Street Art in Ecuador: A Multitude of Colourful Styles

From every country we travel through, we like to show you some of the street art we discovered. In Ecuador we found a multitude of colourful styles, and many works were ‘officially’ sanctioned by the authorities. What a contrast to the prevalent thinking that all street art and graffiti is vandalism! Despite spending 6 months in Peru , it was the only country where we didn’t find much public art at all, not even enough to publish a gallery. Thus Ecuador’s street art really boosted our mood…

We were pleased to find a multitude of colourful street art styles in Ecuador, from government commissioned murals to spontaneous graffiti.

In Loja, the first city we came to in the south, we stopped by pure chance across the road from a private school. Its entire surrounding wall was covered in colourful, mostly ‘education themed’ works, by various street artists. We loved every one of them.

Street art in Loja, Ecuador: the first city we came to was Loja, where we found a colourful wall surrounding a private school.

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In the centre, we later discovered a large beautiful mural on the wall of a petrol station. Who would have thought?

Street art in Loja, Ecuador: this beautiful mural was a border wall around a fuel station – of all places!

When we reached Cuenca, our favourite city in Ecuador , we noticed straight away that there is a lot of street art throughout the city and its suburbs.

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As we strolled through the UNESCO World Heritage listed historic centre of Cuenca, I noticed a red rectangular “stamp of approval” on many street art pieces: Cuenca alcaldía (Mayor’s Office). That’s what I mean by “sanctioned by the authorities”. Obviously, somebody realises that street art can beautify an otherwise drab streetscape. And it also provides some jobs and gives artists public exposure.

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Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: we love murals, which integrate given features; like this guitar player sitting on a power box.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: quite a lot of end walls in Cuenca are decorated with street art like this.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: going down from Calle Larga to the river, is a stair case with a whole lot of these surreal paintings, unfortunately in poor condition.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: stylised bird on a facade.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: Inca bath. I believe this mural is referring to environmental pollution (with the black pipes feeding into the pool).

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: look at the detail of this old man’s face.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: a garage door, somewhere along the river – another education-themed work.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: another end wall, this time in black and white. We noticed on many pieces the red “stamp of approval” (alcaldía Cuenca/Mayor’s office), as if they sanction some works.

Street art in Cuenca, Ecuador: harlequin and cat on a lamp post. Notice, to the left, some some other street art further down the street.

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Street art in Ecuador: this mural is certainly a commissioned work – right next to the (tourist) train station in Alausi.

Street art in Ecuador, Baños: tropical macaws, smiling girl holding an arm full of apples.

Street art in Ecuador: this mural covers a wall of a pavillion in a park in Baños. I still haven’t worked out it’s meaning…

Street art in Ecuador: another pavillion in Baños.

Street art in Ecuador: one of Baños’ hostels was completely covered in drawings like this. I love the rasta monkey with his backpack.

Street art in Ecuador: one of Baños’ hostels was completely covered in drawings like this. Isn’t this meditating frog so cool?

Street art in Ecuado, Baños: like Phoenix from the ashes, commemorating the effort to recover from devastating earthquakes.

A beautiful facade of a tour agency in Baños. It would tempt me to go out an explore Ecuador’s biodiversity…

Street art in Ecuador: these are the colourfully painted windows of a restaurant in Montañita at the coast.

Since this time we didn’t go into the centre of Quito, this hummingbird is our only streetart photo from Ecuador’s capital.