40 Striking Examples of Graffiti Art

Oct. 9, 2009  |  Art  |  47 comments

Graffiti has existed since ancient times with examples dating back to Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire.

In modern times, spray paint, regular paint and markers are the most commonly used materials.

Although the defacing of property is a crime punishable by law, many artists choose to express themselves this way.

This form of art is also used by some for communicating social and political messages.

For this post, we’ve compiled a collection of 40 striking examples of Graffiti Art. Know of any other great examples? Please post them in the comments’ area.


Compiled exclusively for WDD by Jarkko Laine.

Which ones were your favorites? How does Graffiti art impact the community?



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COMMENTS
  • http://www.mycelebrity.net MyCelebrity

    I’ve always admired people who draw graffiti. There is something special about them. And this is fantastic collection.

  • http://www.funkyinteriors.com funkyInteriors

    I’m also ways split with my opinion on Graffiti Art. It is wrong to deface someones property. True. Especially with thoughtless, meaningless mess. On the other hand I absolutely love a great piece of self expressionism escecially when it carries a social message or meaning of some sort. Conveying the thoughts and feel of youth, the community, maybe even the nationwide community. There should be more effort made to allow these artist to express themselves more. Councils should take note.

    Great Collection, would like to see more with ‘a more serious message agenda’.

    Mind you, I still smile when I see a stenciled rat in an alley way of a city.

  • http://www.webdesignerdepot.com Walter

    Quick note: these images are for illustration purposes only, I do not endorse the defacing of private property in any shape or form.

    • http://stetestilz.com StetEStilz

      These are all really sick “pieces” of art. I wouldn’t consider this vandalism at all.

      • http://www.creativeindividual.co.uk Laura

        I agree, I love seeing stuff like this. Adds some colour and interest to the monotonous greys of the urban environment. When I see art like this, if I can, I stop and admire the skill involved, read what it has to say, and take on board the message that it carries.

        Personally I’d be proud to have something like this on the side of my business’s building (if I had one).

        What I really hate is when a person/people have obviously spent a lot of time, effort, skill and money on something like this…then some little kid comes up and draws meat and two veg on top! They are idiots! By all means add to it, but if you don’t have something of value to add, don’t say (or draw) anything.

  • http://wpswitch.com Jacob

    This has to be some of the coolest graffiti I have ever seen.

  • http://t00nfish.de t00nfish

    Super Funde dabei :)

  • Coyote

    I genuinely admire the artistic talent, but nearly all the paintings depict anger, meanness, discontent or violence. Where are the happy artists?

  • http://www.avant5.net Mark

    These are very cool

    And I think most are positive works. They take too much time to be taggers destroying property. None look like they are in really trashy abandoned areas, so they are probably done with permission. There are some buildings in downtown Vegas in the arts district that have these.

    I’m amazed how good these people are – with a spray can. I’ve got Photoshop, and a mouse, and a drawing tablet, and the full control of Bezier curves, and I envy THEIR ability to create such detail. From a can!

  • http://armeda.com Dre

    Slick list of great wall art!

  • http://www.davetyler.net dave

    Great Post, I Love Graffiti….. IT takes much skill to do do good art work with spray paint and a good head to keep it of off private property.

  • Vmere

    My roommate took this picture. It was probably the best graffiti I ever saw in person.

    http://funkyrabbitmedia.com/blog/uploaded_images/DSC_0043-727857.JPG

  • http://www.doublejdesign.co.uk Jack

    Great, I love this stlye. sometimes these wall painters are truly artists.

  • http://www.gigglecomputer.com Phaoloo

    Awesome showcases of graffiti, just wonder how long did it take to fulfill an art? It might be days or weeks.

  • http://www.aledesign.it aledesign.it

    Awesome! Some graffiti are really nice!!

  • http://blog.aceinfowayindia.com Ajay

    Wow, fantastic collection, Thx!

  • http://www.zoombits.co.uk/gifts-and-gadgets Gifts

    Great man this is completely different type of art. It looks awesome so keep it up!!!!!!!

  • http://www.dzinepress.com Dzinepress

    really striking graffiti arts.

  • Mack

    Nice pics. I wholeheartedly endorse the defacing of private property.

    Bomb the condos.

  • http://www.supremewebsolutions.com/ Blair Nichols

    I absolutely love Graffiti, it can be found in the most unusual places and really catch you unaware! I do however think more councils should provide places for artists to practice their art without having to deface private property.

  • http://www.empfehlenswert-wien.at wien

    super post, do you know the names of the different artist?

  • RoaldA

    Omfg, if just all grafiti was like this, nobody would mind if it was legal. :P

  • Christian

    This is some sweet stuff, I’ve always loved producing and viewing graffiti. This is a fab collection.

    Why is it so looked down upon? If it’s not some dumb kid squiggling with a marker and you create such a fantastic piece of art, I agree there should be something done to help encourage these artists to produce and display more of their unique art. At the skatepark near my place they put up an actual graffiti wall for that sole purpose…. we need more of these in my opinion.

  • http://www.przyroda.eu Sklep zoologiczny

    #3 is stunning – this is real art.

  • http://www.senph42.com Senph42

    Good collection, but it covers only the characters. I miss the letter styles…

  • http://www.em3.rs Milos Milikic

    Fantastic works!!! This is art!

  • http://iwonderstudio.com Lana

    for those who really loves graffiti, I would really recommend the DVD I bought for my husband. It calls “Fatcap Express” and the actors – are famous dutch rappers. There are also english subtitels. I bought it directly from guys who made it and got signed DVD.
    http://www.riskederat.nl/nieuws/dvd-fatcap-express-te-koop/
    Within Holland it cost €15 incl shipping, but I think you can ask them if they ship outside of Holland.

    My husband and his friends always were crazy about graffiti (and it when they were young). They were very found of this film.

  • http://onestopmarketing.com/ Andrew Gerber

    I would like to say the Graffiti Art is my hobby from early childhood. I would say that I am fallen in love with this kind of art. All examples are really amazing, so I fully agree with Milos Milikic and other guys that all these works are really fantastic, thumb up for painters! They are great! By the way how can I add my own examples to this post? Is it possible?

  • http://www.magwp.com Subi

    Awesome graffiti I have ever seen.

  • http://www.xantypa.com xantype

    yeah,,i like the pics too…theyre cool—i love painting and i started with graffiti /characters/in 2006.,,its totally different in every way.-.u can try your best but the final piece will never look the same as u drawed on the paper.,, its not as easy as it seems and i personally think its one of the most difficult techniques. thats why we shud be more tolerant about it ,,its the art !!..art for young ppl who want to express themselves and show us what they can create.. yeah..we have to seperate out the bad part of graffiti..but ppl often see the writers all the same. as vandals…

  • http://angeladini.com angeladini

    Woooo i like very much this pics! The 1 is from Granada (Spain) In this city are a
    amazing culture graffity http://www.flickr.com/photos/37478916@N00/76574979/ ;D

  • http://theartinquirer.blogspot.com José

    Hi,

    Some really great works of art here, sometimes even close to anamorphic perspective.
    If I can recognize the style, there’s a Banksy’s.
    One of the best grafitti works that I’ve seen is the “Muto” – A wall painted animation.
    The author of this stop-motion animation is Blu (of course that credits are due to the team).

    Best regards,

    José

  • http://www.webdesignerheaven.com Alexandre J.

    You guys should chek out the art by CRAZY APES CREW from Montreal

    http://www.ca-crew.com

  • http://graffitilettersblog.com Graffiti Letters

    One word for all these graffiti. AWESOME!

  • http://www.google.com Paul

    Awesome

  • Jão

    Wonderful!… Incrível!

  • tracey

    Quality read, reminds me of graffiti artist Darren Cullen at http://www.hire-a-graffiti-artist.co.uk he does stuff like this with a bunch of other graffiti artists called Graffiti Kings

  • jake pucan

    nice work!

  • http://www.ustiffanyshop.com discount tiffany jewelry

    oyeye
    tahnk you for the good post

  • greezus

    all the “happy” artists are painting at home on canvas…

  • Nims

    Nice work…good collection

  • Bill

    When I was in art school, a graffiti tagger got up and gave a speech about his activities being ‘art’, not vandalism. I spoke up and offered that I would be honored to be allowed to go scratch a piece of ‘art’ into his car paint with a nail He declined. I promised that it would be a nice piece of artwork… He again declined. I pressed him more by stating that if he is allowed to create ‘art’ on other people’s property that I should be allowed to do it as well to his car. He walked out…

    Graffiti artists are nothing more than criminal vandals… Some are VERY talented criminal vandals, but still just vandals…

    That said though, the artwork in this post is really great.

    • http://www.psyched.be/wordpress Darkened Soul

      Graffiti art has nothing much to do with tagging (or scratching with a nail on other peoples property). It has an edge though, but “real” graffiti is either done on public property (partly paid by the grafitti artists themselves through taxes, lolz) or paid for by people wanting it on their shopping-wall. N I have nothing against a beautiful crafted piece of work on a moving train. of course, there are those who want to make a statement by it… but again, do not mess up too much those terms of “bombing n tagging” with graffiti art in itself, as an artform…

      so is special painting or any other paint dispersing skill u might master.

      either way, great collection n it colours the cities a bit.

      (again, I’ld never spray graffiti on the homes of people who have nothing to do with the message that should be conveyed)

  • http://www.emlakx.net Emlak

    I would like to say the Graffiti Art is my hobby from early childhood. I would say that I am fallen in love with this kind of art. All examples are really amazing, so I fully agree with Milos Milikic and other guys that all these works are really fantastic, thumb up for painters! They are great

  • http://bed-boy.com Hanif

    wau, awesome… many funny creatures that.

  • http://www.youthgraffitiworkshops.com Rick

    Some of this stuff is sick. Im liking the darker stuff more personally.

  • http://www.liverbashers.com/ Vanilla Gorilla

    Some amazing pieces.