Museum art and urban art at first seem like opposing concepts, since urban art is designed to be in the city streets and not to be classified within the parameters of a museum institution. But Bostik Murals – the first urban art museum in Barcelona – does away with those ideas. Strolling through Nau Bostik, you'll find murals by Sixe Paredes, Sheone, Sebastien Waknine, BToy, Fasim, Manu Manu, Sam 3, and more. In addition to featuring works by renowned muralists, Bostik Murals offers its walls to students and artists from other disciplines who want to try their hand at murals. And to promote the debate on urban art, activities you might find in other museums are offered – explanations of the works, talks, presentations and workshops, for example.
Barcelona is an artist's paradise. Down each slender alleyway, behind trees and bursting from the most unexpected places, you can find a snippet of art, whether it's been created by professionals or amateurs, built into the architecture or displayed in museums.
But stay alert and you'll see that plenty of Barcelona's art is alive in the streets – graffiti and street art grace nearly every other doorway, surface or wall. In the '70s, graffiti was booming on the east coast of the United States. Since then, cities all around the world have experienced a contradiction between appreciating this illustrative art and wanting to keep the city clean. However, as much as graffiti is a way for artists to communicate with the public, it's also a way for artists to express emotion and passion, and to establish a community with others who value their work. Freelance muralist Jeff McCreight says, 'As an individual, you're trying to make the biggest possible sound, the biggest possible mark that you can make with graffiti.'
That's just what the artists of these works you can find around Barcelona are doing. (Note that the art and artists change regularly, so some of these works you will encounter at a later date, and other spots will have fresh art by other artists when you go exploring.)
