When Artists Play With 3D (8 Photos)

June 23, 2026

By Vidar

A giant purple snake becomes a ride. A concrete corner becomes a sleeping kitten.

These eight 3D street art illusions use shadow, angle, and scale to make flat walls feel physical: animals curl around corners, cups stack up facades, forests open inside buildings, and painted objects seem to hang in the air.

More: 3D Masterpieces on Street Art Utopia

🐍 Riding the Snake — By SCAF in Lorraine, France 🇫🇷

SCAF uses the corner of the abandoned room as part of the illusion. The purple body coils across the walls, the tongue shoots forward, and the person on top locks in the trick. For a moment, it stops reading as a wall and becomes a ride.

💡 Nerd Fact: SCAF is more than a tag. His real name is Pierre Bertolotti, he began painting graffiti in 2002, and the name SCAF is an acronym for “Super Conneries À Faire.” Street-Artwork’s artist profile also places him in Nancy and La Smala Crew, the eastern French collective that shaped his early graffiti life.

More: 26 Amazing 3D Paintings by SCAF!

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🐾 Sleeping Kitten — By WA in Lima, Peru 🇵🇪

WA goes smaller and softer. The sleeping cat wraps around the concrete corner in Lima’s Mirones area, paws and tail turning the hard edge into something gentle. El Comercio later described Marko Franco Domenak’s Mirones murals, including the huge sleeping cat under a building’s columns.

💡 Nerd Fact: “WA” was not Marko Franco Domenak’s initials. El Comercio explains that the tag echoed the Piuran “gua,” a northern Peruvian expression tied to his Sullana roots.

More: Sleeping Kitten on Street Art Utopia

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☕ Porcelain Bowl and Swallow — By Odeith in Portugal 🇵🇹

Odeith makes a still life feel physical. The porcelain bowl, spoon, swallow, and shadow sit right at the point where paint starts to read as ceramic, metal, and air.

💡 Nerd Fact: The bowl-and-bird pairing touches two Portuguese visual traditions: azulejo tilework and ceramic swallows. Portugal’s National Tile Museum calls glazed tile a uniquely Portuguese artistic expression, while National Geographic notes that the swallow has become a Portuguese symbol of family, love, fidelity, and return.

More: Amazing 3D Illusions by Odeith on Street Art Utopia

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🧱 “Break Through” — By Patrick REDL Wehrli in Schaan, Liechtenstein 🇱🇮

REDL makes the building at Feldkircher Strasse 100 in Schaan look drilled open. Street Art Cities lists the piece as an artist-added 3D anamorphic mural for the Hilti Art Foundation; the red tool, broken concrete, and dark opening give the flat wall a solid punch-through effect.

💡 Nerd Fact: REDL’s own project notes list this as a 7.5 x 15 meter commission for the Hilti Art Foundation. That scale puts the wall closer to a staged architectural intervention than a quick street piece.

More: 3D Mural by REDL in Liechtenstein on Street Art Utopia

🔗 Follow Patrick REDL Wehrli on Instagram

🌲 “Waiting For…” — By Smates in Kessel-Lo, Belgium 🇧🇪

Smates gives the small house a hidden room. Local street-art photography documents the Kessel-Lo mural as “waiting for…”; painted brick, tree trunks, shadows, doors, and real architecture line up so the wall reads like an opening into a forest.

💡 Nerd Fact: This was not a top-down beautification project. Street Art Cities says residents of Pieter Nollekensstraat asked Treepack to find the right artist for a “Kom-op-voor-je-wijk” neighborhood project, which also included greenery, local activities, and painted electricity boxes.

More: 3D Illusion by Smates in Kessel-Lo on Street Art Utopia

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🫖 “Shattering” — By Leon Keer in Helsingborg, Sweden 🇸🇪

Leon Keer stacks fragile cups up the building like a gravity problem at Södergatan 11D in Helsingborg. On Keer’s project page, “Shattering” is tied to climate change and an augmented-reality layer; the cracked Rörstrand-style porcelain turns the trick toward something heavier.

💡 Nerd Fact: The cups reference more than generic porcelain. Rörstrand, the Swedish ceramics name behind the cup style, was founded in Stockholm in 1726 and turns 300 in 2026. Visit Sweden calls it one of Europe’s oldest porcelain manufacturers and part of Sweden’s design heritage.

More: Shattering by Leon Keer on Street Art Utopia

🔗 Visit Leon Keer’s website

📚 “Cabinet” — By Jan Is De Man in Nieuwegein, Netherlands 🇳🇱

A blank facade becomes a neighborhood cabinet at Muntplein in Nieuwegein. On Jan Is De Man’s official project page, the mural is titled “Cabinet” and described as an interactive project where local residents were invited to place cherished objects in a showcase, turning private memories into a huge public collection.

💡 Nerd Fact: The cabinet also has a neighborhood-improvement backstory. Jan Is De Man’s official page says the Muntplein mural was made with Kunst en cultuurgemeente Nieuwegein and housing corporation Mitros as part of the “Betere Buurtenproject”.

More: Jan Is De Man: Transforming Cityscapes with Playful 3D Street Art

🔗 Follow Jan Is De Man on Instagram