even noticing them. But wait...
I just love this piece.
A projectile hurtling into what look like Scrabble letters that spell out "NORMALITY HAS TO DIE" and at the bottom...not sure but there are wisps that lead up to the fan above the piece.
Brilliant.
The whimsy of the milk carton in the ruins of this building is striking. "Time of Milk" probably meaning to say "Milk Time" but the Greek grammar doesn't quite translate. And later on someone clearly got very upset with FIFA.
Both of these work really well with their physical context. I was particularly impressed with the profile image and the way the artist uses the streetlight in the piece to cast light onto the face in the profile. Bravo Thessaloniki!