the street is our gallery

Guido van Helten, an Australian muralist, whose large paintings can be seen in major cities in Australia (including Melbourne, Sydney, Port Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane) as well as in many European cities, visited Poland for the first time to create two works with Urban Forms Foundation. One of them – a mural typical for his recognizable style of photo-realism – was painted in Grudziadz, a city of about 100 000 inhabitants, located on the right bank of Vistula river in the northern part of Pomerania Region, that was recently the place of celebration to commemorate the 700th anniversary of bestowing the location act upon the town.

Projects of Guido van Helten are always site-specific, influenced by cultural, historical and social dimensions of a place, with colors carefully matched to the whole environment. The mural in Grudziadz is inspired by photographs taken by the Artist of inhabitants of Grudziadz, of ordinary people everyone can identify with.

In the world of celluloid figures and omnipresent Photoshop, the mural seems to be a part of the important battle for the common man in his/her natural form, freely expressing emotions and feelings.