Public Art Caught Kissing (9 Photos)

A Kiss at Every Scale

A kiss can fill a whole building, hide in a patch of lichen or happen between a visitor and a sculpture. These nine public artworks catch that instant, in seven countries on four continents.

Some borrow from kisses you already know. Eduardo Kobra turns the famous V-J Day photo into a Texan scene in Houston, OakOak remakes Klimt’s The Kiss with real lichen, and Afzan Pirzade paints Dante’s Paolo and Francesca across a French gable. Others start from scratch: a woman blowing a kiss from a tower block in Belarus, two masked figures in the Glasgow rain, and a couple so small that their heads are two pieces of chewing gum.

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💋 A Kiss Across the Bench — Jeju, South Korea 🇰🇷

At Jeju Loveland, a visitor leans across a bench to kiss one of the park’s silver-colored statues. The statue keeps a straight face.

💡 Park Fact: Jeju Loveland opened on November 16, 2004. Its sculptures were made by graduates of Seoul’s Hongik University, who started work on them in 2002.

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🌧️ Masked Kiss in the Rain — By Elfy and SLIDER in Glasgow, UK 🇬🇧

Rain beads on two masked comic-book figures just before their lips meet. Elfy and SLIDER painted the pair for Yardworks 2026 in Glasgow.

💡 Festival Fact: Yardworks, Glasgow’s street art festival, marked its 10th anniversary in 2026, with the SWG3 arts venue as its main hub.

📷 Photo: Ikul

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🖤 Dante’s Divine — By Afzan Pirzade in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France 🇫🇷

Francesca leans down to kiss Paolo, with a castle drawn above them. Pirzade turns Rose O’Neill’s 1911 drawing into a monumental black-and-white scene across a house gable. Paolo and Francesca come from Dante’s Divine Comedy, and the mural, at 98 Rue de la Paix, was painted for Street Art Boulogne-sur-Mer 2026.

💡 Artist Fact: This is the Indian artist’s first mural in France.

More: Afzan Pirzade’s Kumartuli Mural in Kolkata

🔗 Follow Afzan Pirzade on Instagram

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🤠 The Texan Kiss — By Eduardo Kobra in Houston, Texas, USA 🇺🇸

A cowboy and a woman meet in front of the Lone Star in Kobra’s The Texan Kiss, a reworking of the famous 1945 Times Square embrace. It went up in 2026 on a downtown building at Texas Avenue and Caroline Street as part of Big Art. Bigger Change, a series of 58 large murals produced by Street Art for Mankind in downtown Houston.

💡 Artist Fact: This is not Kobra’s first wall based on Alfred Eisenstaedt’s V-J Day photo. An earlier version, The Kiss in New York City, was later painted over by the building’s owner.

📂 Artwork File · Sourced factsThe Texan KissEduardo Kobra · 2026 · Downtown HoustonBig Art. Bigger ChangeCemo Foundation (Chronicle)~1,000 m² (GraffitiStreet)1A man and a woman in Texan dress kiss in the pose of the iconic 1945 V-J Day photograph, in front of the Lone Star.GraffitiStreet2Kobra, quoted by GraffitiStreet: “May this kiss symbolise hope for times of unity, peace, respect, love, and coexistence.”GraffitiStreet202630 AprUnveiling, Chronicle photos20265 MayStyle Magazine report20267 MayGraffitiStreet feature20268 JunStreet Art Cities photoRead the full file →

More: 19 Murals by Eduardo Kobra

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📷 Photo: Charles Holt

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💨 Air Kiss — By Gleb Kashtanov in Vitebsk, Belarus 🇧🇾

A woman blows a kiss from high up on an apartment tower at Moskovskiy Prospekt 113/1 in Vitebsk. Kashtanov painted it big enough that the kiss reaches the street below.

💡 Artist Fact: In 2017 Kashtanov and Yan Kuzmin, working as the Vitebsk duo StreetSkills, painted a portrait of writer Vasil Bykov on a transformer substation in the city.

🔗 Follow Gleb Kashtanov on Instagram

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💛 L’attimo — By Tony Gallo in Wernigerode, Germany 🇩🇪

Two figures in animal hoods hold hands and lean in for a kiss against a yellow wall. The Italian artist painted it on a housing block at Am Kastanienwäldchen, one of several facades the local housing company GWW had painted by Tony Gallo, Alessio-B. and Mura.

💡 Artist Fact: Gallo was born in Padua in 1975 and is self-taught. His figures often blend the human with the animal.

🔗 Follow Tony Gallo on Instagram

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👑 Princesses Kiss — Melbourne, Australia 🇦🇺

No prince arrives in this version. Snow White and Cinderella find each other on a brick wall in Carlton South.

📷 Photo: Andrew

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🔎 A Tiny Kiss — By OakOak

Two pale pieces of gum become the heads of a kissing couple. It is easy to miss among the other marks on the wall.

More: OakOak’s Street Surprises

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🌿 Klimt’s Kiss in Yellow Lichen — By OakOak in Hesdigneul-lès-Béthune, France 🇫🇷

OakOak lets real lichen stand in for the gold of Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss. He painted it around a tree trunk for the Les Petits Bonheurs festival, with residents of Nid du Moulin.

More: OakOak’s Street Surprises

🔗 Follow OakOak on Instagram

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