The Streets Are Alive With Art

Hello my Steemit friends!

I just spent an incredible day walking around George Town and want to share it with you. George Town is the captial of the state of Penang in the Northwest of Peninsular Malaysia. It was the first British settlement in South East Asia and is full of history and culture. In 2008 the historical core of George Town was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

While there is so much to see in George Town, toay I am just going to talk about the art that is found all over the streets. I had been told about a couple of famous pieces but I wanted to spend a day walking the streets and finding as many pieces as possible. I downloaded a sreet art map of the city and headed out the door.

There are two main types of street art found in George Town. The first are the welded iron caricatures. In 2009 the Penang State Government held an internatonal competition to create a large street art exhibition. SCULPTUREATWORK, a Malaysian studio, won the competiton and has created 52 iron sculptures around the city. The pieces are comments on different aspects of local life from history to culture to tourism and so much more.

The second type of art, and personally my favorite, is the street art created by Ernest Zacharevic. A Lithuanain-born artist, Zacharevic completed a series of paintings during the George Town Festival 2012.

Zacharevic started a street art craze and now you can find pieces from different artists all over the walls of George Town.

I loved spending the day looking around each corner hunting for the different paintings and sculptures! Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed. More from George Town soon.

Until next time,
Chantelle