This post is part 2 of 5 in the series Street Art in the Americas

Most major cities around the world have some sort of a street art scene – not just random graffiti tags, but crafted pieces of art that happen to exist outdoors in public spaces. In Bogotá, Colombia  the street art scene is on fire. Colombian artists have been invited to create street art around the world and participate in major gallery exhibitions and the vibrant art on display around the country’s capital (one estimate puts the total number of major works of street art in the city at more than 5,000) runs the gamut from playful to political to the sort of public art that defies pigeonholing. We really got into the street art in Bogotá and we think our Bogotá Street Art 101 primer-including a quick history, info about hot artists, and tips about graffiti tours in the city–will get you hooked too.

rana frog Bogota street art

This friendly frog, artist unknown, welcomes you to the world of street art in Bogotá.

Bogotá street art from maligned to mainstream

Street art wasn’t always a legit part of the city’s landscape. Despite the fact that major Colombian companies like Bogtoá Beer Company were commissioning street artists to create original artwork and logos for them (like the image below), the public and the police were not quite as enthusiastic about the emerging subculture.

BBC Bogota Beer Company uses street artists design truck

This logo, created by street artists, was commissioned by Bogotá Beer Company.

Things started to change in 2011 when young graffiti artist Diego Felipe Becerra was shot in the back by police while painting. Police then tried to say the artist was shot in self-defense while he was trying to rob a bus. Tensions rose (even the United Nations condemned the farce) and a forum was created to bring street artists and law enforcement officials together to figure out a way to coexist. Today, street art is legal in Bogotá where city officials and artists don’t just co-exist, they collaborate.

Bogota Street artist Zokos wins competition to paint this wall

In 2014, artist Ricardo Zokos won the annual street art competition put on by the city of Bogotá and he was given this wall and the materials needed to create this massive work of art.

Every year the city of Bogotá holds a street art competition and the winner is granted a massive space and the materials needed to turn it into a canvas for his or her vision. The winner in 2014 was an artists named Ricardo Zokos who used a cherry picker and gallons and gallons of paint to create the work above. It’s 75 feet (22 meters) high by 130 feet (40 meters) wide.

W hotel Bogota lounge designed by street artists

The street artists that work together as Vertigo Graffiti were hired to create this wall in the bar of the W Hotel in Bogotá.

When the W Bogotá Hotel opened in Bogotá 2015, they got on the street art bandwagon too, commissioning  the artists at Vertigo Graffiti to paint an entire wall in the hotel bar. Over the course of two full nights of work, Vertigo artists Zas, Ospen, Cazdos, Ecksuno, DexS, and Fish created the mural, above, for the hotel.

Bogota street art incorporated into apartment building

Normal, every day buildings like apartments and hostels in Bogotá routinely incorporate the work of street artists.

Street art and graffiti tours in Bogotá

Love it or hate it, these days the street art scene in Bogotá is an integral part of the city. As the usual “but is it art?” debate rages, more and more guided tours of the city’s street art are being offered. After a visit to the city’s excellent Gold Museum, taking a graffiti tour is probably the second most popular activity in the capital. We took two different Bogotá street art tours.

Crisp Bogota Street Art

An Australian street artist known as Crisp lives in Bogotá, creates this art, and started the city’s very first guided graffiti tour.

The Bogotá Graffiti Tour was the first street art tour offered in the city. It was created by Australian artist Christian Peterson, who now lives in Bogotá where he signs his street art as Crisp. His company still takes people on 2.5 hour guided walking tours past fantastic examples of the city’s street art (free, but donations are aggressively encouraged). Tours are lead by English speaking guides who are graffiti artists themselves, including Crisp. It provides a good overview of the main players and main motivators behind street art found in the La Candelaria neighborhood of Bogotá, which is the area where the city was originally founded and is now hipster central.

Bogota street artist Koch1no

Veteran Bogotá street artist David Niño (aka Koch1no) guided us around some of the city’s best works. Here he’s standing in front of one of his own pieces. He calls the little character in the lower right-hand corner of the work a “space bunny” and it appears in all of his pieces.

We also took a tour organized by tour company called 5 Bogotá. The tour was lead by Colombian artist Koch1no  (aka David Niño) and we departed from a shop called Visaje Graffiti Colombia which was opened to showcase and sell items designed by city artists. For a few hours Koch1no, who’s been doing street art for more than a decade, lead us through various areas of the city expertly and enthusiastically explaining the work we were walking past including who made the art, what it was meant to represent, what the inspiration was and more. It was a fun and informative tour and we were sorry to see it end.

Bogotá street artists: DJ Lu

This Colombian artist, who is also a trained architect and a professor, has been decorating the city since 2004. You can’t swing a cat in the capital without hitting one of his pieces which is often signed as Juegasiempre. He often uses stencils made from photographs of homeless people, including Marco Tulio Sevillano, a homeless man who was burned to death. Keep a keen eye out for other DJ Lu iconography including pineapples as hand grenades, dollar signs incorporating guns, and insects as weapons.

DjLu + Pez (Barcelona) Bogota Street Art

A classic piece from DJ Lu.

DjLu-Juegasiempre-Bogota-Street-Art

A classic piece from DJ Lu.

DjLu + Toxicomano Bogota Street Art

This piece is a collaboration between DJ Lu and the Toxicomano collective which contributed the woman with camera imagery on the left.

DjLu + Pez (Barcelona) Bogota Street Art

This piece is a collaboration between DJ Lu ad Pez, a Spanish artist now living in Bogotá, who contributed the funky flyers.

Bogotá street artists: Bastardilla

Bastardilla is one of the most prominent female street artists in Bogotá, but there’s still not a lot of information out there about the secretive painter. What is clear is her focus is on women’s rights, the struggle to end violence against women, and the need for increased respect for the crucial role women and women’s work play in the future of Latin America. She reportedly sometimes sends her work with friends when they travel abroad and asks them to paste her art up in cities around the world. Plus, she’s got one of the coolest names out there.

Bastardia + Gris One Bogota street art

Bastardilla did this work with Gris One. The bird in the middle is hers.

Bastardilla female graffiti artist Bogota street art

This is a piece done by Bastardilla.

BastardillAa Bogota street art

Another piece by Bastardilla.

Bogotá street artists: Toxicomano

Work signed by Toxicomano is produced by a prolific collection of artists. The most distinctive style of their work is done in stencil and involves a lot of black and white and often features a mohawk-sporting character named Eddie, though other styles emerge like the blue pig decorated with a map of the world, below. The work of this collective is extremely popular and more and more businesses are commissioning Toxicomano to decorate their shops.

Toxicomano Callerjo Bogota street art lost boy Eddie

Classic work from a collection of artists known as Toxicomano involves a graphic, stenciled, largely black and white look and the face of Eddie.

Toxicomano Callerjo Bogota street

The Toxicomano collective of artists is often commissioned to decorate businesses in Bogotá, like this tattoo shop.

Toxicomano Callejero Bogota street art pig map

We love this Toxicomano pig decorated with a map of the world.

Bogotá street artists: Lesivo

Lesivo, aka Diego Chavez, also frequently works on large murals with DJ Lu and Toxicomano. His work is marked by a startled, skull-like quality to faces and heads that smacks of suddenly shattered innocence.

Lesivo Bogota street art

Street art by Lesivo in Bogotá, Colombia.

Lesivo Bogota street art

Street art by Lesivo in Bogotá, Colombia.

Bogotá street artists: Ledania

Ledania is based in Bogotá where she creates distinctive work with bold colors and complex graphics around themes that have been called mythological.

Ledania Bogota Street art

Colombian street artist Ledania transformed this wall with her fantastical style.

Lediana Bogota Street art

This is a good example of the bold colors and graphics that form part of Ledania’s style.

Bogotá street artists: Guache

This Colombian artist, who has exhibited his work across Europe, returns to homegrown imagery of the plants, animals, and indigenous cultures of Colombia. No color is too bright and Guache’s work is a technicolor celebration of Colombia’s heart and soul and a wake up call about the threats they face.

Guache Bogota Street art

The doves in this work by Guache are holding banners that read Social Justice and Freedom and Peace.

Guache Bogota Street art

Another mesmerizing piece by Guache.

Bogotá street artists: Stinkfish

Stinkfish is possibly the most internationally well-known Colombian street artist at the moment with canvases selling in galleries around the world for thousands of dollars. His art is marked by stencils he makes of faces from photographs he finds or takes himself. He then elaborates on the images with graphics and intense colors. In addition to his solo work, Stinkfish has an art crew called APC (Animal Poder Cultura/Animal Power Culture).

Stinkfish Bogota street art

You really can’t miss a Stinkfish face.

Stinkfish + APC Bogota street art

Here’s a work by Stinkfish working with his APC crew.

Bogotá street artists: Lik Mi

In addition to creating a body-centric street art style, the artist known as Lik Mi is also a jewelry designer. She’s said her fully nude paste ups are meant to counter the objectification of women and confront taboos about nudity.

Lik Mi Bogota street art

These three pieces by Lik Mi give you a good sense of her focus on confronting taboos about nudity and making a point about the objectification of women.

Bogotá street artists: Saga

Saga‘s solo work is marked by joyfully absurd oversize women and an olde timey dude who’s seriously creepy. Sometimes the artist works with another artist known as Crudo who adds distinctive lettering, giving the collaborative work a vaudeville poster look and feel.

Saga Uno Bogota street art

The joyful absurdity of work by Saga.

Saga Uno Bogota street art

This creepy but compelling character is courtesy of Saga.

Saga & Crudo Bogota street art

Artists Saga and Crudo often team up in Bogotá.

Bogotá street artists: Rodez

Rodez is a book publisher and street artist in his fifties and his work has a polished, gallery-ready look and feel. He is quite literally a father to street art. His sons, Nomada and Malegria, have followed him into the biz and they sometimes collaborate.

Rodez Street art Bogota

A whimsical, sophisticated piece by Rodez.

Bogotá street artists: beyond the big names

Not everyone in the Bogotá street art scene is a star. Yet. Here are some pieces we liked by artists we know little or nothing about (if you know who did the pieces we can’t id, let us know in the comments section at the end of this post).

el beso de los invisibles The kiss MDC crew Yurika Jade

Based on a photo of a homeless couple kissing, this 115 foot (35 meter) high piece, called “El Beso de los Invisibles” (The Kiss of the Invisibles) was created by a co-ed team including Vertigo, Jade, Zas, and MDC.

Katze + Carsal Corrosivo Bogota Sterrt Art

This work was created by Katze and Carsal Corrosivo.

MAL crew Bogota street art

MAL Crew did this work.

Carlos Trilleras Bogota street art

This wonderful portrait of a Kuna woman was done by Carlos Trilleras.

Bogota street art

Artist unknown.

Praxis Bogota street art

An Argentinean artist known as Praxis did this.

Entes y Pesimo Bogota street art

Peruvian artists Entes y Pesimo work together. This wall was done by Entes alongside the image below which was painted by Pesimo.

Entes y Pesimo Bogota street art

Peruvian artists Entes y Pesimo work together. This wall was done by Pesimo alongside the wall above which was painted by Entes.

Monstrucation Bogota street art

This piece is called Monstrucation but we don’t know who created it.

BLN bike Perversa Bogota street art

The bike image on the left was done by an artist from Ecuador known as BLN Bike and the googly-eyed purple blob was done by an artist known as Perversa.

Bogota street art

Artist unknown.

Bogota street art

Artist unknown.

indiginous Bogota street art

Artist unknown.

The ever-changing nature of Bogotá street art

One of the things that makes street art interesting is the ever-changing nature of the installations. The composite image, below, shows a wall outside the Visaje Graffiti Colombia store in Bogotá which we photographed on August 30, 2014 (top) and again on September 1, 2015 (bottom). What a difference a year (and some talent and some paint) makes.

Visaje gallery Bogota street art

The same wall in Bogotá photographed on August 30, 2014 (top) and again on September 1, 2015 (bottom),

For more about street art, check out the Google Culture Institute Street Art Project. And there’s more in our city travel guides about Bogotá including what to do and where to sleep, where to eat, and where to drink in the sophisticated Colombian capital.

 

Here’s more about travel in Colombia

See more Street Art

 


Series Navigation:<< The Political Power of Street Art – Bogotá, ColombiaPhoto Essay: Street Art in Cartagena, Colombia >>

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