Bogotá's New Megamurals

Recently, the city sponsored these huge murals on warehouse and factory walls in the otherwise very gray and gritty Puente Aranda neighborhood. The murals, which line two streets near the Carrera 53 Transmilenio station - and which we visited during a street art bike tour - transformed the neighborhood's atmosphere.

A graffiti artist friend told me that because Mayor Peñalosa is disliked by the artists' community, some of them did only their second-best work here. But the paintings looked fine to me!

Ironically, however, the neighborhood residents walking by the murals ignored them, perhaps because they passed by every day. And these are yet another example of Bogotá's best street art - like those beside the bullfighting stadium and the ones behind the Central Cemetery - located in out-of-the-way sites where few people see them, unless they go out of their way.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Newest Street Art Street

Bogotá's newest graffiti street runs between the Santamaria bullfighting plaza and the Colegio de Cundinamarca. But if you look for it, don't get confused: It's not the primary street, with the hotel and fancy restaurants, but the obscure one right above it, with the parking lots and cultural center.

The street was painted in the past weeks by local artists sponsored by the cultural center and street art organizations. My favorite of the works is a send up of bullfighting, with the tables turned and the bullfighter stabbing the bull.

Inside the cultural center, a
portrait of an indigenous man.

It's unfortunate that, it being such an obscure street, not many people will ever see this art. But we often pass thru the street during are bike tours, which include lots of graffiti.

The cultural center's two dogs.

An indigenous guardsman.

The bull's revenge on the bullfighter.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Paint it Before It's Gone

This non-descript three-story home on Calle 26B and Carrera 4 in La Macarena is due to be demolished in a few months. But until then it's living its most colorful chapter as the canvas for a multitude of Bogotá street artists, who have painted it inside and out. 

Called 'Galería Fenix', after the mythological bird which was reborn from its own ashes, the paintings are supposed to represent life, death and rebirth. This is third such project since 2015 by the LAVAMOÁ TUMBA arts collective, always in such doomed buildings. The group's name means, informally, 'We're going to knock it down.'

The organizers expect the paintings to remain there for about two months, or until the building gets demolished. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours