One of the things I noticed immediately getting out of the Lisbon airport is the prevalence of street art in addition to the expected public art of historical statuary, architecture, and the like. It seems that if you stand in any random spot in the old town / city center, you will be able to see a mural of some sort.
Next to a church dedicated to Saint Anthony, patron saint of matchmaking, is this wall covered in ceramics. Each plate has a short prayer, translated into dozens of languages.
Lisbon has a long history of ceramics manufacturing, and you can see that in almost every older building. Elaborate tile work covers entire walls and ornaments many cornices. Most are simply repeating patterns, but as you can see above, many are also entire murals rendered upon individual fired tiles.
This one is a more modern piece of tile art, one that covers multiple walls around a garden. Andre Saraiva hand painted each tile (almost 53,000 of them!) and worked with Aleluia Cerâmicas to fire and install them. There is a very good article about it here on the manufacturer’s web site.
The longer I look at this gargoyle, the more it bothers me.
At an overlook by a statue of St. Vincent, you can spot this piece by Brazilian artist Tami Hopf.
Lisbon native Bordalo II (Artur Bordalo) is the grandson of painter Real Chaves Bordalo. Bordalo II creates these magnificent 3D mosaics out of trash and I have been delighted and entranced by every one of them. Most I’ve only seen out of the window of a moving airport cab, so I hope to be able to stop and admire more of them in the upcoming days.
