Hong Kong Street Art looks daring and fearless
The creative process is fascinating to watch, especially during this Hong Kong street art festival
Mural by multiple Meeting of Styles artists on the Cheung Yee Street side of D2 Place One in Lai Chi Kok
Hong Kong Street Art Festival
The creative process is fascinating to watch, an activity not readily witnessed – except during a Hong Kong street art festival.
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This occurred in Lai Chi Kok over four days in the middle of November, when eighty local and international street and graffiti artists were invited to paint the parkades and exteriors of the D2 Place shopping mall.
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The organisers, Meeting of Styles, are a non-profit formed in 1997 by artists and art-lovers and have hosted more than 400 events across Europe, Russia, Asia, and the Americas. This is their first Hong Kong street art event.
Partially complete murals by (right) Steven Walter, (left) Kristopher Ho in Lai Chi Kok
Street artists come from a multitude of disciplines, including graffiti, tattoo, self-taught, and academically trained.
There is a subculture closely linked to several overlapping youth and countercultural scenes, especially hip‑hop, skate and surf culture, punk, and contemporary streetwear.
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Perhaps none of these generalisations fit, but, as the Meeting of Styles’ name suggests, it is organised as a gathering of styles, created to support networking within the international art community.
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The work of Geneva-based graffiti artist and painter Steven Walter (@swalt) exemplifies the ever-evolving nature of Hong Kong street art.
Kristopher Ho taking perspective of his work on Cheung Yee Street
Steven’s style begins with tags – a basic form of graffiti that serves as an artist’s signature – in various shades of grey.
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He starts with an abstract graffiti scene of his tags, then overlays it with a photorealistic portrait. The final result is mesmerising, with the tags visible at skin level.
Walls were painted by multiple artists, with their works complementing each other
Many walls at this Hong Kong street art festival were painted by multiple artists, with their works intertwined and complementing each other.
Final murals by Steven Walter (@swalt) and Kristopher Ho (@kristopherh)
For example, to the right of Steven’s painting is a black-and-white piece by Kristopher Ho (@kristopherh), a Hong Kong illustrator who draws intricately patterned images of animals with a permanent black marker on a white wall, a wall the artists themselves painted white.
Tattoo artist Edith Li working on her mural in the D2 Place Two parkade
Hong Kong-based Edith Li (@neighborhoood_) is a tattoo and street artist inspired by tribal forms and biomechanical structures.
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Her work is reminiscent of H.R. Giger’s artwork for the Alien movie franchise. It is both haunting and enchanting, but to find it, you will need to venture into the D2 Place Two parkade.
Edith Li’s (@neighborhoood_) final mural
Jonathan Pauwels, aka Jaune (@jaune_art), is a Belgian artist who, like Banksy, uses stencils for his work.
Jonathan Pauwels, aka Jaune (@jaune_art) working on his stencil mural
Because much of his work is prepared in advance, he can layer colours quickly – almost as fast as the paint dries – and as a result, his piece was finished first.
Art honours those who go unnoticed
Jaune’s work honours sanitation workers. Despite their vital role and garish fluorescent uniforms, they often go unnoticed in the background.
Jonathan Pauwels’ mural on Cheung Yee Street
He highlights these characters by placing them in absurd scenarios. In his Hong Kong paintings, they are positioned on bamboo scaffolds.
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The white-gloved hand, which resembles a mouse icon, along with the straight lines, reveals the gaming and architectural influences in Russian designer Julia Kuzmenko’s artwork (@jk.artpwr).
Julia Kuzmenko working on the Lai Chi Kok Road side of D2 Place One
She practices wildstyle, an advanced form of graffiti lettering that demands mastery of letter form, proportion, balance, and colour theory.
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Julia’s tags are intentionally difficult to read, but, like Chinese calligraphy, they communicate through aesthetics rather than words.
Julia Kuzmenko’s (@jk.artpwr) final mural
Multiple visits to the festival enabled viewing the artworks in different lighting conditions.
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Of all the locations, the walls along Lai Chi Kok Road catch the best light at dawn and dusk.
The beginning of Allo’s mural on the Lai Chi Kok Road side of D2 Place One
This was particularly evident in the artwork by Taiwanese artist Allo (@allostrator).
Allo midway through his painting
His playful figures are inspired by American comic art. What makes his artwork distinctive is the black borders around his subjects.
Allo’s (@allostrator) final mural
Birds are the focus of Ren Rebel’s (@idarenpunk) work. Working on scaffolding, Ren painted a blue pigeon facing a white pigeon.
Mongolian artist Ren Rebel painting a white pigeon
His style blends contemporary graffiti with Mongolian cultural motifs. The blue pigeon represents the sky’s protective energy, lofty aspirations, and spiritual guidance.
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The white pigeon signifies peace, purity, hospitality, and good intentions, core Mongolian values.
Ren Rebel’s (@idarenpunk) completed work on the Cheung Yee Street side of D2 Place One
Frenchman Sylvain Chaix has almost thirty years of experience in graffiti art.
An elderly cardboard collector walking by the mural on the Cheung Yee Street side of D2 Place One
Known as Heta (@hetaone), his street artist name. His large-scale works have appeared in unusual or hard-to-reach places, including abandoned factories, the Berlin Wall, railway tunnels, and even radioactive waste sites.
Styles vary, including pure graffiti, fictional characters and photorealism
His styles vary widely, including lettering, pure graffiti, comic-inspired artwork, colourful fictional characters, and photorealism. For this festival, he has painted a photorealistic accusatory skeleton.
The mural by Sylvain Chaix, Heta (@hetaone), on Cheung Yee Street
Nasty (@the_art_of_nasty) is another experienced street artist. By the end of the 1980s, Nasty had distinguished himself as a prolific subway painter, known for his use of bright colours in wildstyle and block letters.
Sprayverse (above), Nasty (below), starting their murals
Above his art is that of Sprayverse (@sprayverse), a Mexican with a recurring interest in reframing death imagery through feminine forms.
Almost completed works by Sprayverse (@sprayverse) and Nasty (@the_art_of_nasty)
His Hong Kong mural depicts a strong woman wearing a bikini, a scythe over her shoulder, carrying a fish.
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The work bridges Mexican cultural imagery with European art-historical references to create a figure that is simultaneously dangerous, attractive and above all else, inviting contemplation.
Early morning view of Sprayverse’s and Nasty’s final mural on D2 Place Two, Cheung Yee Street
The Meeting of Styles achieved precisely what its name promises: a gathering where styles collide and merge.
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Sprayverse’s femme fatale, Ren Rebel’s pigeons carrying Mongolian symbolism, Steven Walter’s tags bleeding through photorealism: each mural demonstrates how street artists communicate beyond the conventions of museum walls, using the city itself as a gallery where technique, cultural reference, and raw spontaneity coexist.
Text and photos Martin Wray
