The 50 Greatest Street Artists Right Now

Image via Complex Original

flickr.com/theuglyyou

Base Country: US

Type of work: Installation/ Stencils

Bumblebee's stencils often juxtapose the charm of innocent childhood scenes against the gritty urban landscape. His installations around L.A. are interesting, where phone booths and newspaper boxes are taken over by beehives with industrious miniature bee sculptures inside.

obeygiant.com

Base Country: US

Type of work: Pasteups/ Collage

This man needs no introduction. Shepard Fairey's Andre and Obama Hope images are some of the best known artistic images of the past decade. His recent street work has mostly focused on complex layered patterns as backdrops to propaganda-style images.

flickr.com/other

Base Country: Canada

Type of work: Murals

Other is from Canada, but seems to be in a different country every month; his unusual figures made of composite patterns and features find their way onto walls and freight trains around the world.

liqen.wordpress.com

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Murals

Liqen does not seem to court attention, but his talent demands it. His detailed narrative scenes draw you into looking at them for a long time, trying to untangle all the different aspects. Originally from Spain, he now paints in Mexico.

stink.tk

Base Country: Colombia

Type of work: Murals

Stinkfish has two distinct styles: monochromatic portraits and stencils, and wildly colorful, patterned walls.

aryz.es

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Murals

Young and supremely talented, Aryz paints huge walls with a dark, illustrated style.

flickr.com/groups/swoon

Base Country: US

Type of work: Pasteups

Swoon is based in New York, but she is active all over the world. Her wood block images are precisely cut and then pasted on the street. The pieces often depict characters with expressive faces and elements of their life composed to form the body. She also founded the 'Swimming Cities' artist collective that creates eccentric boats for various adventures.

flickr.com/hyuro

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Murals

A relative newcomer, the Argentinian Hyuro is now based in Valencia, Spain and often paints with Escif. She creates dramatic, introspective scenes of characters exploring their thoughts and emotions.

flickr.com/photos/iemza

Base Country: France

Type of work: Murals

Iemza's abstract portraits use a variety of styles, but always use color and decaying walls effectively to create a mysterious, alien feel.

flickr.com/photos/-sten-

Base Country: Italy

Type of work: Stencils

Sten and Lex collaborate to create very unusual stencils, using benday dots and lines of varying thickness.

seacreative.net

Base Country: Italy

Type of work: Murals

Often working with Vine and ReFreshInk, Seacreative's illustrated characters in abandoned buildings are reminiscent of Barry McGee's figures, but they convey their own type of wonder and emotion.

gaiastreetart.com

Base Country: US

Type of work: Pasteups

Gaia's printed pasteups of portraits, animals and hybrid creatures (e.g. a lion with rabbit ears) are beautifully detailed and quietly powerful.

flickr.com/photos/franco-jaz-fasoli

Base Country: Argentina

Type of work: Murals

Humanoid figures with great use of color. Jaz's "Stamina" series of walls feature hand to hand combat.

flickr.com/photos/el_messa

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Murals

Little known, and with only a Flickr of an online presence, Mesa creates wonderful photo-realist works in Spain. His ghostly faces on rural buildings and his ominous black birds are standouts.

thisisludo.com

Base Country: France

Type of work: Pasteups

Ludo is best known for his "Nature's Revenge" series, where military and industrial images are collaged to create natural forms—nature begins to regain ground in the urban environment. His style is immediately recognizable, particularly because of his signature bright green color.

flickr.com/zilda

Base Country: France

Type of work: Handpainted pasteups

Zilda's hand-painted classical images are unique for the sense of history he brings to street art—from ancient mythology in his most recent series, to classic Italian movies from the '50s in another. Particularly effective is his placement of movie characters on streets where the movies were filmed.

thisislimbo.com

Base Country: Israel

Type of work: Murals

Know Hope's poetic figures accompanied by lines of poetry deal with the tricky balance of life, love, and the struggle between optimism and pessimism that his name immediately conveys.

flickr.com/photos/mr_omus

Base Country: UK

Type of work: Murals

Only painting together for the last couple of years, Best Ever is a collaboration of Neil Edward and Hadley Newman that has quickly developed a strong reputation. Their photo-realistic walls are anatomically-based, but go beyond the pure form to convey emotion and turmoil.

beccamidwood.com

Base Country: US

Type of work: Handpainted pasteups

Becca has been pasting hand-painted characters for over a decade, mostly around L.A. Her pieces are typically glamorous ladies or playful kids, which become especially striking in gritty urban alleys and soulless Los Angeles streets.

el-mac.net

Base Country: US

Type of work: Murals/ Graffiti

L.A.-based El Mac paints photo-realistic portraits, often in collaboration with Retna's calligraphy-based backgrounds. The pieces become local landmarks.

flickr.com/photos/-nunca

Base Country: Brazil

Type of work: Murals

One of the Brazilian greats, Nunca paints indigenous-style characters and strong political statements around the world. He has painted everything from a castle in Scotland to the exterior of the Tate Modern in London.

baudelocque.com

Base Country: France

Type of work: Murals

Philippe Baudelocque paints huge animals around Paris that are striking from a distance, but even more interesting on closer inspection because they're made up of intricate patterns and details.

specterart.com

Base Country: US

Type of work: Murals/ Sculpture

Specter has a huge variety of projects, from street sculptures to portraits to recreating storefronts.

luzinterruptus.com

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Light sculptures

Based in Madrid, Luzinterruptus creates light-based installations using small battery-powered lights. The installations are beautiful, and each is accompanied by a statement explaining their commentary on society.

flickr.com/groups/zooproject/

Base Country: France

Type of work: Murals

More elusive than Banksy, Zoo Project creates amazing walls in Paris, and recently in southern France. Simple characters impart philosophical messages.

conorsaysboom.wordpress.com

Base Country: Ireland

Type of work: Murals

Conor Harrington's military-inspired murals incorporate suggestions of calm figures against turbulent, graffiti-inspired backgrounds.

einesigns.co.uk

Base Country: UK

Type of work: Graffiti/ Sign-writing

Eine's best known street work is his "Shutter Font" (bold letters on storefronts), including a complete alphabet in London. Recently he became more known when David Cameron gave Barack Obama an Eine canvas.

aloveletterforyou.com

Base Country: US

Type of work: Graffiti/ Sign-writing

Legendary graffiti writer ESPO ('Exterior Surface Painting Outreach'), recently better known as Steve Powers, created his "Love Letter" murals in Philadelphia and Syracuse, where he used traditional sign-writing techniques (and a lot of local young people) to create witty proclamations of love. So sick.

herbertbaglione.blogspot.com

Base Country: Brazil

Type of work: Murals

Herbert Baglione's simple human-alien characters are complemented by beautiful, detailed patterns.

fauxreel.ca

Base Country: Canada

Type of work: Photo pasteups

Fauxreel's black & white photography-based work is both striking and purposeful. His projects often reflect social issues, and are rooted in the local community. His recent "Face of The City" series merges portraits of local residents with the character and blemishes of the walls.

flickr.com/photos/c215

Base Country: France

Type of work: Stencils

Frenchman C215 creates romantic stencilled portraits, often of his daughter Nina. His monochromatic stencils are great, which he paints on surfaces with character, like rusty doors or mail boxes.

little-people.blogspot.com

Base Country: UK

Type of work: Sculpture/ Photography

Slinkachu's work is almost impossible to see because it's only a few millimeters tall. Very detailed scenes with incredibly small people—almost everybody sees his work through photographs. But it has the power to make you see the world a little differently—maybe there are small people rowing on that splash of milk?

phlegmcomics.com

Base Country: UK

Type of work: Murals

An incredibly skilled illustrator, Phlegm creates beautiful hand-made comics as well as huge walls with detailed scenes of mythical animals and characters. He's not based in a major city, which is why Phlegm is not as well known as others on this list, but that won't last long.

vasmou.com

Base Country: Greece

Type of work: Murals

Alexandros Vasmoulakis is known for enormous, often surreal walls that seem to embody a fashionable glamour and dream-like quality.

mcity.org

Base Country: Poland

Type of work: Stencils

M-City creates huge stencil-based images with a heavy industrial aesthetic, with beauty in the details. It's like looking at satellite images—you can see the big picture, or zoom into a completely different world through the detail.

space-invaders.com

Base Country: France

Type of work: Mosaic

One of the longer-established and better-known street artists, Invader's mosaic tiles can be found in cities around the world. The creation of a real-world game (of hunting the invaders) from an electronic game character is a fun twist. As simple as they are, the space invaders still manage to bring personality, and often have a local flavor.

aakashnihalani.com

Base Country: US

Type of work: Tape

Aakash Nihalani creates geometric shapes with brightly colored tape, from simple illusions of cubes to very complex patterns. Some of the pieces incorporate people or an aspect of the wall into the illusion.

claudioethos.com

Base Country: Brazil

Type of work: Murals

Ethos paints surreal scenes with monochromatic characters, often with photo-realistic faces, amid a swirl of imagination.

http://www.ericailcane.org/

Base Country: Italy

Type of work: Murals

Ericailcane paints huge, detailed anthropomorphic animals in a style that reminds me of animations in old children's books; there's a fantasy and wonder about them.

evoltaste.com

Base Country: Germany

Type of work: Stencils

EVOL, like Boxi, is a master of stencils; he creates life-like buildings from electric boxes or bare walls by stenciling windows and balconies. In photos of the work, it's often hard to tell that you're not looking at real buildings.

boxi.eu.com

Base Country: UK/ Germany

Type of work: Stencils

Boxi and EVOL (previous) take stencil-based street art to a new level with multiple layers and photo-like detail. Boxi's work typically conveys a haunting, post-apocalyptic world, but there are frequently charming touches of humanity. His hazmat-suited character with a shopping list is particularly wonderful.

interesnikazki.blogspot.com

Base Country: Ukraine

Type of work: Murals

Amazingly under-known, Interesni Kazki is a Ukrainian duo (AEC & Waone) that paints huge, incredibly complex murals that you could look at for hours and still see new elements.

alexandrefarto.com

Base Country: Portugal

Type of work: Etching

Vhils' powerful portraits are created by subtraction rather than addition: he etches, tears or acid-burns the surface, which adds a depth and character from the wall to the image that you don't see with paint. Most recently, he's started using explosives to etch shapes.

sam3.es

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Murals

Sam3 is most famous for his fluid silhouette figures, which despite lacking facial expressions, still manage to convey struggling, striving, loving. There's a magic about his work.

flickr.com/photos/escif

Base Country: Spain

Type of work: Murals

Escif holds down Valencia with poetic murals that hold attention longer than most because there's always more ways to interpret them. In his words, "I'm not looking for decorative paintings, I try to wake up viewers' minds."

banksy.co.uk

Base Country: UK

Type of work: Stencils

Not the first or entirely original (see Blek le Rat), but indisputably the most impactful in elevating street art from unknown to broad public consciousness. His wit, wry political statements and ability to spot opportunities for subversion make him as exciting now as when he became famous over a decade ago. We all wish there was less hype and circus around him, but he probably feels similarly.

flickr.com/photos/roagraffiti

Base Country: Belgium

Type of work: Murals

Roa is one of the hardest-working and most talented muralists in the world. His fascination with animals translates into huge still-life walls around the world, and large-scale wildlife take dominant positions in urban environments. His work is striking, particularly given the animals are often in various states of death, decay or slumber.

jr-art.net

Base Country: France

Type of work: Photo pasteups

Making social commentary arresting, beautiful and impressive is no easy feat; TED-Prize-winning JR achieves it. From his native Paris to Africa to South America, JR celebrates communities' quiet heroes by elevating them to massive scale and showing elements of their character.

osgemeos.com.br

Base Country: Brazil

Type of work: Murals

The twins have an entirely unique, surreal style, and they are able to convey an incredible amount of emotion through their simple characters.

blublu.org

Base Country: Italy

Type of work: Murals

Huge murals, strong political statements, powerful imagery and a few multi-million-stream animated videos; everything Blu does is ambitious, and he's talented enough to pull it off. He also stands admirably outside of the commercial art machine.