Morik
Taking cue from street art’s global influence, Urban Forms in Lodz, Poland is turning their city into a large, outdoor urban art gallery. Founded in 2009, the main idea of this project was to change the city center by creating large-format artworks directly on the facades of buildings. This project has resulted in over 30 large murals scattered around the city by international and Polish artists, including works by Os Gemeos, Aryz, Etam Cru and Inti from past years.
For their 5th edition this year, Urban Forms put together a strong lineup of widely-recognized and emerging street artists alike. DalEast visited the city shortly after his solo show in New York City and created one of his signature, animal life-inspired murals. The mural shows a large deer whose hollow body provides a home for the small birds inside it. Built from numerous lines that together create this complex image, his large work demonstrates the Chinese artist’s unique style. The finished piece blends with the environment and gives the feeling of depth and perspective with its simple use of blue and white.
Vhils left his mark by carving his work into the facade of an old, deteriorating building. Shortly after closing his large museum show in his hometown of Lisbon, the Portuguese artist continued traveling the world and creating public works. Using paint and a jack hammer, he created a heavily-textured portrait.
Nunca is an artist rarely seen producing work outside his homeland, so it was somewhat of a surprise to see him at Urban Forms. Using his flat, figurative style, a solid color background and complex line work, the Brazilian artist brought tropical imagery to Eastern Europe. Painting indigenous tribesmen peeking through lush, green flora, he addressed the ongoing problem of rainforest exploitation damaging the traditional lifestyle of Brazilian tribes.
Morik was one of the first artists to paint this year, and he introduced himself with a large mural that mixes still life elements with portraiture. Using the tones seen on the neighboring buildings, the Russian artist’s piece takes inspiration from Cubism.
Tone, Chazme, Sepe, Cekas and Proembrion are representatives of Polish urban art scene, and for this year’s project they collaborated on an impressive, 10-story diptych. Mixing their various styles that range from Sepe’s figurative elements to Chazme’s geometric, architectural delineations, they created this grand, abstract piece. With a mirroring effect between the two buildings, these huge murals instantly became a landmark of the neighborhood.
Morik
DalEast
DalEast
DalEast
Nunca adds detail to his mural.
Details of Nunca’s piece.
Nunca.
Tone, Chazme, Sepe, Cekas and Proembrion’s work in progress.
Tone, Chazme, Sepe, Cekas and Proembrion collaborated on a 10-story diptych.
Tone, Chazme, Sepe, Cekas and Proembrion
Vhils carves into the wall to create his piece.
Vhils
Vhils
French based artist duo 
Inside a run-down building off Berlin’s Nollendorfplatz, an area known historically for both its gay culture and punk community, 12 artists from eight countries (Fernando Chamarelli, João Ruas, Alexis Diaz (La Pandilla), NoseGo, Word to Mother, Curiot, Low Bros, Andrew Schoultz, Glenn Barr, C215, Dabs Myla, and JBAK) worked for two days to create original artworks for the facades and windows of the currently unused site (exciting news about the future of this space to come).