What is Street Art, Anyway?

One of the coolest things about visiting new cities is seeing what kind of street art they have.

Not only is it a wonderful way to see part of the local art scene, but international visitors come and leave art pieces as well.

Some places have embraced street art, and you can see huge murals splashed across the sides of a building. Some places are still more low key about it, and so you’ll find a bunch of small graffiti, tags, and stickers– but not many bigger pieces.

Looking for street art everywhere I go has became a habit, and learning about the different types of street art has made it even more fun. Now I can recognize the difference between a tag, a stencil, a sticker and a mural– and I know where to look for specific kinds of street art which makes finding them a bit easier.

In this post, I’ll go over the different types of street art, with examples from places I’ve been to myself, plus some notable artists within each art style. Think of this as an introduction to street art if you’ve never really thought about it before, or just want more info!

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Types of Street Art

Tags & Graffiti

This might a controversial viewpoint, but I DO think tags (and graffiti) are street art!

Graffiti is any work of art put in public view without permission. While most street art nowadays is popular and desirable (see Commercialization section below), there’s still plenty being sneakily put up by artists all over the world.

Tags are what people tend to thing of when they think “graffiti”: names of artists in sprayed everywhere around town. The large, colorful ones with intricate details are called pieces, like masterpieces.

Putting up a tag is more about saying “I was here!” so you’ll see artist compete for interesting or unusual spaces. They also compete about who can tag the BEST: the more intricate, detailed, or clean the tag is, the better the artist.

Notable taggers: Cornbread, IZ the Wiz, Indie184

Murals

These are huge pieces of art, usually done on a wall or other (big) flat surface.

Portrait murals are the ones that tend to get photographed the most, as they tend to be the most eye-catching. It’s also the most accepted form of street art: businesses pay artists to come do murals, and city government commission pieces for specific events.

Murals can be really difficult to do because artists need to rent special equipment like lifts in order to reach the top of the “canvas.” Also, have you ever tried painting on a brick wall? It’s bumpy, lumpy, and porous! Not something you can paint on easily.

Notable muralists: Lady Pink, Milagros Correch, Maya Hayuk

Stencil

These are made by cutting out a stencil (usually cardboard) and then spray-painting it onto a surface. Artists use these to make repetitive images, including their tags or signature image, and so you’ll usually see the same piece stenciled over and over again in the same area.

Some artists use this to make patterns or as a layer on top of other street art, and some just use them as a kind of tag. Either way, they’re fun to spot!

Notable stencilers: Banksy, Mini Graff, Posterchild

3D, tile, mosaic (installation art)

This is my favorite kind of street art! It’s like putting a sculpture up, basically; they’re relatively rare to find and they break down quickly, so finding a 3D street art piece somewhere is always exciting.

Most of the 3D pieces I’ve seen have been small and stuck high up on the wall, so you really have to look for them.

I’ve also seen some beautiful tile pieces, like this one by The Tile Project in Chiang Mai:

And finally, there’s even mosaic street art! These tend to break the fastest because the little pieces fall off, but they’re still beautiful.

Notable 3D artists: Mark Jenkins, Invader, Bordalo II

Posters, wheat paste & stickers

Wheat paste is a type of glue that street artists have used for decades. It’s very strong, easy to make, and cheap! Artists use it to paste up posters, cut-out art pieces, and even text.

Stickers are maybe the most common form of street art you can find– even in places where graffiti is unwanted! It’s easy to slap up a sticker on the back of a street sign, for instance, and I love looking for interesting ones to photograph.

Notable paste/sticker artists: Blek le Rat, Esm-artificial, Shepard Fairey

Yarn bombing

This is a fantastic style of street art that is relatively new. Basically, artists KNIT around an item (a tree, a pole, a statue) and encase it in yarn. So cool!

Because it’s so time-intensive, and because fiber breaks down quickly if you leave it outside, its relatively rare to find yarn-bombing in the wild. Usually it gets put up at an event, or for a specific short amount of time.

Notable yarn artists: Knitta Please, Deadly Knitshade, Craft Club Yarnbombers

Street Art Gone Corporate?

Street art has really become more mainstream in the last 10 years, especially for mural artists. Fine artists and traditional painters sometimes cross over into the street art realm nowadays. You’ll even see companies put up hand-painted murals to advertise their products!

To be honest, I prefer pieces done by individual artists as artistic expression rather than corporate ads, but it’s still neat that street art is coming out of the shadows, as it were.

Today you’ll also see some street artists get their works put into museums and galleries! Very cool.

Final Thoughts

There are lots more kinds of street art and even more subcategories, but these are the main ones that tourists tend to see when walking around a city. Do you like street art? What’s your favorite piece you’ve seen?