Some street art is finished when the paint dries.

These works need something else: a canal, a puddle, a water stain, wet pavement, or a rising tide. Water completes the idea. Without it, the joke, illusion, or warning is only half there.

First up: This upside-down mural is upright in reflection

🌊 “Floating World” — By Ray Bartkus in Marijampolė, Lithuania 🇱🇹

Ray Bartkus’s own street-art archive lists “Floating World” as a 2015 MaLonNY 2 work in Marijampolė, and the city’s visitor page places it on the Old Dam building. Bartkus painted it upside down on purpose. On the wall, the swimmers, rowers, and swans look reversed. In the water reflection, they line up right-side-up.

💡 Nerd Fact: MaLonNY is not just a festival name. According to Lithuania Travel, it blends Marijampolė, London, and New York, connecting the city to the international art worlds that shaped the project.

More: This upside-down mural is upright in reflection

🔗 Visit Ray Bartkus’s website

💧 “Reflejos / Reflections” — By Martín Ron in San Nicolás de los Arroyos, Argentina 🇦🇷

Ron introduced the mural as “Reflejos” in San Nicolás de los Arroyos. Reuters coverage of the project, republished by The Indian Express, connected the two 40-meter-high murals to the Paraná River’s historic drought. Here, the painted water does more than mirror the child in the poncho; it carries the environmental question.

💡 Nerd Fact: The Paraná is not just background scenery here. In 2021, Reuters reported that Argentina urged people to save water when the river reached a 77-year low, affecting wetlands, farming, and grain transport.

More: Reflections — Mural by Martín Ron in Argentina

🔗 Follow Martín Ron on Instagram

🏘️ “Under the bridge” — By Wen2 in Amiens, France 🇫🇷

Amiens Métropole lists Wen2’s 2025 fresco as “Under the bridge” at Pont des Becquerelles, created with CURB and Caparol France. The work imagines part of a historic Saint-Leu street breaking loose and moving beneath the bridge; the water below doubles the houses, so the underpass starts to look like a floating village.

💡 Nerd Fact: Amiens already has a strong water identity. The city’s tourism office describes the nearby Hortillonnages as a mosaic of floating gardens and waterways at the gateway of the Saint-Leu quarter.

More: Amazing Street Art (8 Photos)

🔗 Follow Wen2 on Instagram

☔ “Akihabara” — By Dan Kitchener in Southend-on-Sea, UK 🇬🇧

Dan Kitchener brings a rainy Tokyo backstreet to a wall in England. In his own post about the Southend mural, he describes it as a freehand Akihabara/Tokyo street scene made for the town’s first mural festival. Umbrellas, neon signs, and wet pavement blur together, with the painted reflections doing as much work as the figures.

💡 Neon Fact: Akihabara is not just a random Tokyo reference. GO TOKYO describes Akihabara Electric Town as an area that grew from electronics shops into “Akiba,” a pop-culture district packed with computers, anime, manga, and specialty stores.

More: Akihabara by Dan Kitchener in Southend-on-Sea

🔗 Visit Dan Kitchener’s website

🌧️ “Rain Swing” — By Golsa Golchini in Milan, Italy 🇮🇹

Golsa Golchini uses the water damage already on the wall. Two long streaks become swing ropes. A tiny painted girl does the rest.

💡 Nerd Fact: Golchini often works at a scale where the wall’s damage becomes part of the story. Here, the stains are not a flaw to hide; they are the swing ropes.

More: You Might Walk Past These—But They’re Tiny Masterpieces in Disguise

🔗 Follow Golsa Golchini on Instagram

🌈 “The Things We Do” — By Chris Wiedmann in San Francisco, USA 🇺🇸

This mural is often shared online as “Colour Rain,” but the artist’s own archive page linked below titles it “The Things We Do.” Rainbow drips pour down the arched wall, and the small umbrella figure gives the scene its center. The result is simple, bright, and instantly readable.

💡 Nerd Fact: The title changes how the piece reads. “Colour Rain” describes what people remember first, but Wiedmann’s archive title, “The Things We Do,” makes the umbrella figure feel less like decoration and more like a small character choosing to stand there.

More: Colour Rain — By Chris Wiedmann in San Francisco

🔗 Visit Chris Wiedmann’s archive page for the mural

🐈 “Just another rainy day” — By John D’oh in Bristol, UK 🇬🇧

John D’oh takes the old saying and makes it literal in “Just another rainy day”. Cats and dogs fall from above while the man underneath calmly holds an umbrella, as if this forecast is just part of daily life in Bristol.

💡 Nerd Fact: John D’oh’s official site says he has worked with 3D installations and mixed-media street art, but this piece works more like a one-panel cartoon: old idiom, simple stencil, instant punchline.

More: Just another rainy day

🔗 Visit John D’oh’s website

🍾 Bottle-cap umbrella scene — By Roy’s People in London, UK 🇬🇧

Roy’s People turns a beer bottle cap into a city umbrella. Londonist featured this exact rainy miniature in a preview of Roy Tyson’s Little Heroes show at Curious Duke Gallery, where some tiny scenes were later placed around east London.

💡 Tiny Fact: The Little Heroes idea was not only about superheroes. Londonist described the show as looking at everyday heroism too, which makes the bottle-cap umbrella feel like a tiny act of care rather than just a clever prop.

More: Tiny Heroes Take To The Streets Of London

🔗 Visit Roy’s People website

🪣 The Water Carrier — By Juandres Vera & TARDOR in Riola, Spain 🇪🇸

The pavement opens into a hidden spring. An artist-added Street Art Cities entry places the collaborative 3D work at Carrer Sant Cristòfol in Riola, Valencia. From the right angle, a woman kneels in clear water with a clay jug, while the shadows and broken edges make the street look as if it has been cut open just beneath the tiles.

💡 Nerd Fact: Street Art Cities marks the Riola work as “Added by the artist,” which is useful for a piece like this because pavement works are often photographed, reposted, and separated from their exact location very quickly.

More: A Hidden Spring Beneath the Street in Riola, Spain

🔗 Follow Juandres Vera and TARDOR on Instagram

🚣 Boat of Silence — By SPURONE in Tampico, Mexico 🇲🇽

SPURONE paints still water across the building, using the windows as part of the scene. In his own post from the Tampico Renace SAF project, he frames the work around navigating adversity and uncertainty, which makes the quiet boat feel more like a state of mind than a simple scene.

💡 Nerd Fact: Tampico sits on the northern bank of the Pánuco River, close to the Gulf of Mexico, so a mural about boats and uncertainty also lands in a city shaped by water, ports, and movement.

More: Art That Feels Real (12 Photos)

🔗 Follow SPURONE on Instagram

🌍 “I Don’t Believe in Global Warming” — By Banksy in London, UK 🇬🇧

First reported beside Regent’s Canal in Camden in December 2009, just after the Copenhagen climate talks, the work lets the canal finish the sentence: Banksy’s red words sink below the waterline.

💡 Nerd Fact: Timing mattered. The Guardian reported the work on December 21, 2009, right after the Copenhagen climate summit, so the canal wall became a public footnote to a stalled global summit.

More: “I Don’t Believe in Global Warming” by Banksy

🔗 Follow Banksy on Instagram

🔴 “Waterline” — By James Colomina in Amsterdam, Netherlands 🇳🇱

Colomina’s own post titles the Amsterdam installation “Waterline”, and Reuters described it as one of two red canal works confronting rising waters. The red figure paints a line above the current canal level, making the water below feel less like scenery and more like a warning.

💡 Nerd Fact: Reuters noted that the Netherlands relies heavily on dikes, canals, and pumps for flood prevention, with about a third of its land below sea level. That makes Amsterdam’s canals more than a pretty setting for this work.

More: For The Planet (11 Photos)

🔗 Follow James Colomina on Instagram

Which one is your favorite?

STREET ART UTOPIA

2024-12-02 21:09:19

This upside-down mural is upright in reflection

“Floating World” by Ray Bartkus in Marijampolė, Lithuania.

This remarkable mural by Ray Bartkus was intentionally painted upside-down to create a magical effect. The swimmers, rowers, and swans appear right-side-up only when reflected in the waters of the Šešupė River, which flows through the heart of the city.

Visitors to the old dam are invited to rediscover the mural’s beauty time and time again. As Bartkus explains:

“The drawing itself is created in reverse, and its true form is revealed only in the water’s reflection. I hope that every time people pass by, they will discover something new, because this artwork, like our days in life, is never the same as it was yesterday.”

---

---

What do you think about the mural that reveals itself when you look at its reflection in the water?

Ray Bartkus

^{raybartkus.com}