Saved You a Seat (9 Photos)

By Vidar
Side-by-side photographs of Philip Jackson’s seated bronze figure Silent Contemplation in a broad angular hat and Art Metal’s streetlamp holding a black umbrella above an empty wooden bench.

A place to sit, with unexpected company

A wolf waits for tea, people sit inside the word BUS, and Maradona rests on a football. Real seats meet painted scenes in these nine works.

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Art Metal’s streetlamp with two outstretched arms holding a black umbrella above an empty wooden park bench.

☂️ The Umbrella Bench — By Art Metal

An empty wooden bench sits beneath an umbrella held by two arms extending from a streetlamp. The lamp matches Art Metal’s LA4/ST3/Parasol design.

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🔗 Art Metal’s umbrella bench design


Philip Jackson’s Moonstruck, a gold-faced bronze figure in a large rounded headdress, seated on a curved bench in a garden.

🌙 Moonstruck — By Philip Jackson

A gold-faced figure sits with folded hands beneath a huge, rounded headdress. Philip Jackson made Moonstruck in bronze, including the curved bench. There is room beside the figure.

💡 Nerd Fact: Jackson’s gallery sculptures draw on Venetian masquerades, opera costumes and religious ceremonies. He produces these works in limited bronze editions; his catalogue lists Moonstruck as an edition of five.

More: Haunting Sculptures by Philip Jackson (10 Photos)

🔗 Follow Philip Jackson on Instagram


HERA’s mural in Karlstad, Sweden, shows a child pouring tea for a deer in a rocking chair and a wolf seated on a suitcase. Photo by Strangefruit.

🫖 A Good Host Turns Places Into Friends — By HERA in Karlstad, Sweden 🇸🇪

The deer gets a rocking chair, the wolf gets a suitcase, and the child sits on a packing crate to pour the tea. HERA painted this gathering on Västra Kanalgatan for Karlstad Street Art in 2021. Photo by Strangefruit.

💡 Nerd Fact: This was HERA’s first mural in Sweden. She spent six days painting it while staying in the same building. According to Montana Cans’ project report, she worked without a grid or preliminary sketch, developing the scene through conversations with neighbors and passers-by.

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🔗 Follow HERA on Instagram


Large wood-and-steel letters spelling BUS, designed by mmmm…, form seats outside a brick building in Baltimore, USA, with people sitting in the U and S.

🚏 BUS STOP — By mmmm… in Baltimore, USA 🇺🇸

People sit inside the U and along the lower curve of the S. The Spanish collective mmmm… designed these wood-and-steel letters in 2014 for the bus stop outside Creative Alliance, at Eastern Avenue and South East Avenue. Baltimore sculptors Tim Scofield and Kyle Miller fabricated the structure, combining a bus-stop sign with seating.

💡 Nerd Fact: The commission followed neighborhood design workshops where Highlandtown residents requested an interactive bus shelter reflecting the area’s arts district. The workshops were organized by Creative Alliance and the Southeast Community Development Corporation.

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🔗 mmmm…’s website


Mural by Dreier y Nahuel and Nagu Cuellar showing Diego Maradona seated on a football beside his daughter Dalma, who wears yellow and tucks a flower into his sock.

⚽ Maradona and His Daughter Dalma — By Dreier y Nahuel and Nagu Cuellar

In Lomas de Zamora, Argentina, Maradona sits on a football while his daughter Dalma tucks a flower into his sock. Dreier y Nahuel and Nagu Cuellar painted the scene from a 1989 photograph taken during Napoli training, when Dalma was two and a half. The mural reverses the photograph, placing her on the right.

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🔗 Follow Dreier y Nahuel on Instagram and Nagu Cuellar on Instagram


Two women sit on a wooden seat in front of Millie Newitt and Tara Fowler’s mural in Tauranga, New Zealand, with painted ferns, trailing vines and a winged archer aiming a heart-tipped arrow.

💘 Cupid’s Swing — By Millie Newitt and Tara Fowler in Tauranga, New Zealand 🇳🇿

A real wooden seat projects from a wall painted with ferns and trailing vines. Above it, a winged archer aims a heart-tipped arrow toward the visitors. Millie Newitt and Tara Fowler created the mural on the Broncos Outdoors wall on Willow Street in 2015. Mainstreet Tauranga commissioned the interactive scene, inviting people to sit for photographs.

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Tomaz Major’s Todavía mural in Tampico, Mexico, depicts a woman and a man seated on chairs amid foliage, with two real windows interrupting the painted scene. A person stands beside the building.

🪑 Todavía — By Tomaz Major in Tampico, Mexico 🇲🇽

A woman leans back in one chair while a man sits in another, surrounded by painted greenery. Tomaz Major titled the mural Todavía and painted it in Tampico for the 2025 edition of RENACE Street Art Festival, called Ecos del Manglar.

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🔗 Follow Tomaz Major on Instagram


Philip Jackson’s Silent Contemplation, a seated bronze figure in a broad angular hat, resting its chin on one hand in a garden.

🎭 Silent Contemplation — By Philip Jackson

A seated figure rests its chin on one hand, its face mostly hidden beneath a broad, angular hat. In Philip Jackson’s Silent Contemplation, textured bronze forms the figure’s robes and crossed legs.

More: Haunting Sculptures by Philip Jackson (10 Photos)

🔗 Follow Philip Jackson on Instagram


Edoardo Ettorre’s Intime Letture mural in Mangone, Italy, shows a person in a tan coat reading a newspaper on a painted wooden bench, with space beside them.

📰 Intime Letture — By Edoardo Ettorre in Mangone, Italy 🇮🇹

The newspaper covers the reader’s face, and a pale bag rests across their lap. Edoardo Ettorre painted Intime Letture on a house in Mangone in 2025 for Gulìa Urbana. In the project text, Gulìa Urbana’s Giacomo Marinaro links the scene to the difficulty older people can face in separating fact from falsehood in the news.

💡 Nerd Fact: Ettorre used the same title for a 2018 installation at the Academy of Fine Arts in L’Aquila. Without advance notice, he replaced toilet paper in all sixteen bathrooms with rolls containing collaged magazine pages. He collected what remained a week later. The work questioned magazine advertising and the behavior it promotes.

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🔗 Follow Edoardo Ettorre on Instagram


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