Quiz: Guess the City From These 3D Illusions (10 Photos)
By Vidar
Is it real, or just paint?
Every hole, tunnel and box below is painted on a flat surface. Pick one of four cities for each illusion to see where it is, who made it and how the trick works. Your score shows up after the tenth photo.
Which city has this tower that seems to fold in on itself?
Show answer
Paris, France 🇫🇷
Shozy painted Anamorphose in 2023 for Boulevard Paris 13, at 202 Rue du Château des Rentiers. The red-framed illusion squeezes the middle of the tower into a rippling reflection, and it only lines up from one viewpoint on the street. The project’s official page identifies the work by that title.
Artwork: Shozy · Photo: Vincent Mercier
Two shark fins cut through the sidewalk. Which city is this?
Show answer
Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan 🇯🇵
Pejac turned a solid sidewalk in Shibuya into deep water with just two painted fins. The artist posted the piece as “Fin Soup” during his 2015 tour of Asia, as a comment on shark-fin consumption. NOAA Fisheries explains that many shark species have been over-exploited because their fins are valued for shark-fin soup.
A toy unicorn bounces out of a pink wall. Where is it?
Show answer
Vancouver, Canada 🇨🇦
Leon Keer’s anamorphic mural “Where the Unicorn still plays” measures 5.5 by 12 meters, at 21 Water Street in Gastown. On his official project page, Keer says the spring stands for the growing distance from one’s inner child, and the unicorn for the city’s creative character. He painted it in collaboration with Low Tide Properties, and an augmented-reality layer comes with it.
Someone hid an old car behind this wall. Which city?
Show answer
Barcelona, Spain 🇪🇸
Juandres Vera made this wall look like it is falling apart, with a rusty car stranded in a jungle on the other side. The 2024 mural in the Fort Pienc neighborhood belongs to his Road to Nowhere series, which Barbara Picci documents with the artist’s own description: painted portals to a possible world where wild nature takes back the city. Juandres Vera on Instagram.
This worker climbs into a tunnel that isn’t really there. Which city?
Show answer
Callao, Lima, Peru 🇵🇪
Sipion used the corner of this building to make a tunnel seem to break through the wall, with a worker climbing toward the warm light at the far end. The Lima-based artist identifies it as a commissioned work in Callao. He also works in painting, tattooing and digital sculpture.
Two visitors leap over a giant pit in a city square. Which city?
Show answer
Stockholm, Sweden 🇸🇪
Erik Johansson’s Mind Your Step turned part of Plattan, the patterned square at Sergels torg, into a deep hole for one week in June 2011. The illusion measured 32 by 18 meters, Fotosidan reported on opening day. Visitors froze at the edge, or posed as if they were about to fall in, like the two jumpers here. Erik Johansson on Instagram.
A cat squeezes into a box on a hilltop. Which city is this?
Show answer
Hong Kong 🇭🇰
Vladi, a Russian graffiti artist based in Hong Kong, painted this cat curled up in a box on an abandoned stone hut about 870 meters up Tai Mo Shan. The “Cat House” quickly became a hiking stop. In November 2022, Dimsum Daily reported that the Lands Department had taped off the hut as government land, and that hundreds of hikers still came to see the cat. Vladi on Instagram.
Nature as a plastic model kit, ready to snap off the frame. Which city?
Show answer
Vienna, Austria 🇦🇹
NEVERCREW painted Souvenir in 2026 for Klima Biennale Wien, curated by Calle Libre, on a side wall at Baumgasse 79 in the third district. A sad blue bear stands in the middle, surrounded by animal heads, ice and bones still attached to sprues. On the duo’s project page, the model-kit look stands for nature seen as a distant, controlled and simplified system, a comment on climate change and biodiversity loss.
From the right spot, these stairs turn into a guitar player. Which city?
Show answer
Houston, Texas, USA 🇺🇸
Ukrainian artist Alex Maksiov painted this anamorphic guitarist across the stairs at Burnett Transit Center, with his open blue case at street level. Houston METRO’s Arts in Transit account connects it to the 2022 Big Walls, Big Dreams festival, when more than a dozen murals went up across four transit sites.
Last one: a painted hand traps a real man under a glass. Which city?
Show answer
Glasgow, UK 🇬🇧
Bobby Rogue One painted Trapped on the side of The Viceroy Bar on Paisley Road West. A young woman gently lowers a glass over a man standing in front of the wall, and the real person becomes part of the painted glass. Rogue-One on Instagram.
Your score
Which illusion fooled you?
Street art, straight to your inbox
New stories from Street Art Utopia. Choose how often they arrive.
More visual stories
More to explore
From our sister blog
Discover World Art Utopia
A few more artworks to take you somewhere else.
