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Street Artist Paints Giant Murals of Children Playing with Their Cities

Ernest Zacharevic's improvised artworks are unique in each country he visits.
Ernest Zacharevic, POW! WOW! Long Beach, 2016. Photo by Brian Shigeta

Drawing on the architecture and communities of cities all over the world, street artist Ernest Zacharevic captures moments of childlike wonder and joy in massive murals that interact with the architecture they're painted onto. Just last week, the Lithuanian artist was hard at work painting a giant kid fixing crooked windows on a three-story stucco apartment building.

Zacharevic chose a wall many artists might have passed over, obstructed by windows and protrusions. "I liked the vibe of the building and it had plenty of elements for me to play around with," he tells The Creators Project. The muralist enjoys blending these features into his work for a spontaneous result that authentically reacts to the neighborhood. His work has taken him to the Nuart Festival in Norway, Living Walls in Atlanta, and multiple iterations of POW! WOW!, and he's dropped independent murals all across the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

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Although the faces of his figures change to look like the locals, his watercolor stylings and commitment to emotional realism remain constant. "I like to see my work more as the reflection of local ambiance rather than invasion of the foreign ideas," he says. "I try to create something that speaks universal language and is relevant to the viewer regardless of his or her background or situation. I expect my viewers to look, think and react." Check out more of Zacharevic's work below.

Art Is Rubbish, Penang, Malaysia. Images courtesy the artist

New York, NY

The Young Offender, Kaunus, Lithuania

Lithuania, Vilinius

Atlanta, Georgia

POW! WOW! Hawaii, collaboration with Polish Textile artist Olek

Hawaii, USA

Georgetown

Singapore

Norway

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

See more of Ernest Zacharevic's work on his website.

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