This Amsterdam Street Art Tour was Wonderful!

I was in Amsterdam this weekend for a 25-year school reunion (I studied International and European Business Law there). As is often the case, one person of the group took charge and made 98% of the plans (What would we do without those people? [Thank you Jenn!]).

Since we all had already seen all of the main attractions of Amsterdam, a standard tour was out of the question. How about a themed tour? Yes! Even better – how about a themed tour built around the Street Art in Amsterdam? Oh my God – Yes! I was looking forward to this tour, arranged through Street Art Europe. The price negotiated for our group was €10 per person.

About 15 of us met up at the Amsterdam Museum at 11 a.m. Saturday Morning. Our guide was Nicole. She was both passionate and knowledgeable on street art and artists and it was a pleasure to hear her talk. She gave us an overview, and then we took off on our little 2-hour walk. The weather forecast called for rain, but we lucked out – – it was actually sunny and warm in AMSTERDAM!!

This stenciled little boy, shows up in many places and is often easy to miss.  We had to push away the shrubbery to find him. We saw two of these, but the guide said there are more. The artists are ICY and SOT, Iranian stencil artists currently residing in Brooklyn, New York.

This art is by Swiss artist Bustart.

Here Nicole is giving us details about this artist or his work.

This is a beautiful painting by Alice Pasquini outside a pub in Amsterdam.

Right off of one of the main shopping streets in central Amsterdam were these three paintings. Each one is by a different well-known artist, but I loved the art side-by-side.

Painting by Dutch artist, ANOPSY.

Painting by Brazilian artist, Cranio.

I think this is another painting by Bustart.

By the way, the tour guide clarified that this was a street art tour. Graffiti, such as in the photo below, may be art too, but this was not the subject of the tour.

Moving on, some of the art was very small in size or in places that were easy to miss. Some were painted and others stenciled. Each artist has their own signature. This stenciled cat is by a french artist Christian Guémy aka C215.

Oh, here’s that little stenciled boy again. He kind of looks like my nephew, Miller.

Now here is a work of art that is easy to miss. It is on a mailbox. But look close at the bottom right.

Here’s Nicole telling us about this piece of  artwork created by two New York artists, who together use the name Faile.

Another work by Faile (with my friend’s daughter, Celine, pointing the art out).

Another painting by C215.

I don’t know the artist below, but as I became educated, I started seeing art everywhere.

Nicole brought us to this location and asked us to find the art. It took a few minutes but then we saw this tiny picture behind a grating against the wall.

could it be?

and there she was…

From the tiny art, we moved onto a very large painting created by three artists.

Won’t Run posing….

This one was interesting.  Created by two artists.

Okay, I really loved this little mosaic. The artist is Invader, and all his art looks like Space Invaders.

A DAY WITHOUT LAUGHTER IS A DAY WASTED. This stenciled picture of a little girl was hidden behind a chain fence at the entry to a canal boat. The quote is by Charlie Chaplin. The artist, from Ireland, is known as Karma.

This tour was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, and I learned a lot.  Art is everywhere, and I want to see it all.

~~~~~