Hope (16 Photos)

Hope can be a ladder, a balloon, a tiny heart, or a forest behind a fence.

These 16 works find hope in small gestures and big public images: a child climbing a word, a red balloon drifting away, a wounded dove, a green portal, and an acorn planted for the future.

More: Made You Feel (14 Photos)

---

🪜 HOPE — Street Art by The Martherapy in Montreal, Canada 🇨🇦

The mural is documented in Montreal by The Art of Walls. The Martherapy turns one word into a way up: the H becomes a ladder, and the child climbing it gives the whole doorway a quiet push forward. Simple, direct, and good to find on a hard day.

💡 Nerd Fact: Montréal’s mural ecosystem is older than many people think: Tourisme Montréal traces the Under Pressure graffiti festival back to 1996, calling it the longest-running event of its kind in North America. So this small doorway piece belongs to a city with a deep street-art memory.

More: 8 Stunning Public Artworks That Make Montreal Feel Alive

🔗 Follow The Martherapy on Instagram

---

🎈 Girl with Balloon — By Banksy 🇬🇧

Banksy keeps the scene almost empty: a girl, a wall, and a red heart balloon drifting out of reach. Lambeth Archives records the Waterloo Bridge stencil, noting that it has since been removed. The image stayed because hope is not always about catching what is leaving; sometimes it is reaching anyway.

💡 Auction Nerd Fact: A canvas version of Girl with Balloon became art-market history in 2018 when it partially shredded itself at Sotheby’s; Sotheby’s announced the renamed work, Love is in the Bin, as a new artwork created live during the auction.

More: Who Is Banksy (+16 Photos)

🔗 Follow Banksy on Instagram

---

👁️ Finding Hope — By JR in Paris, France 🇫🇷

JR created Finding Hope for TIME’s 2020 special report, pasting a 15-foot by 21-foot eye into a Paris crosswalk before dawn. From above, the road becomes a face, the crosswalk frames it, and one passerby gives it scale. Hope here comes from changing the angle.

💡 Nerd Fact: JR said the pandemic idea came from people being stuck inside and relating to the outside world through windows; TIME’s write-up of his Finding Hope talk makes the crosswalk eye less about a single person and more about shared lockdown curiosity.

More: Finding Hope by JR in Paris, France

🔗 Follow JR on Instagram

---

👐 Hope Dies Last — By Wild Drawing in Athens, Greece 🇬🇷

Street Art Cities documents Hope Dies Last as a 2015 WD / Wild Drawing mural at Katsikogianni 10 in Athens. A face and reaching hands fill the building, pushing back against the weight of the wall. This is not soft hope. It is the kind that stays after pressure, dust, heat, and time.

💡 Nerd Fact: WD’s name stands for Wild Drawing, but his background is anything but one-note: Street Art Cities notes that he was born and raised in Bali, studied Fine and Applied Arts, and started painting streets in 2000. That mix helps explain why his Athens work often feels mythic and political at the same time.

More: Hope Dies Last by Wild Drawing in Athens, Greece

🔗 Visit Wild Drawing’s website

---

☮️ Hope Is the Highest Form of Art — By TVBOY in Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸

TVBOY shows the message being made. In the artist’s own reel, he writes that a Ukrainian passerby thanked him while he was painting, ending with the line Hope is the highest form of art. The girl is still painting the word, balanced on the ladder, with the peace sign inside the O. Hope is not a finished slogan here. It is a work in progress.

💡 Nerd Fact: TVBOY is the street name of Salvatore Benintende; MUDEC describes him as a leading Neo Pop street artist whose recurring themes include love, power, heroes, and art history. That makes the peace message part of a larger habit: turning current events into pop icons fast.

More: Hope Is the Highest Form of Art by TVBOY in Barcelona, Spain

🔗 Follow TVBOY on Instagram

---

💐 Flowers for Sad Girl — By N888K in Amsterdam, Netherlands 🇳🇱

N888K keeps it small and kind. The stencil piece is documented as Flowers for Sad Girl in Amsterdam, with photo credit to State Of The Streetart. A punk kid offers flowers to a girl who looks completely done with the day. Sometimes that is enough.

💡 Stencil Nerd Fact: The artist is a bit of a street-art breadcrumb trail: Street Art Cities lists N888K as active in both the Netherlands and Russia, with the profile built from community street-art hunters. Small stencil pieces like this often travel better through walkers, photographers, and reposts than through official plaques.

More: This Hits Hard (9 Photos)

🔗 Follow N888K on Instagram

---

☁️ Peace in the Clouds — By Eduardo Kobra in São Paulo, Brazil 🇧🇷

Eduardo Kobra sends the message upward. At R. Vilela / R. Platina in Tatuapé, a child sprays a peace sign into the clouds, turning the sky into a canvas. Bright colors, simple wish, big enough for the neighborhood to share.

💡 Nerd Fact: Kobra is not just a São Paulo muralist; he has Guinness-scale ambitions. Guinness World Records recognized his 2016 Rio work Etnias as the largest spray-paint mural by a team, painted for the Olympic moment.

More: Peace in the Clouds by Eduardo Kobra in São Paulo

🔗 Follow Eduardo Kobra on Instagram

---

✊ Mary Barbour — By JEKS ONE in Glasgow, UK 🇬🇧

At 1198 Govan Road, JEKS ONE’s Yardworks GRID mural reimagines activist Mary Barbour as a modern-day campaigner. The raised fist, protest scene, and purple thistle turn local history into a forward-looking wall: tired of injustice, but not done looking up.

💡 History Nerd Fact: Mary Barbour was not a symbolic activist made for a mural; Glasgow City Council connects her 1915 rent-strike organizing to the Rent Restriction Act, which fixed rents at pre-war levels while World War I continued. That is hope with legislation attached.

More: Made You Feel (14 Photos)

🔗 Follow JEKS ONE on Instagram

---

🕊️ PɇaceMaker — By GOIN at Maison de la Paix in Geneva, Switzerland 🇨🇭

GOIN identifies PɇaceMaker as a 2022 work at Maison de la Paix, the House of Peace, in Geneva. At Chemin Eugène-Rigot 2B, a girl kneels beside a fallen dove and tries to help. Hope is in the attempt, not the guarantee.

💡 Peace Nerd Fact: The address matters here. Maison de la Paix says it opened in 2013 as a hub for peace, human security, and sustainable development, so GOIN’s wounded-dove image sits inside Geneva’s actual peacebuilding geography.

More: PɇaceMaker at House of Peace in Geneva

🔗 Follow GOIN on Instagram

---

🏃 Freedom Sculpture — By Zenos Frudakis in Philadelphia, USA 🇺🇸

Zenos Frudakis gives hope a body breaking out of a wall. The sculptor’s official page places Freedom at 16th and Vine Streets and describes the bronze monument as a figure emerging from confinement into open space. It is a direct image of getting unstuck.

💡 Nerd Fact: The monument is heavier than the feeling it gives: Frudakis lists Freedom as a 20-foot-long, 8-foot-high bronze weighing 7,000 pounds, dedicated on June 18, 2001. A sculpture about escape is literally anchored by several tons of metal.

More: How Genius Is This Art (11 Photos)

🔗 Follow Zenos Frudakis on Instagram

---

🌱 Color Hair — By Vinie in Paris, France 🇫🇷

Vinie lets nature finish the portrait. Street Art for Mankind describes her signature character as an afro-hairstyle figure that plays with nature and the surrounding environment, and here real ivy becomes the girl’s hair. It feels like the city grew a soft spot.

💡 Nerd Fact: Vinie’s character did not appear fully formed; Street Art for Mankind says she started graffiti in high school with the AH Crew in Toulouse and moved to Paris in 2007, where her afro-hairstyle figure became part of her wall language.

More: Vinie’s Stunning Murals

🔗 Follow Vinie Graffiti on Instagram

---

💚 Heartdangler Lizard — By David Zinn in Ann Arbor, USA 🇺🇸

David Zinn finds hope in a brick gap, a bit of ivy, and one dangling pink heart. In his own post, Zinn identifies Heartdangler Lizard as drawn in 2023 and tidied up in 2025 as the ivy creeps in. The tiny lizard looks like it has been there all along, guarding a secret for anyone who slows down.

💡 Chalk Nerd Fact: The long-term artwork is often the photograph. Zinn’s official bio says his street drawings are improvised on location with chalk, charcoal, and found objects, which means rain, footsteps, and time are part of the medium.

More: They Look Alive (19 Photos of Art by David Zinn)

🔗 Follow David Zinn on Instagram

---

🌸 Primavera — By Rafael San Juan in Havana, Cuba 🇨🇺

Rafael San Juan lets sunlight do part of the work. The sculpture is Primavera (Spring), an eight-meter recycled-steel face created for the 12th Havana Biennial and inspired by Cuban National Ballet dancer Viengsay Valdés. Set at Galiano and Malecón, the heavy metal still seems to look forward.

💡 Nerd Fact: The ballet connection is practical, not just poetic: Granma reported that Viengsay Valdés helped Rafael San Juan define Primavera’s pose and neck months before installation. The sculpture carries choreography inside the steel.

More: More photos of Rafael San Juan’s Havana sculpture

🔗 Visit Rafael San Juan’s website

---

🌳 Make Earth Green Again — By HIJACK in Los Angeles, USA 🇺🇸

HIJACK paints a green opening in a wooden fence, as if the city could be peeled back. The work was documented in 2020 as Let’s Make Earth Green Again in Los Angeles, a lockdown-era wish for the planet to breathe. The trick is playful, but the feeling is not: maybe there is another world behind the one we keep staring at.

💡 Climate Nerd Fact: The lockdown-era green wish had a measurable shadow: a 2020 Nature Climate Change study estimated daily global CO₂ emissions fell by 17% in early April 2020 compared with 2019 levels, with just under half of the drop linked to surface transport. The hope was real, but temporary.

More: 42 Inspiring Street Art by HIJACK

🔗 Follow HIJACK on Instagram

---

🌰 Planting the Future — By Rogue One in Glasgow, UK 🇬🇧

At 11 Kilbeg Terrace in Arden, Rogue One turns the whole building into a promise. Glen Oaks Housing Association says the mural was shaped by more than 200 tenants, and Rogue One notes that the oak represents growth and age. A child plants acorns beside it, putting the seed and the future in the same frame.

💡 Community Nerd Fact: This is not just an oak because trees are hopeful. Rogue One wrote that the oak represents growth and age, and that the acorn idea came from finding acorns on site. The mural turns a small local detail into the whole building’s future tense.

More: How Wonderful Life Is (9 Photos)

🔗 Follow Rogue One on Instagram

---

🛝 Watchtower Swing — By Banksy in Gaza, Palestine 🇵🇸

Banksy turns a watchtower shadow into a playground. The mural appeared in his 2015 Gaza video Make this the year YOU discover a new destination; The Guardian described one of the works as children swinging around a watchtower like a fairground ride. The context is painful, which is why the image lands so hard. Children find movement, play, and imagination where none were offered. That survival of play is hope too.

💡 Nerd Fact: Banksy did not release the Gaza pieces like a normal gallery drop; The Guardian reported that he paired them with a mock travel-style film. That fake tourism frame makes the playground image even sharper: it asks who gets to call a place a destination.

More: Banksy’s Gaza Murals Are More Relevant Than Ever

🔗 Visit Banksy’s website

---

Which one is your favorite?