12 Murals by Artez

August 14, 2026

By Vidar

Artez makes a wall feel as if it is trying to hold a human body still. It never quite succeeds. Figures fold, balance, and roll across facades. Women lift flower-filled vases to their mouths. A man becomes the projectile in a giant slingshot aimed at the moon.

These 12 murals span nine places, from Bristol and the Faroe Islands to Madrid and his home city of Belgrade. The recurring ideas, balance, thirst, books, and flowers, change with every building. Architecture does not sit behind the picture. It pushes back.

Meet Artez: the muralist fitting human movement to architecture

Artez is Andrej Žikić, a Serbian muralist born in Belgrade in 1988. He graduated from the University of Belgrade’s Faculty of Architecture in 2013, but he had already spent years painting graffiti. His official biography now describes more than two decades of work and hundreds of public artworks across Europe, Asia, and South America.

💡 Nerd Fact: The final Z in “Artez” has its own graffiti history. He said he added it to an earlier tag partly under the influence of Bantu, the friend who introduced him to graffiti and wrote “Skillz”.

He usually begins with photographs, often of people he knows or has photographed himself, then lets the site change the plan. A roofline can become the edge of a pose. A window can interrupt a body. A folding chair can make a figure feel one second away from losing balance. Urbaner KunstRaum Wuppertal describes the same process: a photograph is the starting point, while Artez improvises in response to the wall. That mix of realism, illustration, and architectural thinking is why the people feel placed into the building rather than pasted onto it.

Two ongoing ideas meet throughout this collection. In Simple Acrobatics, bodies react to the limits of each wall. In the Thirst works, people drink from flower-filled vases as if nature itself were the missing water. One series tests gravity. The other tests what city life has made us thirsty for.

“Break away from the conventional approach of depicting the human figure on a mural.” — Artez

🔗 Follow Artez on Instagram and explore his official mural portfolio

🤸 “Simple Acrobatics 2.0” — Bristol, England 🇬🇧

At first the red shirt and gray trousers read as one human knot. Then two figures emerge, caught in a rolling pose that spreads across the green facade. Artez titled the 2026 work Simple Acrobatics 2.0. It was painted for UPFEST on the Tobacco Factory wall beside Raleigh Road, at 285 North Street. The lone spectator and parking bays below make the scale hit even harder.

💡 Location Fact: This wall belongs to a factory building constructed in 1912 and once known as Number 3 Factory. After most of the Raleigh Road industrial complex had been demolished, architect George Ferguson bought the derelict 40,000-square-foot survivor in 1993 and saved it from demolition.

🌼 “Thirst” — Saksun, Faroe Islands 🇫🇴

A weathered farm building rises from the green valley. On it, Turið Teitsdóttir lifts a clear vase to her mouth while yellow flowers cover part of her face. Artez’s finished-work post names the mural Thirst. We Need Art says Turið wears a traditional Faroese turriklæði as a tribute to local heritage. The mural stands in Saksunardalur, where painted nature and the real landscape meet without a clean border.

💡 Cultural Fact: Faroese national dress was revived alongside the national movement of the late 19th century. It is still worn at Ólavsøka, weddings, and during the traditional Faroese chain dance.

🌸 “Thirst for Nature” — Belgrade, Serbia 🇷🇸

Beogradska Street is busy below; the woman on the wall stops everything for one long drink. Artez described the 2024 mural as a response to urban chaos and a symbol of the human need for nature. It was painted for KROKODIL’s Free the Streets / Free the People initiative at Beogradska 44b.

More: See Thirst for Nature From Three Views

🪑 “Simple Acrobatics” — Wuppertal, Germany 🇩🇪

The gabled wall becomes a floor. A man lies against it, lifts an upside-down woman, and she holds a wooden chair through the middle of the pose. Artez’s portfolio records the 2025 work under the plural title Simple Acrobatics. It stands at Steinweg 66 as part of Urbaner KunstRaum Wuppertal. Every limb has a job. Remove one, and the whole human structure seems ready to fall.

💐 “Thirst for Nature” — Gurjaani, Georgia 🇬🇪

The bouquet hides her eyes before the vase reaches her lips. Flowers, fabric, and the apartment windows all compete for the same space. Artez introduced the 2025 Tbilisi Mural Fest work as Thirst for Nature. It repeats the Belgrade idea without repeating the image: this woman seems to be disappearing into what she needs.

🪑 “Composition of a Human Body with a Metal Chair” — Kumanovo, North Macedonia 🇲🇰

The chair stays rigid. Her body does not. One bare foot presses through the yellow seat while her hand grips the frame and the rest of the pose stretches across the building. Artez gives the 2026 mural the title Composition of a Human Body with a Metal Chair and identifies it as part of Simple Acrobatics. Created with support from Forma Kumanovo, it stands at Egejska Makedonija 14. The real windows and balconies make her careful balance feel even less stable.

🧘 “Simple Acrobatics” — Bourgoin-Jallieu, France 🇫🇷

Two people are folded so tightly that shirts, trousers, arms, and legs take time to separate. The low, wide wall makes the pose feel compressed under the roof. Artez’s official portfolio records this Simple Acrobatics mural in Bourgoin-Jallieu in 2025. It does not need a chair this time. The bodies build their own structure.

🌕 “Aim for the Stars” — Belgrade, Serbia 🇷🇸

A seated man braces a branch-built slingshot while its red bands stretch around his own head, making him the projectile. The title makes the impossible pose read as an image of ambition. Artez painted Aim for the Stars in Donji Dorćol for the Runaway street-art project in 2019. The wall is mapped here in Donji Dorćol.

📚 “About This Town” — Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

She carries books, a living plant, and a birdhouse through one of Madrid’s shopping streets. Artez described About This Town as a portrait of Madrid’s cultural welcome: shopping bags became books, while the birdhouse offered new arrivals somewhere to belong. The wall stands at Calle de Fuencarral 31. Artez said the roughly 60-square-metre work took four days to paint for Urvanity Art Fair in 2019.

🌺 “Preparing for Pugnaloni” — Acquapendente, Italy 🇮🇹

A woman sits among pots of flowers with a white vase in her hands. Artez’s original 2019 post calls the mural Preparing for Pugnaloni and explains that the festival’s 2.6-by-3.6-metre picture panels are built from leaves and flower petals for the Madonna del Fiore celebration. The whole wall feels like the quiet hour before the flowers become a public festival.

💡 History Fact: The Pugnaloni tradition is linked to a local account of a 1166 revolt against Frederick I Barbarossa’s rule, when the people of Acquapendente drove out the imperial governor. According to legend, a dry cherry tree unexpectedly flowered and was taken as a sign to rebel.

More: See More Views of Three Earlier Artez Murals

🌱 “Plant a Tree – Send a Message” — Belgrade, Serbia 🇷🇸

This looks like one calm mural on a support beneath Ada Bridge. It was actually made for motion. Artez explains that he planned and painted 25 frames one over another so the finished photographs could become a real-life loop animation. Created for the Zasadi Drvo initiative in 2019, the project makes impermanence part of the method: every new frame had to cover the one before it.

More: Watch a Mural Become a Real-Life Animation

🍉 “Brasil” — Belgrade, Serbia 🇷🇸

Snow, exposed brick, and peeling plaster surround a woman closing her eyes over a huge slice of watermelon. Street Art Cities records the piece as Brasil, credits Artez and Stan, and dates it to 2013. It was photographed at Mutapova 61. It is a useful look back: the color, face, and food already command the ruined wall, years before Artez began making whole buildings balance.