Kraków Street Art

In Kraków street art is to be found in Kazimierz (The Jewish Quarter) and across the Vistula River in Podgórze. You will not find any in the Old Town where the walls are kept art and graffiti free. It is quite possible to visit all major pieces in a couple of hours and there are even a number of Street Art tours that you can join.

These two pieces can be found close to the junction of Bozego Ciala and Józefa Street in Kazimierz. The paste up of Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump is in the style of Grant Wood’s painting from the 1930s entitled American Gothic. In this version a spaceship sits above the White House in reference to the film Independence Day. This piece appeared around the time of the 2016 Presidential elections.

Closeby is this unattributed stencil of Gene Kelly from Singing in the Rain entitled I’m Happy Again.

Further up Józefa Street is a series of murals created in 2015 as part of Kazimierz Historical Murals Project by Piotr Janowczyk. It is a series of five murals of significant people in Polish history. Each mural is accompanied by a plaque giving biographical details in both Polish and English.

At 3 Bawol Square is a mural created by Israeli street art crew Broken Fingaz for the Jewish Cultural Festival in 2014. The mural was created to honour the Bosak Family who lived in the area for 400 years until they were removed from this house and forced to move into the Jewish ghetto by the Nazis in 1941. The mural has been created in black and white to represent the sadness here. Access for photographs is difficult due to a private car park.

The Galicia Jewish Museum on Dajwór Street has three interesting pieces. The large mural on the outside wall of the museum is by Marcin Wierzchowski and is made up of Jewish symbols.

The other two are on the wall of the courtyard which can only be accessed through the museum. These are of two important figures in the Jewish community from the Second World War. Irena Sendler was a nurse who is credited with saving the lives of 2500 children during the Holocaust. In 1965 she was named as one of the Polish Righteous Among the Nations. The inscription alongside the work reads, “people should be divided into good and bad. Race, origin, religion, education, possessions have no meaning. Just what kind of man he is.”

The other is of Marek Edelman who was an activist and took part in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising in 1943. Following the end of the war he became a cardiologist and went on to oppose Poland’s communist government. there is an inscription alongside the work which reads “Hate is easy. Love requires effort and sacrifice.”

Close to the museum is this stencil of Clark Gable and the famous quote from the film Gone With the Wind.

Judah depicts a child’s face surrounded by the head of a lion. Painted by Israeli street artist Pie Peled for the 2013 Jewish Cultural Festival. The child is said to depict vulnerability whereas the lion represents strength, together they represent the struggles of the Jewish community to survive. The work is partially obscured by food trucks as the area adjacent to the work has become a popular location for street food and is now known as Food Truck Square.

When street artist Pikaso was asked to produce a mural in 2012 for the Grolsch Artboom festival his original proposal was rejected. In response he painted this self portrait obscured by a thick black line. The piece is entitled “For God’s Sake Censorship is Everywhere.”

Across the river in the Podgórze district Italian street artist Blu created a huge mural entitled “Ding Dong Dumb” in 2012. Located at 3a Piwna it is a challenging and thought provoking work. Painted in the colours of the papal flag it is a comment on the relationship between Polish culture and the Catholic Church.

Closeby at Jozefinska 24 are two murals on either end of a rather unassuming building. Len’s Robot by Filip Kuzniarz which celebrates science fiction writer Stanislaw Lem.

At the other end of the building is the Mayamural. According to Mayan prophecy the world was to end on 21st December 2012. This work appeared just before the actual date.

Heading towards the Schindler factory you pass this work just after the underpass.

Between the Museum of Contemporary Art in Kraków and Oskar Schindlers Factory is a pathway that leads to an area used as a car park but has also been used as a free walls space for street artist. It is here that you will find a varied, diverse collection of colourful art. As is the nature of these sorts of places the art can be ephemeral with new works appearing fairly frequently. Local street artist Pieksa has a number of works here.

For others I have not been able to determine the artist.