Streets Dept Presents: Philly’s Top 10 Street Art Moments of 2021
What a year, what a year. Welcome to Streets Dept’s annual list of the most-talked-about and most-engaging work created by artists throughout Philly’s public space!
First, a disclaimer: I’m using the term “street art” loosely here. What you’ll find on this list is a representation of this year through the eyes of this blog and you, our readers. That means you’ll find both large-scale and small-scale works of art on this list. Art that was commissioned (aka public art), as well as art that was not (aka street art). Art that responds to more universal experiences, as well as art that represents a more individualist expression. But all the artworks on this list were new and installed in Philly’s public space this year.
As always, this list is built by both you and I. The list is solely comprised of installations that I’ve documented and written about for this blog in 2021. And since I can’t document or know about everything that happens, it is in a way curated by me. Its order, however, is chosen by you, our readers. Mostly by how much the articles and the social media posts about each project were viewed and shared by you. (Note: if you’re an artist creating in Philly and you want to be documented by Streets Dept, please read here.)
So without further ado, here’s the list of the 10 most talked about works of art that we saw in Philly’s public space in 2021:
#9) Tim McFarlane Gives Us Abstract
This past summer saw the creation of a brilliant new abstract mural from one of our city’s most-talented muralists, Tim McFarlane. We interviewed the artist soon after the mural’s completion: “Abstract art in the public space is very important to me because it’s something that can make people rethink relationships to their immediate environments in a different way than representational art.”