Santiago's street art

While I’m on the subject of street art (see my previous blog about some of Auckland’s), I simply must share some images of the best street art I have ever seen, those from my visit to Santiago, Chile in December 2012.

Although I mentioned these incredible artworks and included a couple of photos in one of the blogs I wrote about my visit, I now realise I didn’t do justice to the exuberance and creativity I encountered on almost every street in the area where I was staying.

There is often more to street art in Santiago than simply brightening up the local neighbourhood. It can have a political message as the ‘No mas represion en la Araucna’ message in the above image shows, or it may be used as a form of advertising, as shown below at left – the shop’s sign forms an integral part of the design.

Here then, without further ado, are some of the Chilean artists of Santiago’s incredible works of street art …

At the right is a close-up from the photo on the left.

The photo at right shows more detail of that wall in the left photo.

Though not shown here, this artwork contained a message about protecting the environment
and the rights of Chile's indigenous people.

Although these are two separate images, the artworks fitted together like this, wrapped around a street corner.

The inner-city area where I stayed had a large immigrant population, hence this very Peruvian-looking design