Norway’s Nuart Scene

Adopting building façades, abandoned tunnels and street signs as a giant canvas, each autumn the biggest names in street art transform the scenic burg of Stavanger into a showcase for their considerable talent during the Nuart festival, captured here in photographer Leon Chew’s series. Since 2005, the festival has provided a unique opportunity for typically renegade artists to work freely in Stavanger’s quaint alleyways and side streets. With local residents and lawmakers embracing the urban art form with enthusiasm, the surrounding fjords and dramatic natural vistas serve as an equally idiosyncratic backdrop to the playful and subversive pieces on display. “People are always asking ‘why is that horrible thing in my city—who decided to put the ugly metal girder outside the train station?’” says Martyn Reed, the festival’s founder and creative director. “It’s about really reevaluating what ‘public art’ means.” The municipality has become a destination for urban art aficionados inspired by its growing collection—added to this year by artists reflecting the current trend of subtler illustration-led works like Herbert Baglione of Brazil, Escif and Hyuro of Spain, homegrown Norwegian favorite Dolk, and American David Choe. “We want it to be more art and a little less street,” says Reed.