Seville’s riverbanks are the most popular canvases for graffiti artists

Seville is a beautiful city full of historical architecture and sites, yet beyond the tourists attractions, the city is also full of cool, creative and colourful street art and graffiti. I was not aware of the street art scene in Seville before my trip and so I was quite pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

The subculture of graffiti has evolved over the past few decades and now it is part of the urban landscape in cities around the world. Graffiti artists use their cities as their canvases and gallery space to express themselves, whilst gaining fans and followers around the world. In my opinion, the urban art represent the city more than what is displayed inside galleries or museums. And with the economic downturn and high unemployment rate in Spain, the streets are probably the best outlets for frustrated youths or artists.

In Seville, the riverbanks are the best graffiti and street art gallery in the city, and the long stretch of collection is very impressive. Elsewhere in the city, random art work can also be seen, notably on garage entrances and shop gates/shutters, though the style is more ‘polished’ and decorative. I think using art to decorate a boring garage entrance or shopfront is a wonderful idea, it also reflects the artistic and aesthetics value of the city.

Decorative art work painted on garage entrances and shop gates in Seville

Interestingly, graffiti in Granada has a slightly different style (from the ones I saw), usually less ‘polished’ and with comics influence.

Graffiti in Granada is unique and often humourous

The two well-know graffiti/ street artists working in Seville and Granada are Lahe ( a female artists based in Seville) and Raúl Ruiz ( based in Granada), and I will try and seek out their work when I visit the two cities next time.