New Street Art With Monsters, Mermaids and Wild Letters (8 Photos, Vol. 51)

A mermaid, a rat king and a predator made from recycling containers

Three new murals in Liepāja lead this set, alongside Chiara Loca’s “Fantasma,” DOSA’s skeletal “RATKING,” Nikita Golubev’s short-lived “PREDATOR,” Mauricio Vargas’s hand-framed portrait and Sr.Val’s detail from Velázquez. Tap Love beneath your favorites.

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🔥 “Fire in my Heart” — By Guillermo S. Quintana in Liepāja, Latvia 🇱🇻

The portrait uses layers of hot pink, lime green and orange to reflect an identity shaped by places, people, cultures and experiences. Quintana calls it “Fire in my Heart”. Liepāja’s project page also lists it as “Cilvēks, kuru veido satikšanās” (“A Person Shaped by Encounters”) and says the palette draws on Latvia’s forests, sea, dunes and changing seasons.

💡 Nerd Fact: From 2018 to 2023, Quintana served as artistic director and curator of The Art of Banksy Without Limits, an exhibition tour presented in more than 12 countries.

Painted for Red Sun Buffet at Kuģinieku iela 5A. Photo by Edgars Pohevičs.

🔗 Follow Guillermo S. Quintana on Instagram.

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👻 “Fantasma” — By Chiara Loca in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹

In one post about the mural, Chiara Loca explains that the work combines Eve and Medusa, surrounding a woman’s face with snakes and adding a red apple. In her post showing the finished work, she describes Medusa as a woman punished for violence she did not choose.

The wall reads, “THE FEMALE GAZE PETRIFIES THE PATRIARCHY.” Loca later posted the work under the title “Fantasma”.

💡 Nerd Fact: The Book of Genesis never identifies the forbidden fruit as an apple. Rutgers classicist Azzan Yadin-Israel traces the apple tradition to 12th-century France, where Old French pom gradually narrowed in meaning from “fruit” to “apple.”

🔗 Follow Chiara Loca on Instagram.

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🧜‍♀️ “Baltic Mermaid” — By Mandi Oh in Liepāja, Latvia 🇱🇻

A pale blue face fills the tall gable amid coral, pink and orange waves. In a TV Kurzeme interview, Mandi Oh said the mural is part of her “Mermaids” project and draws on the Baltic landscape and Liepāja’s sunsets.

💡 Nerd Fact: Mandi Oh studied fine arts in Bilbao and Bordeaux and spent eight years based in Berlin before moving to Valencia.

Painted at Roņu iela 7 as part of Liepāja’s three-mural street-art project. The mural continues the city’s portrait series begun in 2021. Photo by Edgars Pohevičs.

🔗 Follow Mandi Oh on Instagram.

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👁️ A Face Framed by Hands — By Mauricio Vargas in Gönnheim, Germany 🇩🇪

Two oversized hands frame one eye of a face painted across the brick wall. In his post about the mural, Vargas says he often uses photographs of Antonella as references; while painting her, the work stops feeling like an exercise and becomes a conversation with himself.

Created for Gönnheim’s 10th WineStreetArt Festival in July 2026, the work is now documented in the municipality’s Open-Air Gallery.

💡 Nerd Fact: Gönnheim opened its Open-Air Gallery in 2020 with more than 30 works created during WineStreetArt festivals. The collection now has more than 40 freely accessible works and grows with each edition.

🔗 Follow Mauricio Vargas on Instagram.

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🐀 “RATKING” Beside Combolution’s Lettering — By DOSA & Combolution in Nijmegen, Netherlands 🇳🇱

DOSA’s “RATKING” is a skeletal rat carrying a bag and skateboard, painted beside Combolution’s calligraphic lettering. The photo pairs a full-wall view with a closer look at the rat.

💡 Nerd Fact: A “rat king” is a group of rats bound together by their tails. About 60 cases have been recorded over the past 500 years. In 2021, a living group of 13 rats was found in Estonia; the rats were then humanely put to sleep, and the specimen was preserved at the University of Tartu Natural History Museum.

Painted at Waalhalla, Winselingseweg 12.

🔗 Follow DOSA and Combolution on Instagram.

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🗑️ “PREDATOR” — By Nikita Golubev in Moscow, Russia 🇷🇺

Two recycling containers form one creature. Their raised lids frame yellow eyes, the front panels form a red mouth, and the open doors become blue, clawed arms. Golubev called the work “PREDATOR”. When he returned the next day, most of it had already been torn away, leaving only the eyes.

💡 Nerd Fact: Golubev dates his “Dirty Art” practice to 2017. He describes the dusty-truck series as a dialogue with the city about pollution, using art and humor.

The before-and-after post identifies the location as Tyoply Stan, Moscow.

More by Nikita Golubev: Dirt Made Into Art (10 Photos).

🔗 Follow Nikita Golubev on Instagram.

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💧 “Water Mystery” — By AÉRO in Liepāja, Latvia 🇱🇻

In AÉRO’s “Water Mystery”, water takes human form and holds a pearl. The water represents emotion, intuition, cleansing and adaptability; the pearl stands for mystery, wisdom and the subconscious.

💡 Nerd Fact: Lake Liepāja is a lagoon created by the receding Baltic Sea; the Trade Canal still connects the lake to the sea.

The mural was painted in late July 2026 at Brīvības iela 33, beside LOC Baseins & SPA, as part of Liepāja’s three-mural street-art project. Photo by Edgars Pohevičs.

🔗 Follow AÉRO on Instagram.

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🥄 A Detail from Velázquez’s “An Old Woman Cooking Eggs” — By Sr.Val in Seville, Spain 🇪🇸

Sr.Val enlarged the old woman’s right hand and wooden spoon from Diego Velázquez’s 1618 painting An Old Woman Cooking Eggs. In his post about the mural, the artist says he tried to translate the original oil brushwork into spray paint.

💡 Nerd Fact: Velázquez was eighteen or nineteen when he painted the original, shortly after completing his apprenticeship in Seville. It is one of his early bodegones, naturalistic kitchen or tavern scenes. The word comes from bodega, Spanish for a cellar or inn.

Created for Fondo Negro 2026 at CEIP Pedro Garfias on February 28, 2026.

🔗 Follow Sr.Val on Instagram.

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Which one is your favorite?