Look Again (14 Photos)

September 27, 2026

By Vidar

Fourteen works that trick the eye

The porcelain bowl Odeith is painting isn’t really hovering off the wall, and CHEONE’s building in Milan isn’t really melting. Across all 14 works, shadow, perspective and a few real objects make flat surfaces look deep, bent or wide open.

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

A bowl, saucer and spoon seem to float in front of the wall while a swallow approaches the rim. The shadows sell it: the porcelain looks as solid as the artist crouching below. It is a commissioned mural Odeith painted in Portugal.

💡 Culture Fact: The ceramic swallow is a familiar Portuguese symbol. In 1891, Rafael Bordallo Pinheiro made ceramic swallows that still hang from the ceiling of the Tabacaria Mónaco on Lisbon’s Rossio square, and during the 20th century the motif spread to facades and homes across the country.

More: Amazing 3D Illusions by Odeith (10 Photos)

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🐟 Golden Fish — By SWEO and Nikita in Abbeville, France 🇫🇷

A golden fish appears to push through a folded opening in a red gable. Turquoise cubes and deep shadows around its fins add a few more layers of depth. The duo painted it in Abbeville’s Soleil Levant district.

More: 3D Animal Illusions by SWEO & Nikita (8 Photos)

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😴 Dread Dream — By WD (Wild Drawing) in Bali, Indonesia 🇮🇩

A sleeping child stretches across weathered walls, arms folded over a tied-up parcel on a small wooden stool. WD leaves the building’s rough edges visible, so the child seems to sleep right in the ruins. The artist posted the mural as Dread Dream, Bali, 2024.

More: Street Artist on another level! WD (Wild Drawing)!

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🌀 Modulo 15 — By Vesod in Stornara, Italy 🇮🇹

Interlocking circular forms appear to project from a dark opening in the wall. Bright highlights and repeated curves give the structure depth, while the surrounding blocks keep reminding you where the flat surface really is. Vesod painted it in 2023 for the StraMurales festival, and Street Art Cities places it at Via Don Antonio Golia 5.

More: I Can’t Stop Looking at These Incredible Murals by Vesod

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🪴 Gulliver — By Pejac in Sanmu, Chiba, Japan 🇯🇵

A painted figure tips a watering can over a real bonsai, and the spray turns into a flock of tiny birds flying toward the ladder on the wall. Pejac made Gulliver in Sanmu, about an hour east of Tokyo, during a trip through Asia in June 2015. The wall is at 331 Tsube, and the piece is also listed among the outdoor works on his website.

More: Street Art by Pejac – In Tokyo, Japan

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🧺 A Market Below the Street — By Eduardo Relero

Red steps lead down into a busy sunken scene, with a bearded man at a stone counter and figures carrying baskets. The strong perspective pulls the eye downward, although the man at the top of the steps is standing on flat ground.

💡 Artist Fact: Relero is an Argentine painter and sculptor based in Spain who studied architecture and fine arts in Argentina before training as a copyist in Rome’s museums. He began painting on the streets of Rome in 1990 as a madonnaro, the Italian tradition of street painters who draw religious images on the ground, he told Soy502.

More: Street Art by Eduardo Relero – A Collection

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Quick question: guess the city

A huge puppy with wide eyes swims underwater across a tall blue wall, bubbles around its face and one paw reaching forward.

A dog holds its breath on the side of a building. Which city is this wall in?

Show answer

Mechelen, Belgium 🇧🇪

🐶 Underwater Dog — By Smates in Mechelen, Belgium 🇧🇪

A dog’s face fills a tall wall beneath a painted waterline. Bubbles, ripples and a reaching paw make the building feel like the front of an enormous tank, with the animal looking straight out at the street. The mural, dated to 2014, is at De Langhestraat 47.

More: ‘The House Hippo’ by Smates in Mechelen, Belgium

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🌍 Play our Guess the City quiz: 12 more cities →

🫠 The Vision — By Cosimo CHEONE Caiffa in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹

Windows, cornices and balconies appear to buckle and melt across the facade of Casa Maiocchi at Corso di Porta Romana 113. CHEONE unveiled The Vision in July 2021, taking cues from Gaudí’s Casa Batlló.

💡 Nerd Fact: The commission came from shading company MV Line, and its project page explains the idea: the lower windows stay protected by its sunshades while the rest of the building seems to melt in the heat.

More: Amazing 3D Murals by CHEONE! (24 Photos)

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🧸 Cabinet — By Jan Is De Man in Nieuwegein, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The side wall of the Penningburg apartment building becomes a display cabinet filled with objects suggested by local residents, among them a teddy bear, a vase, an old tin toy bike and a framed photo of a resident’s white dog, Joep. Deep painted compartments give each item its own shelf.

💡 Nerd Fact: Jan Is De Man’s project page credits the municipality of Nieuwegein and housing corporation Mitros. Local news covered the official opening in June 2021, and the city lists the roughly 27-meter-high work as De Vitrinekast.

More: 8 Happy 3D Artworks by Jan Is De Man That Will Make You Smile

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🦁 Lion in the Wall — By Nikolaj Arndt

A lion rests in a painted recess lit by a wall torch, its tail and one front paw hanging over the lower ledge. The brick chamber looks deep, and the paw brings the lion out toward the viewer.

More: This Feels Too Real (22 Illusions by Nikolaj Arndt)

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🪲 Blue Stag Beetle — By ADRIAN in Chillán, Chile 🇨🇱

The beetle’s blue shell flashes against a bright green wall, its long jaws raised high above its head. At this size, the legs, reflections and curved armor start to look like machine parts.

💡 Place Fact: Chillán has an older link to muralism. After the 1939 earthquake struck the city, Mexico sent the muralists David Alfaro Siqueiros and Xavier Guerrero to paint murals at Chillán’s Escuela México, a gesture promoted by Pablo Neruda. The murals are now a protected historic monument in Chile.

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🚀 Proxima Centauri — By Chris Butcher / Rocket01 in Porto, Portugal 🇵🇹

An astronaut, flowers and a glowing planet crowd a wall shaped by real corners and height changes. Rocket01 carries the color across all of them, so the space scene isn’t stuck in one rectangle. The title refers to the closest star to the Sun, and the 2025 wall appears in Rocket01’s portfolio as Proxima Centauri in Porto.

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🐎 Mechanical Horse — By Camer1 and Pawn Paint in Elk Grove, California, USA 🇺🇸

A mechanical horse and an armored woman share the wall with delicate butterflies. Painted for the first Paint the Grove festival in June 2026, the mural puts hard chrome right next to thin, light wings. Camer1, who also curated the festival, worked with Ryan “Pawn” Rhodes; the city’s festival page lists the artists and walls. Photo by Daniel James Photos.

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🦋 Nature morte du Morpho — By Mantra in Jacó Beach, Costa Rica 🇨🇷

A blue morpho, far larger than life, raises one wing among big tropical leaves. Mantra painted it in February 2019 for the Artify Jacó festival, on a condominium wall facing the beach, as La Nación also documented. This photograph records the mural before it was painted over.

More: 15 Buildings Full of Butterflies (Street Art by Mantra)

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