One thing I was surely not expecting….at all, was to find graffiti and street art in the Old City of Chiang Mai Thailand. I’m not sure why I had formed this impression? Perhaps because I thought this public form of art would be discouraged in the historic city. What I have found is entirely the opposite! The amazing street art in Old Chiang Mai is flourishing and in vast quantities!
Cultural
One may think that much of the art would be culturally based, but alas it is not so. Of course, there are some paintings that definitely reflect Thailand and I love to find these. Some are incredibly detailed and others not so, but one thing in common is the heavy use of vivid colours.
Human Faces
One frequent subject among the street art within the old city walls is that of human faces. A lot of children’s faces specifically. These are huge paintings that cover entire walls, probably six or seven feet tall. They can be absolutely beautiful, almost surreal in nature or more graffiti-like.
Animals
Of course, one of my favourite genres is that of the animals. Elephants take centre stage but there are lots of cats, dogs and others too. I even found a humongous brown bear!
Again, most of these are very large. They have been painted onto the concrete cinder block walls that form the fences around private properties.
Banksy-esque
There are a couple of artists in Chiang Mai who are using the Banksy like style for their street art. I love this and whenever I see these, I have to take a picture. The simple forms and limited hues of one or two colours make these interesting to me.
Again, I am seeing a lot of focus on children. Not sure why this keeps popping up here, but it is a real trend in the street art scene.
I have so many photographs of the street art and graffiti, don’t be surprised if you see yet another post about this beautiful and public form of art. I am always attracted to these images. They are fleeting in nature and precious, and I feel a need to document these important contributions to society, no matter where I travel.
