Most of our travel guides champion Iceland’s natural beauty, looking at topics like how to photograph the Aurora Borealis or which of Iceland’s waterfalls are the most impressive. We focus on Iceland’s natural beauty for good reason, but there is no shortage of manmade beauty either. Today, we’d like to look at Reykjavik’s street art. There is simply far too much to cover in one guide, so we’ll look primarily at the city’s murals as we think they’re more impressive. If anything in this blog inspires you to book a trip to Iceland in the near future, please take a look at our Private Iceland Tours to plan some unforgettable activities.
Iceland Was Late to the Graffiti/Street Art Scene
Like many things, it took a little longer for graffiti to find its way to Iceland. This is because Iceland is an island and the internet wasn’t always as fast or as full of beautiful high-res images of street art in other cities. Iceland’s pioneering street artists in the 90s had to draw inspiration from films, music album covers, their own travels, and any other place they could. However, since then, Reykjavik’s street art scene has gone from strength to strength and is often regarded as one of the world’s top cities for street art.
Ode to Mother – Laugavegur
Hong Kong-based Belgian street artist Cara To (AKA Caratoes) created Ode to Mother back in 2015, as part of the city’s Wall Poetry Project. You’ll find this fascinating artwork on the Mjúk Iceland shop on Laugavegur 23 — this is Reykjavik’s main shopping street and there are many other great pieces of street art here. Ode to Mother is pretty trippy and was inspired by a song of the same name by local band Ylja.
Horses in the Night – by John Gent
This ethereal artwork is relatively close to the city centre; you’ll find it in Hverfisgata, an area of the city that used to be run down but has had a lot of work and investment put into it in recent years. It is now considered ‘the cool quarter’ of the city by many. Horses in the Night was painted by John Gent, who claims he was inspired by the song Pale Green Ghost by John Grant.
Wolf – by Elle
Wolf is another piece that was created during the Wall Poetry Project mentioned earlier. It was painted by Elle, a visiting American artist, and it was inspired by the song Tuttugu og Eitthvað by local hip hop group Úlfur Úlfur. This image seems to depict an elf in a wolf’s skin, howling, with two other wolves alongside her. Like all the best street art, Wolf is open to interpretation. What do you see? You’ll find this mural at Laugavegur 3.
Vampire – by *FACE and Agent Fresco
Another great piece of street art on Laugavegur, this mural was created as a collaboration between Agent Fresco and *FACE. The pair say they were inspired by a famous medieval Icelandic saga called Laxdœla Saga, which means that the monster in the mural isn’t a vampire at all; it’s a kind of Icelandic undead creature called a draugur that sucks the will out of its victims.
The Masquerade – Phlegm
This enchanting mural packed with 27 surreal masked characters was created by Phlegm and you can find it at Aegisgata 7, near the harbour. The detail on this particular mural is incredible; you can almost always find a new detail each time you visit it.
There are countless other murals throughout Reykjavik and even more graffiti tags of varying beauty and complexity. We can’t possibly cover them all here, so we’ve just highlighted some of our favourites. We hope this guide has inspired a few readers to add a street art tour of Reykjavik to their next Iceland trip, and if you have any questions about our Iceland Tours, please feel free to get in touch.