Valentina in Valencia – Street Art

In this post I will share with you the best street art pieces that I run into by many international and local artists which left their mark in Valencia.

Valencia is the third largest city in Spain on a southeastern coast, where the Turia River meets the Mediterranean Sea.

It is just an hour and a half from Madrid by train, three hours from Barcelona by car, and 30 to 50 minutes to Balearic Islands, operating on a daily basis.

Rich culture and perfect geographical position makes Valencia totally worth a visit. 

Did you know that Valencia has the largest inner city urban park in the whole of Europe?

However, that’s not only urban in this Mediterranean city.
When walking through Valencia’s Old Town, one of the first things you’ll notice is vibrant and lively street art.

From huge murals to tiny artistic details, whether you are artist lover or not, Valencia will definitely blow your mind!

For years, underground artists have been making Valencia into an open-air gallery, painting fences, covering walls and even entire buildings with colorful works of beauty and messages with some sort of deeper meaning, if you can puzzle out what the artists are trying to say!

WHERE IN THE CITY?

The most murals and street artworks can be found in El Carmen, neighborhood at the northern end of Valencia’s Old Town.

As you stroll through this neighborhood, you will come across a pile of dilapidated and ruined walls covered in multicolored graffiti with contrasting tall buildings and charming, little cafes. I have to admit that all those street artworks have created a truly unusual atmosphere.

I got hooked up immediately!

TRAVEL TIP!

If you don’t want to loose your time – don’t follow the street art locations marked on Google. Not even official city pages, famous blogs, magazines…none! The main reason is because street art is very changing kind of art.

New pieces of art can be found almost every single day. New buildings are constantly being built and old ones are being painted again. Buildings around the city are often damaged due to the behavior of the concrete itself (e.g. shrinkage and early age thermal cracking), due to the presence of damp or where origin can be traced even back to the construction phase.

I came across workers and new buildings even three times while searching for popular street artworks and I walked all three times around 20 minutes!

Learn from others’ mistakes, not your own!

Examples of damaged walls of buildings & how it effects on street art.

SELF GUIDED TOUR OR?

I would really advise you to embark on your own exploration of the city, starting from the artistically mentioned El Carmen neighborhood across the main Market, the city center and surrounding neighborhoods.

And yes, sunrise time and approx two hours before sunset are the best times for photos, and possible avoidance of the hustle and bustle.

However, if you are kind of person who likes to be guided, one of the cool things to do in the city is Street Art Tour. Of all of the Tours in Valencia, the urban art tour is the best for exploring murals and graffiti of the city.

POPULAR ARTISTS

The most famous artists are Hyuro and Escif. You can find their work around Central Market(Mercado Central) . Hyuro is an Argentinian-born artist who is lives in Valencia and Escif is one of the biggest names in Valencian street art scene – known as the Spanish Banksy.

CONCLUSION

The street art of Valencia really jumped out at me, I haven’t expected to encounter this much art! Besides, you can go sightseeing in the night too! Street artists have done their best to tidy up the shops and you can only see their art when the stores close.

Seriously, it’s the best street art city that I have ever seen. Street art lovers and art lovers in general – don’t hesitate about planning your trip to Valencia. About four days at least!

Now sit back and enjoy in some art! 🙂