Florida Made Me Look Twice (9 Photos)

By Vidar
Two Miami street art photos side by side: My Dog Sighs on a ladder painting a giant eye with a street scene reflected in its iris on a cream wall in Allapattah, and a neon-colored alligator among pink and blue jungle leaves painted by Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky in Miami

Miami street art worth stopping for

A giant eye on a school wall in Allapattah, a garage door in Wynwood that can barely hold its toys, a duck on a Brickell rooftop and a crocodile breaking out of a wall up the road in Fort Lauderdale. Nine Miami-area pieces we would stop for anywhere.


My Dog Sighs on a ladder painting the lashes of a giant eye on a cream wall in Miami; a street with a lamppost and a dark figure is reflected in the brown iris

👁️ Giant Eye — By My Dog Sighs in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

The eye is taller than the man painting it, and a whole street is reflected in the iris. My Dog Sighs painted it at Santa Clara Elementary School in Allapattah, just west of Wynwood, during the aWall Mural Projects in December 2018. Photo by SNUB23. The ladder makes it look like he is doing its makeup.

💡 Artist Fact: Before the big walls, My Dog Sighs spent ten years giving his work away on the street through his Free Art Friday project, often painting on found materials such as abandoned food cans.

More: Eyes That Speak: My Dog Sighs (7 Murals)

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Alexis Diaz and David Zayas's mural ISLA on a tall black wall in Miami: a woman in purple tones wrapped in flowers, with a rooster and a sunrise inside her body and a halo of golden rays, above a yellow fire hydrant

🌺 “ISLA” — By Alexis Diaz & David Zayas in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

A woman in violet and blue rises out of dark flowers, and inside her body there is a rooster and a sunrise. Puerto Rican muralist Alexis Diaz and David Zayas painted it together in 2023 for Beyond Walls, for people who carry a home island with them. The yellow hydrant at the bottom shows how tall the wall is.

💡 Festival Fact: Beyond Walls started in Lynn, Massachusetts, as a volunteer group led by Al Wilson. According to MassDevelopment, its first project was a 10-day international mural festival in downtown Lynn in July 2017.

More: Mural by Alexis Diaz and David Zayas in Miami


Mantra's mural The Wynwood Collection in Miami: butterflies painted as a giant specimen case with wooden frames, cream paper and drop shadows on a building wall, next to a black building with white-framed windows

🦋 “The Wynwood Collection” — By Mantra in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

Wood-grain frames, cream paper and soft drop shadows make the butterflies look pinned to the building. Mantra painted it freehand at 127 NW 27th Street in Wynwood in December 2022, with Justkids. Every butterfly in the case can be found in Miami. Next door, the real windows look like empty slots in the same collection.

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

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SCAF's 3D mural in Fort Lauderdale: a giant crocodile bursting out of a wave painted on the side of a building, jaws open, while a man in front pretends to throw a ball into its mouth

🐊 Crocodile Breaking Through — By SCAF in Fort Lauderdale, USA 🇺🇸

A crocodile tears out of the wall on a wave of blue paint, and the man in front is about to feed it a ball. French artist SCAF painted it for the Avenue of the Arts festival, which fills Northwest 7th Avenue in Fort Lauderdale’s Historic Sistrunk with new murals every year. Not the kind of local wildlife you want on your morning walk.

More: Is It Just Me, or Is It Getting Crazier Out There – By SCAF

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Leon Keer's 3D mural at Wynwood Walls in Miami: a half-open roll-up door painted so that giant toys, a doll, a teddy bear and a toy car seem to spill out, while a visitor raises his arms as if holding the door up

🧸 The Toy Door — By Leon Keer in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

A roll-up door that seems to give way under a pile of giant toys, and a visitor doing his best to hold it shut. Dutch artist Leon Keer painted it at Wynwood Walls in 2023, when his Seeing Things show opened there. The doll on the left looks like she has seen this happen before.

💡 Place Fact: Wynwood Walls opened in 2009 with works curated by gallerist Jeffrey Deitch, a friend of developer Tony Goldman. Miami New Times credits Goldman, who curated the walls until his death in 2012, with helping turn the warehouse neighborhood into an art district.

More: “Gravity” by Leon Keer in Wuppertal (7 Photos)

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Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky's mural in Miami: a large green and silver alligator resting among pink, blue and green jungle leaves against an orange sunset sky, signed Clandestinos Art

🐊 Neon Alligator — By Shalak Attack & Bruno Smoky in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

An alligator rests in a jungle of pink and electric-blue leaves, with a Florida sunset behind it. Shalak Attack and Bruno Smoky sign their joint walls as Clandestinos, and this one stretches along a low building in Miami next to a big cat. Up close, every scale is painted. The gator looks unbothered by all of it.

🔗 Follow Bruno Smoky on Instagram


Ales del Pincel and ARTYEK's mural in Miami: a wide-eyed monkey holding a banana next to an old man with a long white beard, above blue graffiti letters with a wild-eyed cartoon cat bursting out of them

🐒 Monkey, Old Man and a Very Startled Cat — By Ales del Pincel & ARTYEK in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

A wide-eyed monkey with a banana, an old man with a long white beard, and below them a crazed cartoon cat tearing out of blue graffiti letters. Ales del Pincel and ARTYEK painted it together for Wynwood Mural Fest: photoreal portraits on top, wild graffiti letters below. Nobody on this wall looks calm.


A giant duck sculpture covered in Mikael B's sharp geometric shapes in blue, green, purple and white, on the rooftop of SLS Brickell in Miami, with city towers behind

🦆 Rooftop Duck — By Mikael B in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

A duck bigger than a person, covered in Mikael B’s sharp blue, green and purple shapes, sitting on the rooftop of SLS Brickell. The Danish artist usually paints whole walls this way. Here he custom-painted a Philippe Starck duck sculpture, unveiled on the hotel rooftop when his Awake exhibition opened there during Art Basel Miami in December 2017. It is a bath toy the size of a car, and the Brickell towers have to share the view with it.

More: Street Art by Mikael B (5 Photos)

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SHOK-1's mural Genesis at Wynwood Walls in Miami: a giant white X-ray of a hand gripping a spray can on a black wall, with the artist standing in front with his arms crossed

🦴 “Genesis” — By SHOK-1 at Wynwood Walls in Miami, USA 🇺🇸

A giant X-ray of a hand, still holding the spray can, in white on a black wall. SHOK-1 is known for X-rays made with spray paint, and here the subject is the spray can itself. Wynwood Walls lists the London-based artist among its 2023 painters. The man in front is the artist, for scale.

More: Street Art by SHOK-1 (3 Photos)

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