Open Air - Shiny Penguin

Any given day in Portugal, I seem to accidentally wander into an open-air museum.

Sometimes I’m sort of looking for it — murals, street art, painted walls, the odd little corners I’ve started to notice. Other times, the exhibit appears without warning: a water tower, a crumbling wall, the side of an apartment building, or a bathroom door trying very hard to explain what should, honestly, already be understood.

Not all of it is grand or official. Some of it may not even know it’s worthy. But if it makes me stop and take a picture, into the collection it goes.

Olhão, Loudly Painted

This is where the open-air museum gets louder. Some pieces are signed. Some are layered with pictures, names, tags, and whatever came next. It makes me wonder how they started, and if it is finished yet.

Some murals have the same bird-like character in them as another type of signature perhaps. Here’s are zoomed in views of 6 murals that use this technique.

These are the un-zoomed murals.

I’m not going to pretend I can identify every artist or untangle every tag, but the two names I’m paying attention to here are SEN and BLUBLA. SEN is Dário Silva, one of the names most associated with Olhão’s street-art scene. BLUBLA showed up on several of the pieces usually in the middle of the colorful, cartoonish, slightly chaotic walls I tend to love.

The murals with the bird-like character are by SEN. As are these three:

Here are some works that have the BLUBLA signature either large like the first one, or more subdued like the two others.

Beyond SEN and BLUBLA, I’m not going to get too confident. Some of these walls are like an ongoing collaboration between artists.

Elsewhere in the Collection

This post seems to have focused on Olhão, but there are many other places with impressive street art. Here are a few more pieces I’ve found around Portugal.

Signs with feelings

Every country has its own public-service-sign personality. Portugal’s seems to range from charmingly direct to “we have clearly been through this before.”

There are snails

Apparently, it’s snail season. Cheery signs ~~announce~~ warn: Há Caracóis (there are snails). Sometimes there’s even a cute little snail drawing. I respect the effort. I remain unconvinced.

Cake

A sign I support in both English and Portuguese. No notes.

Potty Mouth

Please do not put toilet paper in the toilet.
A recurring Portuguese bathroom theme, and one I am still adapting to as a person raised in a flush-it-and-forget-it culture.

How to use the bathroom.
Don’t pee on the floor. Throw paper in the trash. Flush the toilet. The fact that this needed to be illustrated feels like a small international incident.

Recently Captured

Three cafés and the new gym I joined. I’m choosing to see this as a balanced portfolio.

More Portugal

Read more about daily life, the embarrassing moments, and the process for having a long stay in Portugal. If you are more of a picture person, follow me on Instagram.