Detroit street art: 35 must-see pieces

In case you haven't noticed, Detroit has become one of the most vibrant centers of street art in the country in recent years.

Hundreds of authorized murals by some of the most famous street artists in the world, as well as works by gifted local artists, now grace downtown, Eastern Market, southwest Detroit, the Grand River corridor and other hotspots.

This survey spotlights 35 must-see works of street art in Detroit. It's a guided tour — an exploration of the variety of artists and styles on display, an accounting of the strengths (and sometimes weaknesses) of some of the most notable works in town and the context in which to better understand the work.

Most of the art included was done with permission, but some pieces were not. Most works are fully realized murals, but some especially artful traditional graffiti writing — with its sine qua non of stylized letters and signatures — is also included.

Street art is bringing an inspired jolt of creativity, urban life, aesthetic beauty, civic and ethnic identity and neighborhood revitalization to Detroit. The art functions as both metaphor and manifestation: It promises a better future while creating a more rewarding city in the present.

Graffiti writers have long treated the decaying ruins of Detroit like a blank canvas. But in the last four or five years, a loose coalition of artists, enthusiasts, grassroots organizations, galleries and sympathetic businesses have emerged to champion the positive impact of authorized street art.

Of course, distinctions between graffiti and murals, authorized and unauthorized work and art and vandalism — particularly in the context of the tens of thousands of abandoned buildings in Detroit — remain slippery. But those topics are for another day. This package is about celebrating the art and encouraging you to hit the streets to see for yourself.

The Atlanta-based Hense (Alex Brewer) combines his graffiti roots with formal training in contemporary art to create large-scale, disorienting abstractions. What's best about this 2014 piece is the way the clash of hot colors, zigzagging patterns and jumble of geometric and biomorphic shapes nearly collapses into chaos — but doesn't.

What unites it all are the jazzy rhythms and subtle rhymes of color and shape — like the opposing red and pink protractor curves in the center and the various shades of blues across the picture. The best vantage point is the island in the middle of Broadway.

Coda: Like many street artists, Hense paints under a pseudonym, a convention rooted in the anonymity sought by graffiti writers and the alter-ego performance aspect of the genre akin to hip-hop.Madison Building, 1555 Broadway

Terrific draftsmanship, moody color and sly repetition inform this work by the young Barcelona, Spain-based Aryz (pronounced Arr-ease), who displays a depth of expression unusual for street art. The shadow of Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry" murals seems to hover in the noble humanity that Aryz brings to his four identical working-class figures. 25 E. Grand River at Library

The Spanish-born twin brothers Raoul and Davide Perre, the New York-based graffiti team better known as How & Nosm, contributed this dazzling and gargantuan mural that leads you hundreds of feet up the ramp at the Grand River entrance to the Z garage — the 10-story downtown garage boasting more than 20 murals. It's a virtuoso work, with the pair's striking command of spray-paint techniques and surreal imagery — severed fish, human heads, faces, body parts and so much more — rendered in swirling red, pink, black and white.

The tremendous energy of it all — and the way the building blocks coalesce into a giant machine-like structure — recall the assembly line of Diego Rivera's murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Joe Louis-like fist at the top of the ramp underscores the title, "Unexpected Punchline." Z garage, Grand River at Library

McGee, the dean of Detroit's visual arts scene and an especially important African-American artist, was commissioned by New Detroit to create this untitled abstraction in 1974. The work is badly faded but worth seeing as a reminder that outdoor murals, particularly geometric abstractions, have a long history in Detroit. Public art programs in the '70s also gave us murals by John Egner (Park Shelton Apartments), Steve Foust (1314 Gratiot), as well as pieces by Al Loving (First National Building) and others that were eventually painted over.

Across the street from the Crowne Plaza Detroit, McGee's diamond patterns once danced in vibrant reds, purples, greens, blues and mustards. The city or a nonprofit should work with the (abandoned) building's owner to restore the mural — consulting, to the degree possible, with McGee, who is 90 but not in good health. 234 W. Larned

The Chicago-based artist known as Pose (Jordan Nickel) has managed the neat trick of creating an immersive art environment within the already immersive art environment of the Belt — the art-filled concourse running through the downtown Z garage. He's painted a huge swath of the wall, including gutters, and added a fake doorway, steps, windows, trash cans, wooden fence, etc. At one point the paint leaps off the wall into the viewer's space, covering a bench and steps.

The bold patterns and colors include pop art quotes (a Roy Lichtenstein woman's face in close-up and one of the painter's expressionist brush stroke parodies). Mostly, Pose succeeds in creating a clever wonderland where a real and imagined city alley merge into one. The Belt, middle of Z garage, between Grand River and Gratiot

Remarkably well-preserved, this 1973 circular abstraction was commissioned by the late art collector James Pearson Duffy, who championed Detroit's Cass Corridor artists in the late '60s and '70s, including Sestok. Though the Edward W. Duffy business (mechanical tubing and pipe) is no longer in the Duffy family, the mural remains on the warehouse in the Delray neighborhood in southwest Detroit.

It's a beaut. The thin, colored rings suggest the cross section of the trunk of an ancient redwood, and they play optical games with your eyes. The piece, painted in oils, sits exquisitely in the center of the stair-step shape of the wall, whose original gray color (not part of Sestok's mural) has been repainted a high-contrast brown that really makes the art pop. Edward W. Duffy building, 5840 W. Jefferson

Though it's not an especially compelling mural in subject or form, Shepard Fairey's recently completed piece on One Campus Martius bears inclusion here. First, it's massive. At 184 feet tall it's the largest mural that the celebrity street artist, based in Los Angeles, has created. Second, Fairey's subsequent arrest by Detroit police on felony charges for allegedly doing unauthorized work while working on his sanctioned mural has made worldwide headlines. It also sparked a local debate over the relationship of street art to graffiti and vandalism and the role public art has in revitalizing the city. (Fairey is due back in court Thursday.)

The One Campus Martius mural, commissioned by real estate mogul Dan Gilbert and others, rises in a tower of stenciled red, cream and black geometry and is adorned with some of Fairey's familiar images: an Andre the Giant face, a five-pointed star, wavy curves of lotus leaves, a peace sign and the scales of justice. Nothing connects specifically to Detroit or holds much surprise, but the colors wear well. The mural looks best as you approach downtown from the northeast on Gratiot — a beacon of the downtown core. One Campus Martius

The Detroit graffiti writer known as Kosek created this 40-foot virtuoso example of wildstyle — stylized, interlocking text so abstract that reading the letters is impossible. Just enjoy the dynamism of the ride, the way the orange paint jitterbugs across the wall, how the blue creates 3-D depth and the bursts of purple that tease the eyes. Don't miss the fish head hiding on the right side of the work.

Coda: The X-MEN tag at the top right is a shout-out by the artist to other members of the crew of graffiti writers with whom he's associated. Legends Wall, Newark at St. Anne

The brilliant orange, purple and aquamarine palette sets the tone for this immediately appealing untitled work by the Mexico City artist called Saner (Edgar Flores). Saner's street art, like his work for galleries, trades in Mexican cultural iconography like the animal and demon masks here that connect contemporary figures with their ancient ancestors and the spiritual world. Given his grotesque face, the central chief-like figure might be a stand-in for a politician today — watch your wallet. BeeBe's 2 market, 1421 Springwells

The East Coast-based Marka27 (Victor Quinonez) was born in Mexico, raised in Dallas and attended art school in Boston. His mural on the side of El Asador restaurant uses the extreme contrast of a black background, rainbow stripes and a haloed portrait to pack an especially dramatic punch. The billowy shawl draped around the neck shows real painterly skill. El Asador Steakhouse, 1312 Springwells

This fantastically decorated garage in the heart of a residential street in southwest Detroit represents a collaboration of two young Detroit artists drawing on Mexican culture (the skull representing not death, but a life well-lived) and classic wildstyle graffiti letters.

The garage is part of the Alley Project, a remarkable graffiti-based art program under the umbrella of the neighborhood youth development agency Young Nation. The project includes an empty lot where kids can learn to paint, an alley filled with murals by pros and kids, and nearby satellites like the Mungar-Diaz garage. Here's what art-based community building looks like at a granular level. Avis at Elsmere (near 8868 Elsmere)

One of the most prolific Detroit-based street artists, Malt's work can be seen all over the city. He blends aerosol techniques and acrylics, and he's especially known for crafting fantastic birds, including owls, and other creatures. His owl at the Lincoln Street Art Park isn't his most elaborate composition, but there's something irresistibly humorous about its truculent expression and know-it-all vibe. Lincoln Street Art Park, 5926 Lincoln

The respected veteran Detroit street artist known as Fel3000ft, who started as a kid doing illegal tagging but no longer works without permission, made this deeply personal and ambitious work as a tribute to his late father. Stretching a long way through the underpass, the painting tells the story of a boy (the artist) who has written a letter to his departed father. We see the text in the center of the mural – "I am trying to be the man you want me to be. I really miss you. …" And we see the boy launching a paper airplane (the letter) and follow it as it soars through the city landscape. Fel will tell you the boy is hoping the letter reaches his father in heaven. Deftly painted and plotted, the work reveals a heartfelt sentiment rarely encountered in graffiti culture, and the result is an unusually touching piece of street art. Lincoln Street Art Park, underpass, past Fisher tunnel, 5926 Lincoln

Controversy surrounds this mural and its Detroit artist, Sintex (Brian Glass). A piece by Sintex originally held this spot as part of the Grand River Creative Corridor mural project. But in 2014, the head of the project, Derek Weaver, invited the noted Baltimore artist Gaia to repaint the wall as part of the planned rotation of murals along Grand River. In a guerrilla act, Sintex then painted over Gaia's new piece.

That launched an ugly volley of vandalism within the city's graffiti scene and competing claims of who gave whom permission to do what. But beneath the schoolyard bullying and name-calling, there were more serious issues at stake, among them the values and opportunities given to national artists compared to locals in Detroit's evolving graffiti scene, and questions of authenticity and gentrification.

Leaving aside the ethics and efficacy of his actions, Sintex's portraits in "Our Land Til Death" link racial and ethnically charged heroes, symbols of resistance and victims — Chief Crazy Horse, Elijah Muhammad, Malice Green, Aiyana Jones and Vincent Chin — to make a point of standing your ground. Parking lot at 4731 Grand River

The world of graffiti and street art is largely dominated by men and is a haven for machismo, but there are a number of Detroit women in the game, including Desiree Kelly. Her "Abe in Shades" is a delight. But the humor of President Abraham Lincoln in kaleidoscopic sunglasses (and accompanied by the words "Four Score") is matched by a savvy composition in which the top of the building crops the head dramatically. 4239 Grand River

These 16 large portraits filling the windows of an abandoned building co-opt one of the most dispiriting cliches of Detroit's decay — busted-out windows. Macdonald literally uses art and a power-to-the-people take on local history to transform the urban landscape. The well-executed paintings include a range of homegrown political and cultural leaders and activists, among them Rosa Parks, John Conyers, Walter Reuther, Maryann Mahaffey, Helen Thomas and Grace Lee Boggs. The fact that unauthorized pieces of graffiti remain near ground level adds a raw edge, not letting you forget the neighborhood context. 5729 W. Grand River

The Charleston, S.C.-based artist called Patch Whisky (Rich Miller) specializes in cartoonish monsters rendered in Day-Glo colors. His Grand River Creative Corridor work walks an engaging tightrope between exuberant fantasy and flat-out weirdness. A giant purple-faced fish spews green slime out of one eye. A moon-faced, green creature with a blue tongue throws up Pepto-Bismol colored liquid. The closer you look, the more bizarre the show. Approx. 4120 Grand River, between Rosa Parks and Warren

What's best about this imposing painting of a ferocious shark is the way it lunges at an angle across the entire side of Kap's Wholesale Foods as if it were rising out of the sea to terrorize Eastern Market. Created by the well-known Los Angeles artist Shark Toof (natch), the open-mouth imagery evokes memories of the Hollywood poster for "Jaws," including the red-and-blue palette. But not even Spielberg's Great White had teeth as sharp as this. 2630 Riopelle

Two highly admired veterans of the graffiti scenes from opposite coasts teamed up for this Eastern Market piece in 2012 — the Los Angeles-based Revok (who had taken up residence in Detroit for a couple of years, after going to jail for graffiti crimes in L.A.) and the New Yorker called Rime (Joseph Tierney). "A Man's Threat & a Woman's Pet" blends Revok's authoritative and flexible command of lettering with Rime's humorous cartoon imagery. It's an especially fun, colorful piece, the artists creating a more organic composition and unified feeling than in most street art collaborations. 1501 Division

The New Zealand-based Askew One reflects the rapidly expanding Middle Eastern population in Hamtramck in this abstract mash-up of the American and Yemeni flags and their combined red, white, blue and black stripes and white stars. On a nakedly exposed south wall abutting an empty lot on a slightly gritty stretch of Jos Campau, the piece offers a fresh, evocative take on the American melting pot in an area where nearly a quarter of the population is now of Arab descent, most from Yemen. 88600 Jos Campau, Hamtramck

The haunting power of Chilean muralist Dasic Fernández's 80-foot-wide painting comes not only from its Yemeni cultural references, but the deep expression the artist brings to each of the three figures in the triptych-like composition. From left to right there's a yellow-turbaned farmer, a girl with her head covered save for her yearning eyes and a woman in a hijab who peers across street and into the future. It all reads as a metaphor for drawing strength from cultural roots, the promise of immigration and a better, freer future in America. Sheeba restaurant, 8752 Jos Campau, Hamtramck

Detroiter Kobie Solomon's ginormous painting on the west wall of the main Russell Industrial Center's building No. Two is billed as the largest mural in Michigan at 8,750 square feet. Visible from I-75, the work is Solomon's clever take on the composite animal of Greek mythology, rendered here as a combination of elements of the logos from the four professional sports teams in Detroit, as well as images representing the city's industrial might and creative soul — the lion's mane is made of paint brushes, pencils and the like. Russell Industrial Center, 1600 Clay

Maybe Detroit's most drop-dead gorgeous mural, Katie Craig's breathtaking waterfall of color against a sky-blue ground tumbles down story after story of a large building at the corner of East Grand Boulevard and Beaubien. Craig, in her late 20s when the mural was dedicated in 2011, connects the dots between graffiti art and the modernist tradition of color field painters like Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler and Jules Olitski. It's all about visual pleasure. Craig, a graduate of the College for Creative Studies who later studied at Cranbrook, earned the commission through a CCS program that links communities with public arts projects and funding support. 2937 E. Grand Boulevard

Still under construction, the northern end of the Dequindre Cut remains a beneath-street-level forest of unauthorized graffiti, ranging from wildstyle tagging to profane doodles and slogans. But this piece by an artist who goes by the name of Feis will stop you cold: A shadowy figure, hiding amid the artist's signature lettering, wears a blue hooded sweatshirt and points a giant handgun right at you. Drawing meaning and intensity from its location, the piece remains a disturbing reminder of the city's dangerous past and, for too many, its present reality. Dequindre Cut Greenway, St. Aubin and Gratiot

The husband-wife partnership of Steve and Dorata Coy is better known as Hygienic Dress League, a collective whose often monochromatic palette and favorite imagery (such as people wearing gas masks ) make its work around town instantly recognizable. The collective's two murals in the Dequindre Cut face each other on a stretch of the path at the southern end closer to the riverfront.

One mural features a gas-masked figure holding a bird; the other includes five standing figures of uncertain costume and headgear. The earth tones of the walls blend into the natural setting. What does it all mean mean? I don't know for sure, except there's surely an undercurrent of environmentalism at play. I'm more interested in the way the murals give off the uneasy vibe of ritual, making me feel like the subject of an experiment in which I didn't agree to participate. Dequindre Cut Greenway, St. Aubin & Atwater

Dating back to 1985, this badly damaged mural covers the side of an decaying abandoned building that once housed a drug rehabilitation center. Created by Detroit artist Curtis Lewis, the piece illustrates African-American political and cultural leaders, among them Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey, Frederick Douglass, Mary McLeod Bethune, Muhammad Ali, Stevie Wonder and many others. It was in its day a monument to black pride, but now, like so much of the surrounding neighborhood, speaks to failed dreams, the impact of institutional racism and the tragedy of modern Detroit. 9980 Gratiot

At the end of the so-called Legends Wall along Newark (behind the Michigan Central Station), the young Detroiter known as HelloMelo contributed this snazzy piece showing a piano player leaning against the artist's signature. The musical theme is pure Detroit and the curvy keyboard may be winking at the famous bar at Baker's Keyboard Lounge as the keys fly into the abyss. Legends Wall, Newark, between Vernor and 20th

Presumably painted by the same Astro whose tag can be found all over the city, this unauthorized work, signed "Astro Boy 94," has a beguiling, apparition-like quality. At least to my eye it suggests an abstract car moving swiftly to the viewer's left. Arrow Chemical Products, 2055 St. Anne, at Newark

I'm not at all sure what exactly the Mexico City-based Benitez is getting at in this imaginative, enigmatic piece, whose beautifully painted, gently stylized figures and symbols evoke some kind of cultural narrative and memory piece. But what are those two doodle-like heads doing on the left, including the science-fiction figure at the top? This is a work that stays in the mind long after you see it. Cultural Garage, 3439 Livernois

Not yet 30, the Montreal-based Mastrocola is another artist who has transitioned from the graffiti world to more formal mural work and traditional painting on canvas in an abstract language. Of his two 2014 works in the Grand River Creative Corridor, this is the more impressive — soothing curvilinear shapes, rolling waves of color that let you relax in a sea or urban grit. The piece also makes an interesting contrast with the similarly colored, but much less elegant mural on the building next door by the Detroit artist Elmer. 15th and Forest

Of the five murals the Dusselfdorf-based German-Austrian collective known as the Weird completed two years ago in Eastern Market, my favorite is this piece in the heart of the market. The cartoon figures are fun if a little dopey, but the piece makes its mark by the sly way it snakes around the south and east facades of Motor City Produce and the pleasing purple-and-teal palette. 2611 Russell S.

Obsessive mark-making defines San Fransico-based Victor Reyes' mesmerizing black-and-white abstraction that tumbles across a large exposed wall in Hamtramck. Up close the piece reveals tight curves and angles crushed together, but from a distance the patterns coalesce into a monolith that the artist smartly allows to breathe with the negative black space in the bottom left and top right. 2238 Holbrook, Hamtramck

At more than 6,000 square feet, this optimistic mural by the Australian-born artist Meggs (David Hooke) casts a large shadow over a barren stretch a little south of the Russell Industrial Center. I find the tiger image and the words "Rise Up" a little cheesy, but Detroit can use all the cheerleading it can get, and it's hard not to be impressed by the size and execution of the mural; the fact that Los Angeles-based Meggs didn't paint over the unauthorized graffiti at the bottom of the piece is a welcome gesture of respect for local graffiti artists. Don't miss the many other unauthorized and authorized pieces elsewhere on the industrial structure, particularly the large collaborative work on the north facade. 6398 Russell St. at Trombly

Sometimes the biggest delights come in the smallest packages. Trumping the numerous large murals on a tiny stretch of Winder Street in Eastern Market is this modest-sized collaboration by Detroiter Glenn Barr and the Czech-born, Fla.-based artist called Bask (Ales Hostomsky). Barr's young boy finds himself chained to Bask's shadowy demon, a metaphor perhaps for the dangers of the streets. The boy's defiant stance suggests he'll make it. Red Bull House of Art, 1551 Winder

Narcissism and an outlaw mentality run deep in the DNA of graffiti culture. After all, signing your name to a building illegally under the cover of darkness is a pretty strong look-at-me gesture. But when does traditional graffiti tagging turn into art? This authorized piece by the New York-based artist Wen One seems to capture the moment of transformation. The flurry of purple wildstyle calligraphy morphs into three-dimensional abstraction. Letters, arrows and high-keyed color explode with energy and abandon. It's perfectly suited to the side of Ponyride, an incubator for creative entrepreneurs and artists. Ponyride, 1401 Vermont

The 10 floors of the downtown Z garage and the alley (Belt) that runs between its two wings offers a concentration of nearly 40 murals by some of the biggest names in the world of graffiti and street art, as well as some of Detroit's leading figures. The project represents a collaboration of developer and Quicken Loans founding chairman Dan Gilbert, who commissioned the artists through his Bedrock Real Estate Services, and the Library Street Collective, a gallery that selected the artists and curates the spaces. (The gallery, which backs up to the Belt, has partnered with Bedrock to bring other public murals downtown.)

The Z garage is located at 1234 Library Street. Enter the garage from Gratiot or Grand River; the alley runs between those streets.

Best known for its farmers market that draws tens of thousands on peak Saturdays and a growing restaurant and retail trade, Eastern Market is also home to dozens of large-scale authorized murals — and a plethora of unauthorized graffiti. Since 2011 the publisher 1xRun, which operates the Inner State Gallery, has worked with Eastern Market Corp. and building owners to make the market a vibrant center of street art.

Coming attractions: "Murals in the Market" (Sept. 17-25), a festival boasting 45 artists from around the world and Detroit who will create dozens of new works.

The Cut, an idyllic recreational path that connects the riverfront to Eastern Market, runs for more than a mile between Gratiot and Woodbridge, just west of St. Aubin. The Detroit Riverfront Conservancy, which manages the Cut, has commissioned a dozen Detroit artists to do murals on the concrete bridge supports and walls along the way; but the conservancy has also left many more examples of illegal graffiti undisturbed, allowing a sense of urban grit to remain.

Southwest Detroit — notably Mexicantown and the thoroughfares of Vernor, Springwells, Bagley and Livernois — has become a haven for street art, especially works rooted in Mexican culture. Eastern Market's Inner State Gallery has connected artists with businesses and property owners; and various neighborhood initiatives like the Southwest Urban Arts Mural Project and the Alley Project champion street art as a means of community and youth development.

One of the most photogenic concentrations of graffiti in Detroit can be found on a stretch of Newark between 20th Street and Vernor, behind the Michigan Central Station. The adjacent Arrow Chemical Products company grew so weary of trying to police and clean the unauthorized tagging of the concrete wall along Newark that company officials contacted Derek Weaver, who heads the Grand River Creative Corridor, a street art initiative.

Weaver obtained permission from the Canadian railroad company that owns the wall and organized a 2013 project in which the cream of local graffiti artists were invited to legally tag the wall. With more than 30 works, the spot, initially called "Station Walls," is now better known by its informal name of the Legends Wall. Vandals and other taggers have stayed away out of respect. Moral of the story? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

Thanks to a number of grassroots efforts, among them the Detroit Beautification Project spearheaded a few years ago by Matt Eaton and others, Hamtramck has become a center for authorized murals, a number of which reflect the cultural heritage of the increasing number of Middle Eastern immigrants that have settled in the community. The Jos. Campau corridor is the place to start looking for murals, along with the back of Keyworth Stadium (off Roosevelt) for a collection of authorized graffiti.

Launched in 2012 by Derek Weaver, principal of 4731 Group, a real estate company, the Grand River Creative Corridor has brought more than 100 murals to mostly abandoned buildings along the corridor. It runs along Grand River, from roughly Rosa Parks to Warren, and the artists included are both international street art and graffiti stars, as well as Detroiters.

One of the hidden gems of Detroit, the outdoor Lincoln Street Art Park and Sculpture Garden was founded in 2011 by Matthew Naimi as an outgrowth of Recycle Here!, his next door operation started in 2005. Just to the southwest of the Fisher Building in the shadow of New Center, the park is a wonderland of murals, graffiti and found-object works responsible for activating a once-abandoned area.

There are authorized works on the Recycle Here! building and contiguous walls, but as you wander down Lincoln Street there's an explosion of unauthorized graffiti in an alley (dubbed Fisher Canyon for its killer views of the Fisher Building). An art and graffiti-covered underpass exists in a gray area of legality, ignored by city, county and railroad officials. 5926 Lincoln