Grief and Loss, Painted and Cast in Bronze (12 Photos)

October 5, 2026

By Vidar

When someone is missing from the picture

Innerfields painted a woman on a Berlin wall with her arms around an empty, green silhouette. The rest of these murals and sculptures work the same way: a hole through a bronze body, a last bird on an old man’s hand, flowers for someone who never shows up.

🐕 Sticks for Rex — Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn, New York, USA 🇺🇸

At Green-Wood Cemetery, visitors leave sticks at the paws of a bronze dog named Rex. The growing pile turns a small memorial into a shared gesture of affection. Someone has stopped, found a stick and thought of a dog.

💡 Nerd Fact: Rex is believed to have belonged to John E. Stow, who died in 1884. But the cemetery told The Dodo that its records do not establish whether the dog is actually buried there. The bronze memorial is real; the burial remains uncertain.

More: The story behind Rex and the sticks

🕳️ Mélancolie — By Albert György, photographed in Geneva, Switzerland 🇨🇭

The figure has a bowed head, long arms and a large hole straight through its body. This photograph shows Albert György’s bronze Mélancolie during its display in Geneva; the city’s research service records that the sculpture later moved to Toronto.

💡 Nerd Fact: György established his own foundry in Satu Mare, Romania, to control the quality of his bronze. He also developed a personal copper-and-tin alloy.

More: Being Human (10 Photos)

🔗 Visit Albert György’s website

🥀 Waiting in Vain — By Banksy in New York, USA 🇺🇸

A man waits with flowers that have already started losing their petals. Most of the shutter beside him is empty. There is room for someone else in this picture, but nobody has arrived.

💡 Nerd Fact: Banksy made the stencil in Hell’s Kitchen on October 24, 2013, during his New York residency Better Out Than In. StreetArtNews documented it on the day it appeared, with the longer title Waiting in Vain… at the Door of the Club.

More: Waiting in Vain by Banksy

🔗 Visit Banksy’s website

🫂 Absent — By Innerfields in Berlin, Germany 🇩🇪

A woman holds the shape of someone who is no longer there. Innerfields made Absent for Walls of Vision, dedicating it to people who lose loved ones to war. The missing figure shares the wall’s green color, leaving the embrace unfinished.

💡 Nerd Fact: Absent was conceived as the counterpart to Present, a mural Innerfields painted in Kyiv in 2016.

More: Absent – Mural by Innerfields Berlin, Germany

🔗 Follow Innerfields on Instagram

🌙 The Embrace of a Wish — By Jade Rivera in the Dominican Republic 🇩🇴

A child looks upward from a wall of weathered boards and corrugated metal, and the worn surface shows through the portrait. Jade Rivera painted The Embrace of a Wish for the Artesano Project in the Dominican Republic.

More: 4 Photos of “The embrace of a wish” by Jade Rivera in Dominican Republic

🔗 Visit Jade Rivera’s website

❤️ A Heart Between Two Windows

Two open windows, two reaching figures, one red heart still between them. The hands almost meet. That small gap gives this simple wall painting its sense of longing.

More: Love Gives, Love Takes

🌅 Solace — By NEAN in Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, France 🇫🇷

A child stands alone on rocks, silhouetted against the last light over the water. NEAN painted Solace in Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon in 2023, and lists it among the murals on his website. The real house windows sit right in the painted sky.

More: “Solace” by NEAN in Saint-Nicolas-de-Redon, France

🔗 Follow NEAN on Instagram

💐 Flowers in a Skeletal Hand — By JEKS ONE in Kansas City, Missouri, USA 🇺🇸

A skeletal hand holds a bouquet of full, colorful flowers. JEKS ONE painted the mural for SpraySeeMO in Kansas City.

More: 9 Amazing Murals by JEKS ONE That Blur the Line Between Paint and Reality

🔗 Follow JEKS ONE on Instagram

🐦 Fading Memories — By Iman in Ufa, Russia 🇷🇺

Birdhouses surround an older man’s head, while one small bird stays on his hand. Iman painted Fading Memories for SUPERNOVA at 16/1 Prospekt Oktyabrya in Ufa. When it was unveiled in 2023, the birdhouses were described as stores of memory, and the last bird as the one memory that stayed. Photo by Dmitry LIL-DEE.

More: Fading Memories – Mural by Iman at Prospect Oktyabrya in Ufa, Russia

🔗 Follow Iman on Instagram

👕 Packing Up — By Megan Oldhues in Ostend, Belgium 🇧🇪

A woman sits among clothes and boxes, holding a yellow garment in her hands. Canadian artist Megan Oldhues painted this scene for The Crystal Ship in 2025 on the façade at Vrijheidsstraat 63 in Ostend. Photo by Jules Césure.

💡 Nerd Fact: Oldhues painted Packing Up as her answer to The Crystal Ship’s 2025 theme, “Change”, focusing on what a move leaves behind: boxes, odds and ends, memories.

🔗 Follow Megan Oldhues on Instagram

🎒 You Are Not Alone — By Giuseppe Amed in Brooklyn, New York, USA 🇺🇸

A woman in a red cap carries a brick apartment building, water tower and all, in her backpack, while a bird spreads its wings above her head. Giuseppe Amed painted You Are Not Alone for The Bushwick Collective at 225 Starr Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn.

🔗 Follow Giuseppe Amed on Instagram

🗡️ A Sword Rises Through the Pink Flowers — By Asem Navarro in Madrid, Spain 🇪🇸

A woman turns toward an upright silver blade while large pink flowers surround her face. Asem Navarro painted it on Calle de la Condesa de Venadito in Madrid’s Ciudad Lineal district. Photo by Aurillla via Street Art Cities.

💡 Nerd Fact: “ASEM” is an acronym for Ángela Siempre En Mí (“Ángela, always in me”). Navarro adopted the name in tribute to his mother, whom his biography describes as central to his artistic and emotional life.

🔗 Follow Asem Navarro on Instagram