Otp’s Guide to Street Art: Greece

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Everyone knows the art and architecture of Ancient Greece has inspired empires for hundreds—thousands—of years. Even the society’s boring structures were pieces of art built to honor the gods and symbolize Greece’s strengthening civilization. But there’s a new kid in town; spraying colors all over the islands, Greece’s street level art would make its traditional roots turn over in their grave. Real art is chaotic and OTP’s got your guide to the offbeat artwork created by the unsung heroes who’d trade statues for a can of paint any day.

 

The Greek word graphien means “to write,” and the earliest taggers were from—you guessed it—Ancient Greece. In fact, the Greeks dedicated entire public walls to writing messages. That’s right, Facebook, these ballsy bastards were posting their lives for all to see in STONE. The oldest form of modern street art survives on one wall in the ancient Greek city of Ephesus (modern Turkey), where the preserved carving was created as an ad for prostitution. This ancient inclusion of symbols alongside words began the modern era of graffiti. Everyday citizens became taggers, and taggers became political during the Nazi occupation of Greece in the early 1940s when graffiti began to reflect the desire for liberation. The Greek Civil War and the 7 year reign of the Junta had similar effects on street art. Watch out, Mr. President—today’s Greek citizens aren’t afraid to spray their displeasure with their government all over municipal buildings.

Greece is flooded with wannabe graffiti artists. Name-tagging and territorial gang symbols can be found from city streets to beach walls. While some of it will make you wonder why you ever paid for a museum ticket, a lot of it is shit. Weed out all the whack crap and look for works by some of these masters.

Those aren’t Tim Burton paintings you’re staring at. Vasmoulakis (who’s trying to get recognized by the more tongue-friendly “ZAP”) has been painting his whole life and word on the literal street is he studied fine art in college. His pieces are character-based and he puts personal emotion into each of them (which means if he’s in a shitty mood his drawings will look depressed). Some of his pieces take up to 3 weeks to complete, but the result is freakishly cool.

WD didn’t just pick a random name to tag, he earned his  Wild Drawing alias. His works are infamously recognized for having a head with X’ed eyes and a sewn-shut mouth. Sadism and other sexual aspects are frequently incorporated. Dude’s not dumb, though—he uses boobs as a vehicle to grab your attention and then brings the focus to more important matters like societal and sexual ignorance.

 

Woozy is one of the most influential street artists in Greece. He co-founded the Carpe Diem group which advocates alternative art forms, like graffiti, to kids. His vibrant and transcending personality shows through his works, as he landscapes entire buildings with bright colored murals. Woozy has been featured in numerous press articles for both his individual efforts and involvement with Carpe Diem. One of his full-scale works was recently featured in the Athens Music Hall.

Dimitri Taxis is the local fan-favorite. He mostly does billboards that portray abstract people whose eyes are typically blood-shot from too much of the good shit, holding guns or involved in other badass forms of “play.” He’s one of the first underground graffiti gurus to (sort of?) sell out and make his art available for sale.

Greek Graffiti is sprawled out across the country, entertaining open-minds and pissing off shopkeepers alike. Aside from Athens, the largest island, Crete, is covered in the most art. If you really want your graffiti fix and taking a boat to get there doesn’t appeal to you, staying put in Athens will do the trick.

Plaka was the capital of ancient Athens and the modern home to many rich politicians. As such, Plaka’s white walls are tempting canvases for any artist looking to prove a point. Though you’ll rarely walk a street without getting hit with some graffiti, the buildings surrounding and including the Roman Agora have been especially well-sprayed.

The large industrial area that Gazi once was has been transformed into a thriving cultural neighborhood, rich with worthy graffiti. Many of the new clubs and restaurants hire artists to decorate their storefronts, but the main attraction of Gazi is the ILPAP building, which is painted-up by some of Greece’s finest.

The formerly rough neighborhood of Psiri is “cleaning up” by commissioning previously underground artists to bring their cans to the surface. In the “if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em” mentality, government officials hired artists from Carpe Diem to work with local citizens to decorate the streets of Psiri properly. The results have yielded eye-opening, thought-provoking artwork scattered across the town and its metro stations.

From democracy to Socratic orgies, the Greeks have never been afraid to speak their minds and get a little crazy. Greek art has evolved over time with their society and, while a lot of the graffiti is saturated with anti-political rants, almost all of it is worth checking out. Put on your togas and smell the spray fumes friends.

 

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