Street art in George Town, Penang

The street art in George Town is legendary and it’s hidden everywhere. But it’s Ernest Zacharevic’s street art that Brad and I were most interested in finding. Armed with a map of the art’s locations , we set off.

The story is Ernest came to George Town in 2011 as a tourist to celebrate Chinese New Year with some college friends. He’d been doing street art in his native Vilnius, Lithuania where it was illegal and his murals were always immediately painted over. He started painting small pieces in George Town and was surprised that people would stop and thank him as he painted.

Wikipedia: “In 2012, Zacharevic received worldwide recognition after creating a series of six street art murals for the George Town Festival in Penang, Malaysia, with the BBC calling him Malaysia's answer to Banksy. These images depict scenes of everyday Malaysian life using local people as the models. The two most popular are Children on Bicycle and Boy on Motorcycle; a combination of installation and painting allows the outside community to interact with the works. These murals now stand as cultural landmarks in George Town, complete with plaques and frequent queues of people waiting to have their photographs taken with the works.”

Here are photos of the ones we found.Read more