Street Art Forage in Stavanger, vol.1
I wasn’t expecting street art in Stavanger, but surprise! The city turned out to be full of charming, clever graffiti that totally made my week.
After a week exploring Amsterdam’s city and culture, we headed to Stavanger, Norway—home to fjords and oil and the country’s fourth largest town. I didn’t expect to find any art there—but the moment we arrived downtown, I was like, “Wait—streeeeeet art!?” Buildings, fire‑hydrant boxes, and walls were dotted with high‑quality art.
Stencil graffiti was everywhere—like the cover image—always cheeky everyday‑worker scenes. And that daffodil stencil? From a distance it looks so real you almost want to grab it.
This blue‑and‑white character stood out, too—especially the one on the right. Smart idea there!
From far away you see a clear face, but up close it’s made of countless CMYK dots, so it's hard to tell what you’re looking at. It’s two experiences in one: from afar and close‑up alike.
There were so many colorful, “what is that?!” pieces that made me stop in my tracks. We stayed a week and walked through downtown every day—finding new graffiti each time filled my curiosity nonstop.
I just found out that Stavanger is actually Norway’s street art capital! Now that I think about it, the graffiti timeline I saw at the Straat Museum in Amsterdam did mention a festival called NuArt! (Unfortunately, it looks like the festival hasn’t been held in a while due to COVID.)