Benches That Became Art (10 Photos)

September 6, 2026

By Vidar

Some look like books or giant pencils. Others become part of a mural, a sculpture or Santa’s sleigh.

All ten were made for sitting, but the bench is also part of the artwork.

More: See 27 More Creative Benches

🧩 Mosaic Bench — By an Unidentified Maker in Amsterdam, Netherlands 🇳🇱

Colored tile fragments cover the seat, back, sides and base, making one continuous image across the bench. The original photograph was taken in Amsterdam on March 2, 2013, by Onno P. The Flickr record does not name the maker or give a more precise location.

💡 Nerd Fact: A mosaic made with irregular fragments of broken ceramic may be described as trencadís, a Catalan method closely associated with Antoni Gaudí. The word describes the technique, so it does not tell us who made this bench.

More: Mosaic Bench in Amsterdam

✏️ Colored Pencil Bench — By an Unidentified Maker in Kyiv, Ukraine 🇺🇦

Every wooden slat ends in a painted point, making the backrest and seat look like a bundle of oversized drawing tools. Local reporting from July 2014 places it outside 9 Yaroslaviv Val Street in Kyiv and says a nearby art studio installed it. The report does not name the studio, so the maker remains uncredited.

💡 Nerd Fact: The city’s official guide explains that Yaroslaviv Val follows the line of the former city rampart associated with Yaroslav the Wise. The street name still points back to fortifications that survived until the 19th century.

🛏️ Rest — By Michael Beitz in the United States 🇺🇸

Rest (2019) reworks a standard civic bench in response to hostile architecture. Beitz used found wood planks and a laminated extension to make a headrest while keeping the wood’s natural warp. The altered seat lets someone lie down instead of restricting how the bench can be used.

💡 Nerd Fact: A University of Colorado profile says Beitz developed his hands-on woodworking skills while working with Wendell Castle, a major figure in the American art-furniture movement.

More: Friendly Architecture by Michael Beitz

🔗 Follow Michael Beitz on Instagram

🧶 Community-Embroidered Bench — By Talya Tomer-Schlesinger in Jerusalem

On her project page, Tomer-Schlesinger identifies this as her first community-embroidered bench, created along Bethlehem Road in Jerusalem in 2015. Inspired by her grandmother Phyllis, who always carried embroidery, she spent a month stitching it with anyone who wanted to join. The holes in the metal provided a ready-made embroidery grid.

💡 Nerd Fact: This was also Tomer-Schlesinger’s first attempt at embroidery. In a 2015 interview with Ynet, she said she passed fabric strips through the bench with hairpins instead of a conventional needle. She considered the work reversible: the fabric could be cut away without permanently altering the bench.

More: Guerrilla Art in Jerusalem

🔗 Follow Talya Tomer-Schlesinger on Facebook

✨ Csücsülőpad Pécsre / Bench in Pécs — By Zoltán Bencze, IVANKA and Szövetség’39 in Pécs, Hungary 🇭🇺

Szövetség’39’s project record identifies the work as Csücsülőpad Pécsre / Bench in Pécs. It was completed in the Meszes district in 2009 as part of Pécs’s 2010 European Capital of Culture programme. Architect Zoltán Bencze designed the form and structure, IVANKA Concrete helped build it, and Szövetség’39 developed the glass and lighting. Project documentation places the bench along Szondi György promenade, where glass bands and linear lights make the concrete seat glow after dark.

💡 Nerd Fact: Pécs shared the 2010 European Capital of Culture title with Essen and Istanbul. According to the European Commission, its cultural programme included 650 projects and 4,675 events.

More: Design Doesn’t Stop Indoors

💡 La Panchina degli Innamorati — By Rodolfo Marasciuolo in Turin, Italy 🇮🇹

Known as La Panchina degli Innamorati (“The Lovers’ Bench”), this sculpture is by Turin municipal gardener and artist Rodolfo Marasciuolo. In a 2025 interview with Corriere della Sera, he said the work began with one lamppost and two cats. He added a second lamp because the first seemed lonely. Made from reclaimed materials, the two lamps lean toward each other above a bench in the Giardino Roccioso of Parco del Valentino.

💡 Nerd Fact: The surrounding Giardino Roccioso was originally built for an exhibition. Giuseppe Ratti created it for Turin’s 1961 International Exhibition, turning a 12,000-square-metre valley into the main venue for its flower show. Later expansions increased the garden to approximately 44,000 square metres.

More: La Panchina degli Innamorati

🐟 Mural of Local Fishers — By YUDA in Puerto Escondido, Mexico 🇲🇽

A 2025 Instagram post credits this signed work to YUDA and connects it to Festival Internacional Mural Puerto Escondido. The wall shows local fishers working from a boat and handling their catch. A real bench, painted with a fish, sits inside the scene; anyone who sits down becomes part of the mural.

💡 Nerd Fact: The festival’s official account identifies the 2025 programme as its fifth edition and lists YUDA among that year’s participating artists. The bench mural was part of an ongoing public-art programme rather than a one-off wall commission.

🔗 Follow YUDA on Instagram

📖 The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe BookBench — By Mandii Pope in London, UK 🇬🇧

Pope’s own project archive confirms that she painted this open-book sculpture for the National Literacy Trust’s 2014 Books About Town project. Contemporary trail documentation places it in St George’s Gardens in Bloomsbury, with Aslan and a snowy Narnia landscape across the seat. After the trail, all 50 benches were auctioned; The Guardian reported that the sale raised £251,500, most of it for the National Literacy Trust.

💡 Nerd Fact: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the first Narnia novel written and published, although chronological editions usually label it Book 2 because The Magician’s Nephew is set earlier. The official C. S. Lewis website documents both orders, which is why the same novel can appear as either the first or second volume depending on the edition.

More: Love Waiting Here

🪨 Stone Bench — By Michael Beitz for HaMiffal in Jerusalem

Beitz’s documented title is Stone Bench, made for HaMiffal (“The Factory”) as part of the 2018 ArtBnB Jerusalem festival. Two usable bench halves disappear into opposite sides of a massive stone. HaMiffal’s festival archive lists the programme at 3 HaMa’aravim Street in Jerusalem.

💡 Nerd Fact: HaMiffal records ArtBnB 2018 as a programme involving 41 artists and 46 artworks, including Stone Bench.

More: Stone Bench in Jerusalem

🔗 Visit Michael Beitz’s website

🦌 God Bless Birmingham — By Banksy in Birmingham, UK 🇬🇧

Banksy confirmed God Bless Birmingham in an Instagram video on December 9, 2019. Two white reindeer align with the real bench at 90 Vyse Street, turning it into Santa’s sleigh. The Guardian reported that the video shows a homeless man named Ryan lying there; Banksy wrote that passers-by brought him a hot drink, two chocolate bars and a lighter during filming. Without the bench, there is no sleigh.

💡 Nerd Fact: The site now anchors an ongoing cultural programme. The Jewellery Quarter Development Trust, Ikon Gallery and Birmingham City University invite new work about homelessness, value and community, with SIFA Fireside as a community co-author. The first intervention, made by Dion Kitson in December 2025, helped SIFA Fireside raise close to £10,000.

More: Banksy’s Reindeer Sleigh Bench