Downtown Stavanger

Love Interruption

London based street artist Ben Eine is best known for his colourful letterform murals.

Starting as a graffiti writer over 30 years ago, Eine later began painting large-scale letters on store front shutters all over east London.

These imposing letters stood out from regular tags and throw-ups.

This monumental mural is painted on a building overlooking one of the busiest streets in central Stavanger.

The text is taken form the lyrics of Jack White's "Love Interruption"

It reads "I want love to grab a hold of me and bite me walk right up and fight me leave me dying on the ground."

UNART

Niels "Shoe" Meulman started writing graffiti in 1979 and soon became a much respected figure on the international graffiti scene.

The artist created this monumental mural for Nuart in the centre of Stavanger. The monochromatic piece is a typical example of the artist's style and reads "unart". A play on both nuart and graffiti.

Meulman is best known for his signature style called "Calligraffiti", a movement the artist launched in 2007 that can be described as abstract expressionism with a calligraphic origin.

Self Portrait with Friends

David Choe, the world renowned LA based artist has visited Nuart on several occasions, producing a wealth of works in a wide range of styles spread across the city.

These characters were painted quickly and impulsively on multiple columns linked to Stavanger's main shopping centre.

Taking a frenetic approach to art-making, Choe uses a chaotic and impactful style, mixing the figurative and illustrative with traditional graffiti.

Untitled

Logan Hicks is a New York based stencil artist best known for his pioneering photorealist style.

His murals explore the dynamics of the urban environment with its architectural structure and inherent geometry.

Gradually building up his image by spray painting over numerous large cardboard stencils, the artist arrives at his final composition.

The mural was initially intended to stay up for less than a year but was saved by a grassroots campaign arguing for its preservation.

It is one of the oldest surving street art murals in the city

The Pansy Project

Paul Harfleet has been planting pansies, a garden flower that shares its name with a homophobic slur, at sites of homophobic abuse since 2005

Pansies were out of season at the time of the festival. This was Paul's first time painting the flowers directly on walls as opposed to planting them.

This simple act challenges the viewer and puts forth flora as an act of rebellion, showing solidarity with those affected by violence and opening up a space for discussion and growth.

A rare opportunity to see multiple Dolk works in one location.

Dolk is a Norwegian street artist best known for his stencil works. He was the first artist signed to Banksy's print house and for many years was Norway's most well known street artist.

For his contribution to Øvre Holmegate in Stavanger (nicknamed "Fargegata" or "The colour street") Dolk added several of his most iconic images.

A very rare public version of "Heart Phone", a single layer stencil of a public telephone emitting "love talk".

"Girl with Teddy" depicts a dejected-looking girl handcuffed to a teddy bear possibly symbolising childhood. This is the only known public version of this work.

"Grenade Lovers" , a simple and positive message. Remember to look up when passing through the city.

Dotmasters started painting on the streets of Brighton in the early '90s. The artist often creates street-based illusions that attempt to fool the viewer's eye, usually combined with a typically English sense of humour.

The artist has been heavily involved with the development of Nuart,  acting as both a co-producer & co-curator as well as artist.

The "Gaffadils" and “Pinks” show small bouquets of flowers attached to their environment with gaffer's tape. But of course, it's all stencil work. 

One has been added to a red postbox.

Another bouquet adorns a rubbish bin.

This "Rude Kid" follows Dotmasters' series of depicting naughty children getting up to mischief in the streets. 

This work was a surprise for Nuart's curator, depicting his teenage son Gabriel Luca getting up to mischief.

Untitled

Swoon is a New York based artist best known for her intricate portraits which she's been pasting on the streets for almost 20 years.

The artist achieves her signature style by carving wood or linoleum blocks, which are then printed by hand or by cutting through several layers of paper at once.

She then identifies places in the city to paste them.

David Choe’s arresting work mixes the figurative and illustrative with  traditional spraycan art styling.

For their collaboration near tourist destination "Fargegata" in central Stavanger, Choe's cool-toned mythical figures flank Swoon's warmly coloured embracing couple.

Vi Er Alle Like / We Are All The Same

Working as a self-titled craftivist, British artist Carrie Reichardt blurs the boundaries between craft and activism, combining muralism with mosaics to create intricate works of art dealing with social justice causes.

For the work "Vi er alle like", Norwegian for "we are all the same", Reichardt hosted a two-day workshop for youth. 

The theme of the workshop was Pride and coincided with Stavanger Gay Pride. Perhaps the country's only landmark ceramic call for solidarity and equality.

Dünkelziffer

"Dünkelziffer" is a stencil work by Norwegian street artist DOT DOT DOT, showing a monochrome businessperson figure hiding their face behind an office binder.

DOT DOT DOT started his graffiti career in the late 90s, operating under various pseudonyms until he took up the moniker of DOT DOT DOT after transitioning into the stencil work he is now known for.

Based in Oslo, the anonymous artist frequently references pop art and contemporary urban aesthetics, creating imagery with a playful and satirical twist.

Alice Pasquini is best known for her murals engaging with femininity and depicting independent women that differ from imagery more commonly seen in high street advertising.

Based in Rome, Italy, Pasquini was drawn to street art as a response to what she saw as old and outdated ways of art-making during her studies — which left her cold.

This mural was created for Nuart in 2018 and shows a female figure turning away from the viewer while holding a bouquet of flowers. The blue-green colours are typical of Pasquini's work.

It is located in central Stavanger, on a wall at one of the city's main transport hubs – greeting many arriving in the city by bus, coach or train.

The Last Traveller

NIMI, who originally hails from South Africa, is a street artist based in Bergen, Norway. He is best known for his intricate mural work and has contributed work to Nuart both in Stavanger and Aberdeen.

The female figure depicted was originally conceptualised after the artist came across a photograph of a Nepalese woman during an earthquake in the region.

The artist questioned how quickly this seismic event disappeared from the media landscape and wanted to develop something that would tell part of their story.

It is the sister piece to NIMI's mural "Sofia and the Mountain" that was created earlier for Nuart and is located in the Storhaug district of Stavanger.

Johanna & Broremann

As a classically trained painter, Lithuanian born Ernest Zacharevic takes a mixed-media approach to expressing himself on walls worldwide. The artist moves freely between illustration, stencil art, installations, and sculpture and describes himself as "a fine artist who prefers to work on the street."

Zacharevic’s mural "Johanna & Broremann" mirrors a nearby sculpture by Svein Magnus Håvarstein.

The original sculpture shows a young girl holding hands with a young boy, depicting the characters from the popular regional "Ajax" stories about Johanna and Broremann.