Cape Town Street Art
Show me your graffiti and you’ve shown me your city.
What people scrawl on the walls of the place they live says more about that place than any guidebook. That’s why I love good graffiti — I look for it almost everywhere I go and when I find it, I rejoice.
In that vein, the mother city Cape Town did not disappoint. This is such an inspiring city and it’s precisely this inspiration that draws artists from around the world to come and leave their creative mark among the vast blocks of unused warehouses in areas like Woodstock. Once the center of the city’s textile industry, Woodstock’s post-industrial renaissance has seen a shift towards creative businesses opening up in the area.
Any traveler wandering the streets of Cape Town is sure to run into some of these legendary murals, but to help me find them, I was lucky enough to spend the day wandering the streets with local artist Freddy Sam. He talked freely of his craft while showing me his own work and that of many talented graffiti artists, including Baomistura, Dodie Boy, and Mzayiya.
Here are some of the highlights of my great street art discoveries in Cape Town. Hopefully when I return, there will be even more to gawk at as I walk down the sidewalk.
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