While in some larger cities street art can be sometimes as easy to find as stepping out of your house door and being surrounded by an open-air gallery of painted exposures, it can be quite the opposite in other, usually smaller cities.
To discover a piece of street art worth the mentioning can be in such places like searching for the proverbial needle in the haystack.
Leeuwarden might be such a relatively smaller place. Too unknown to gain international attention and win street artists for a guest contribution.
Nevertheless, Leeuwarden’s streets are not completely untouched by creative hands. The street art scene is well-established and even bears a surprise here and there. If you love street arts like we do, you will surely enjoy our Guides to the colorful streets of Prague and Mostar.
A dedication to the local animal world
Insects and amphibians crawling up fuse boxes
Aquarium perfectly blending into the outer environment
Mata Hari, femme fatale and key character during WW1, originated from Leeuwarden
Before landing a skyrocketing career as an exotic dancer and model, Margaretha Geertruida “Margreet” was born on 7th August 1876 in Leeuwarden as the eldest of four children. Her father was doing good in the many businesses he was engaged, enabling him to build up and maintain a high education and lifestyle for his family.
In the course of growing up, first financial problems which were accompanied by marriage problems made the family bliss go out of the window, resulting in divorce.
With the age of 18 the former innocent prestigious girl from a Dutch province slowly began to take the reigns of her success into her own hands. This transformation was put into movement when she showed first interest in traditional Indonesian dances when she was married to a Dutch Colonial Army Captain. Working on her moves and holding first performances, she gave herself the artistic name Mata Hari, meaning “Sun” in the Malay language.
Being seen as the object of desire by many male Representatives of the contemporary rich and influential high society, Mata Hari was in the best position to pull the strings in the background, infiltrating as a political spy while she was flaunting wild love affairs. In the end, however, she herself was the one who got tricked by the men she once ruled, being sentenced to death after she was revealed as a spy during the First World War.
Exactly one hundred years after her death, on October 15, 1917, the Frisian Museum in Leeuwarden, the birthplace of Mata Hari, organized the largest ever Mata Hari exhibition, putting the spotlight on the rise and fall of this richly gifted woman in a time when women were often oppressed by men.
Balcony scene
Retro memories of a golden century
Decorating a construction site
Jockey on carousel horse
The grin of Roy Schreuder, Leeuwarden street artist
The beginning is near
May all your dreams come true
Lion brothers
Skull head
The Geisha
Colorful houses
King William of Oranje
Green energy
Solar panels, wind turbines and biogas extracted from cow dung. Renewable energies are getting more and more important in times of resource scarcity and this artwork perfectly contributes to this environmental goal.
Intergalactic cat
Space chicken
Figments of Fantasy
Puffy elephant clouds
Caught in Flower Power
Psycho spray can
