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Prodigious Kyiv Murals

Prodigious Kyiv Murals

In recent years, on the outer walls of Kyiv buildings have appeared bright and large-scale drawings – Kyiv Murals, which some people consider real works of art, and others criticize and call them provincial art.
So, “murals” – are one of the varieties of modern outdoor paintings which belong to the street -art artists.
Murals are different from graffiti in the artistic content and immensity of performance.
In Ukraine, for the past two years, patriotic murals have gained particular popularity.
Talented artists from Ukraine, Portugal, Argentina, Spain, and Australia diluted the urban landscape of Kyiv with portraits, landscapes, and abstractions.
I would like to tell you about some awesome Kyiv murals, which I personally find incredible. Some of them you may observe on my Kiev tours.

Kyiv Street Art

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Mural “Herald of life”

Mural with a flock of black crows by Ukrainian artist Alexander Brytsev. The author called it “Herald of life”. There is a white crown among the flock, it’s a symbol of good news and the birth of a new life.
By the way, the location of the mural is symbolic. In the residential yard of the street, there is a cage with huge crows who have been living there for more than twenty years. The local residents say that these birds understand the human language.

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Mural “Freedom”

Around the window is a yellow tit hanging from a light bulb. This mural is called “Freedom” and it was created by the Ukrainian artist Alex Maxiov within the anti-war project ArtUnitedUs.

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Mural of the man working at the printing machine

This work is by the Ukrainian artist from Donetsk, Alexander Grebenyuk. The author depicted a peculiar allegorical circle: a man working at the printing machine, who himself consists of lots of his own essays on sheets of paper. In other words, this mural is dedicated to people who create themselves, on the analogy of journalists or writers.

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A magnificent mural by Sebas Velasco

A Spanish artist Sebastián Velasco Navarro depicted a man against the background of the night city – it looks fascinating!

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Marginalized friends from the animal world from the Belgian artist ROA

This painting by the Belgian artist ROA took five days and was slowed by a painful foot problem of the artist. Look at these huge unreal monochrome animals!

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Mural “Merry-go-round”

Futuristic mural “Merry-go-round” by the Polish street art artist Mariusz M-City Varas which he created within the CityArt project.

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The flight of swans

A Lviv street artist Taras Arm decorated the wall of the municipal center of medical statistics with a flight of swans.  In sunny cloudless daytime, the drawing looks amazing!

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Mosaic mural “Happy Childhood”

Mosaic “Happy Childhood” was created by the sculptor Konstantin Skretutskiy (his style resembles the works of Andy Warhol). The work consists of 8 mosaic portraits of children. The author says that the children depicted in the mosaic portraits are real, they are kids of his good friends. The creation of the multicolored mosaic took about a month (the work of 2010).

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Mural “The Dreamer”

The author of the mural “The Dreamer” is an Australian artist Fintan Magee. Here is depicted a Ukrainian world champion in rhythmic gymnastics Ganna Rizatdinova, a native of Crimea. The artist is personally acquainted with Ganna. We see the gymnast in a jump in casual clothes so that a passerby will hardly recognize a well-known athlete in the image.

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Mural “Time for change”

Quite an interesting mural created by Vladimir Manzhos, an artist from the art duet “Interesting fairy tales”. The plot reflects the fateful events that are taking place nowadays both locally in Ukraine and globally in the world. There is a Cossack with six hands, a snake with Putin’s face, burning tires, and a sandglass. The author says that this mural is an improvisation. “Let people think out allegories and look for parallels. This is my vision of what has happened in Ukraine, Kyiv during 2013-2014 “, says Vladimir. The picture occupies about 150 square meters. The whole composition is varnished.

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Ambiguously perceived by the Kyivans mural

The mural was not perceived by many Kyivans. Some people consider drawing psychedelic. Though the author, a Ukrainian artist Dima Fatum, says that in the heart of the mural plot lies the lithograph of Boris Chorikov (1836) “Prince Yaroslav’s guidance to his sons, 1054” which runs about the parting words of the Prince before his death.

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Mural “Ukrainian St.George”

Amazing mural “Ukrainian St.George” by the Ukrainian artists Alexei Bordusov and Vladimir Manzhos. A fairy-tale mural near the Landscape alley depicts a Cossack with a head of a falcon, who fights with a serpent. According to the author’s idea, the warrior symbolizes the Ukrainian people, and the serpent – all the sorrows and obstacles which the country stands opposite.

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Mural “Revival”

“Revival”, is a drawing by the French graffiti artist Julien Mallan and the artist from Sevastopol (Crimea) Alexey Kislov. The artists depicted a girl in a wreath – a national Ukrainian symbol, below are elements of the ancient Kyiv landscape and faces of the Cossacks. The mural shows us a new Ukraine, which has awoken from a long sleep. This image is embodied in the face of a young girl who protects her land and a new generation: the boy in her hand is looking forward to the future with hope. Blue circles above the head of the girl symbolize Ukraine’s transition to a new level of consciousness.

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Rest in peace Sergey Nigoyan

The bas-relief of Serhiy Nigoyan in the park of Heavenly Hundred in Mikhailovskaya Street by the famous Portuguese artist Alexandro Fartu “Vhils”. Serhiy Nigoyan, a 20-year-old Euromaidan activist, the only son of his parents was the first shot dead during the Revolution of Dignity in 2013-2014. The peculiarity of the work is that it is not painted but literally carved on the wall of the old house.
Alexandro’s tools are a hammer, a drill, and a chisel: he does not paint portraits of people with paint from a can, but he carves them right on the plaster of the walls of old buildings, previously drawing a sketch. His faces are voluminous and realistic, memorable and touching: it’s impossible to pass them without noticing. Alexandro Fartu creates his portraits all around the world but admits that he is especially interested in countries where serious social changes are taking place. He says that Nigoyan’s portrait is his tribute to the Ukrainians.

If you decide to have a walk and see some of the amazing Kyiv murals you may use this interactive map of Kyiv Murals – kyivmural.com. Kievan Serhiy Grishkevich made an electronic map on which he marked the Kyiv murals. And in case you need an engaging and caring Kyiv private guide to create the best tour for you, get in contact with me!

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3 thoughts on “Prodigious Kyiv Murals”

  1. Kiev murals are really amazing! What I managed to see from the street art during my short stay in Kiev impressed me. Especially I liked the huge murals which are mostly depicted on high-rise blocks in the left bank area of the city.

  2. By the way, there is app with Kyiv murals – kyivmurals.com
    So you can easily find the most interesting for you and see them in real life

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