Where to Find Street Art in Chicago

Where to Find Street Art in Chicago

Chicago might be renowned for its blockbuster museums, but the city is also an open-air art gallery, with eye-popping street art, graffiti and murals adorning walls, buildings and alleyways. Walk this way to discover Chicago’s street art. 

Wabash Arts Corridor

The city’s most well-known area for urban art is found dotted along seven blocks of Wabash Avenue, on the stretch between Van Buren and Roosevelt Road in the South Loop. Click here for an explanatory map of the neighbourhood which includes some of the corridor’s highlights, including the arresting From Doom to Bloom (1006 S Michigan Ave) by Dutch artist Collin van der Sluijs, with two indigenous Illinois birds set against an abundance of blooms, and Moose Bubblegum Bubble (33 E Ida B Wells Dr) by Columbia College alum Jacob Watts, depicting...well, exactly that!

Logan Square

Perhaps Chicago’s most iconic (and photographed) mural – Greetings From Chicago – can be found on North Milwaukee Avenue in Logan Square. Emblazoned across an elevated train track, it is the first of series of 30 national street artworks by Victor Ving and Lisa Beggs inspired by the vintage postcard message.

Other graphics to seek out in the area include the Pop Art-meets-anime Nike Running by Chicago native Hebru Brantley whose artworks grace the home of Bey-Z, no less, and a colossal grinning Cheshire cat by New Yorker Jerkface, entitled Every Adventure Requires A First Step.

Pilsen

This historic community-led project, founded in the 60s, has since become a pilgrimage for street art devotees, with artists from around the world queuing to fill its few remaining blank spaces; it’s also abuzz with some of the city’s best art galleries and artist studios. As an important Latino neighbourhood, many of the artworks are fittingly South-of-the-Border-inspired, such as Galeria del Barrio (Blue Island & 16th St) painted in 1976 by Aurelio Diaz and a gaggle of local kids, and Quetzalcoatl and the Stork (16th & Halsted St) by Baltimore-based icon Gaia, spotlighting.