The Street Art of Stavanger

Stavanger has recently become a must-visit European street art hotspot! It is typically known for its industry and is one of the oil capitals of Europe, but the city has been slowly gaining recognition for its street art and culture. Stavanger is now considered one of the world’s best destinations for Street Art! The cold coastal city is an unlikely place for it, with its 18th-century wooden houses… But Stavanger holds work from some of the most famous street artists in the world.

Chant by Faith 47

Faith 47 is a South African artist who began painting in 1997, three years after the end of the apartheid. She painted the Chant street art piece in Stavanger in 2013. The art is located on the side of a large building facing out towards the dock. It shows a woman with her eyes covered by a scarf, an image similar to the wall she pained in Italy. Many people interpret the woman as being a Viking woman and her scarf is a Viking helmet. The Vikings played a major role in Stavanger’s history so this would make sense. The street art is over two stories high – one of the biggest pieces we found. It is located on Stensgata near the National Petroleum Museum.

Love Interruption by Ben Eine

Ben Eine is an English based street artist. His work typically consists of letterforms and bright colours. He took to the Stavanger streets in 2012 to produce the mural found below on one of the main shopping streets, Klubbgata. The words are lyrics to a Jack White song, Love Interruption, which are plastered up 4 floors of the building.

Dabs Myla

Dabs Myla are a husband and wife team of artists from Melbourne, Australia. They are known for their colourful murals with a variety of characters and shapes. Their unique style is influenced by comics and humour. The mural they created in Stavanger is down the same street (Klubbgata) as Ben Eine’s art but on the other side of the road. It shows a wallpaper-like pattern of pink sausages and love hearts – quirky but cute!

Undercover by Martin Whatson

Martin Whatson is a Norwegian street artist. His work is typically very colourful and has a ‘typical’ graffiti vibe to it. He uses grey tones on the basis of the work but adds vibrant colours to break apart the monochrome concrete expression and bring a splash of life to his artwork. The mural below is found on Salvagergata 3-9 next to the Sja Inge Coffee Shop.

Evol’s Electrical Boxes

Evol is a German street artist who specialises in transforming electrical boxes and small planters into miniature apartment buildings. The urban installations depict the 1960s in East Berlin in terms of architecture, even though the work shown below was completed in 2016. His art isn’t just quirky, it has a meaning behind it. Evol plays with the notion of low-income housing and uses cheap and used materials to complete his masterpieces. He proves that anything anywhere can be turned into art. The 2016 work shown below is located in Soregata 21-35 but there are many others like it dotted around Stavanger.

Junction by Martin Whatson and Sandra Chevrier

This piece is one of the most well-known pieces of street art in Stavanger. It is located near the Port of Stavanger building on Strandkaien 61. The work was created as a collaboration between Martin Whatson and Sandra Chevrier. Sandra is a Canadian street artist who is known for her captivating portraits of women. The mural has clear significance from both Sandra and Martin. Martin is famous for his graffiti styled colours, and the woman’s face was Sandra’s design.

Protester by DotDotDot

DotDotDot is the pseudonym for an anonymous Norwegian Street Artist. He is based in Oslo but his work is on display in many cities in Europe. The mural shows a woman holding up two rabbit puppets which can be interpreted as the peace sign. You can see in the photo below how massive the art is (in comparison to me). The mural is hard to miss due to its bright red background but does require climbing a ladder onto a rooftop to find it. It is located on Muségata 4, near the Stavanger Museum. The meaning behind the art lies in the way that the woman has her mouth covered as if she cannot have her voice heard, so instead is using body language, the peace sign, to get her point across.

Cars are Removed at the Owner’s Expense by Nick Walker

Nick Walker is an English street artist from Bristol. Most of his works feature a bowler-hatted gentleman ‘vandal’ which you can see on the piece below. This particular mural is located on Skansekaien 23 near the Skansen Hotel. The text translates to; “cars are removed at the owner’s expense” which is partly covered by the bowler-hatted vandal who is throwing paint over it. In my eyes, it is quite humorous as it seems like a typical act of revenge.

Slava Ptrk

Slava Ptrk is a soviet Russian artist who painted the beautiful mural on the side of a building in Valberget 13 in 2017. He did various murals that year, uniquely this particular one is colourful and innocent, in contrast to the others which are more serious and meaningful. The mural depicts a girl picking poppies against a bright red background. The poppies are quite hard to see due to the red background which represent the underlying issues in Russia which tends to go unnoticed in the media. Norway is one of the world’s most peaceful countries but also one of the most accepting when it comes to street art, this could be why so many meaningful art pieces are found here. In other countries there is a limit to freedom of speech so these murals wouldn’t necessarily be allowed, instead artists are creating their masterpieces in Norway where everyone has freedom of speech and expression.