The Wall Lied (8 Photos)

Street art illusions that use the building

An alligator fills the corner of a room. A huge hand reaches out beside a real person. Look past the figures and you can see how each artist uses the building to sell the illusion.

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🐊 An Alligator in the Room — By SCAF

SCAF’s alligator stretches across the corner, with its open jaws above the person posing underneath. The bare room in the upper photo shows how little space the animal actually occupies.

More: SCAF’s 3D Graffiti Illusions

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🐦 Eurasian Blue Tit — By Jan Is De Man in Dinteloord, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The tiny brick building becomes a giant nesting box, with chicks calling from an opening beneath the roof. Jan Is De Man’s blue tit brings flowers to the nest, its painted feet gripping the wall.

More: 8 Happy 3D Artworks by Jan Is De Man

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🚉 “Gare de Peychagnard-Crey” — By NESSÉ in Le Crey, Susville, France 🇫🇷

A railcar seems to arrive along tracks painted onto this gable. NESSÉ painted the old station itself, so the building becomes part of the scene it remembers.

💡 Nerd Fact: On his artwork page, NESSÉ says the stationmaster was based on a photograph of the station’s last chief in the 1950s.

More: 3 Photos of NESSÉ’s Train Mural

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💀 A Skull on Concrete — By Odeith

The curved concrete gives Odeith’s skull its shape; the paint supplies the eye sockets, jaw and teeth. With the before photo above it, you can trace exactly where the structure ends and the illusion begins.

More: 25 Odeith Illusions That Don’t Look Real

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👋 “Dieter” — By Blesea in Cherbourg-en-Cotentin, France 🇫🇷

The hand in Blesea’s “Dieter” seems to reach out from the wall. The person beside the portrait makes the oversized fingers feel even bigger.

More: 14 Murals by Blesea

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⛵ “River Scene with a Ferry Boat” — By Zwager Art in Tilburg, Netherlands 🇳🇱

The windows remain visible inside Zwager Art’s river scene, but the painted sky and boats make the house look like a view onto the water. The wall copies Aelbert Cuyp’s 17th-century painting of the same name, which hangs in Auckland Art Gallery. Photo by Rian Nijssen.

More: Famous Paintings Reimagined in Street Art (17 Photos)

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🛶 A Boat on the Wall — By SPURONE in Tampico, Mexico 🇲🇽

A dark window cuts through the hull of SPURONE’s painted boat. The reflections continue across the wall below, giving the vessel depth even as the building reveals the trick.

More: Art That Feels Real (12 Photos)

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🧱 “The Legend of Fred ILLE & Gwen VILAINE” — By MTO in Rennes, France 🇫🇷

MTO’s giant in Rennes appears to be squeezed into the house, with painted brickwork breaking away around him. A second enormous hand fills the smaller wall beside it.

💡 Nerd Fact: MTO painted the two giants in August 2012 for COSMORAMA, a design exhibition in Rennes. In 2014 the city took down the house with Fred, one of the two giants, to make room for new buildings; Gwen was left standing.

More: 3D Street Art by MTO in Rennes

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