13 Istanbul Street Art Murals and Their Story

Some of the most interesting Istanbul street art turns up on the city’s grittier back streets, where two graffiti artists have been turning gray walls into something worth a second look. Seyfi Güney and Osman Delice paint murals through the Okmeydanı and Mahmut Şevket Paşa neighborhoods, sometimes joined by fellow street artists Pepe Mode On, Scar, Pouc and Gesk. Between projects, the pair also lend their work to social causes. The most recent, as of 2017: a mural for the “No to Child Brides” campaign on İstiklal Street in Taksim.

1. Istanbul street art on an Okmeydanı wall

One of the duo’s early pieces in Okmeydanı, where cracked plaster and bare concrete get a new layer of color instead of a fresh coat of paint.

2. Another corner, another design

A second mural from the same stretch of streets. It’s part of the ongoing effort to give the neighborhood’s walls a different story to tell.

3. Color on a quiet backstreet

Güney and Delice tend to pick walls that passersby see every day. Not landmarks—just the ordinary backdrop of the neighborhood.

4. A design built for a narrow street

This piece sits on a tighter stretch of road, the kind of in-between space that usually goes unnoticed until it’s painted.

5. The “No to Child Brides” mural

The artists’ most widely shared piece is this one. Painted for the “No to Child Brides” campaign on İstiklal Street, it turns the project’s message into public art instead of a poster. And a wall that size is a lot harder to walk past than a flyer. The setting matters too. The Okmeydanı murals mostly reach the neighbors who pass them every day, while a wall on İstiklal Street, Istanbul’s busiest pedestrian street, puts the same kind of work in front of a far bigger crowd.

6. A fresh take on a familiar wall

Different street, same idea: one more wall pulled into the duo’s running collection of murals across the district.

7. Detail work on a side-street facade

Graffiti still gets written off as plain vandalism. Fair here? Look closer: the linework is the kind that separates a planned mural from a quick tag.

8. A mural stretching across a wall

A larger surface gave the artists more room. The design fills it edge to edge.

9. Another street, repainted

Part of the same run of works through the neighborhood’s back streets.

10. A design with room to breathe

Some of the murals lean toward dense detail. Not this one: it takes a simpler approach to the same wall-sized canvas.

11. One more wall, reimagined

The pair keep coming back to the same stretch of streets, wall after wall, and that habit is the reason the neighborhood keeps gaining new murals as the years go by.

12. A design that holds its ground

The wall is worn and weather-stained. The piece still reads clearly from across the street. People who live on a street like this tend to stop seeing a painted wall after a while; it’s usually someone passing through who slows down for it.

13. The last stop on this stretch

The final piece in this set closes out a walk through Güney and Delice’s work in the neighborhood.

Street murals rarely last forever: walls get repainted, buildings come down, and there’s no telling how many of these are still up. Here’s hoping Istanbul’s streets keep picking up more color like this.

Sources and further reading: Seyfi Güney (Instagram), Osman Delice (Instagram).