Boa Mistura: Murals that inspire change

Madrid-based arts collective Boa Mistura create large-scale murals that aim to inspire the communities who live around them.

Multidisciplinary art collective Boa Mistura create large scale murals in public spaces with the intention of uplifting and inspiring the communities. From their studio in Madrid, their projects have taken them as far as South Africa, US, UK, Brazil, Mexico, Georgia, Algeria, Norway, Serbia and Panamá.

The urban art group was founded in 2001 and their name, which means “good mixture” in Portuguese, refers to the diversity of perspectives and talents of each of the members. Amongst the team there are architects, engineers, fine artists, graphic designers and advertising specialists. The main motivation for starting the group was to have fun together, which is reflected in the vibrancy and colour in their work.

“We were interested in the way Brazilian artists worked. They adapt to the lack of materials and they create really amazing things and amazing tools to make art and that was our interest in that time and still is now,” says founding member Pablo Ferreiro.

A trip to Cape Town, South Africa in 2011 changed the direction of the Boa Mistura collective. While the focus was still on having fun while they created, on that particular trip they learnt the potential of art to change the reality of the community living around it and to inspire change. Since then, their work has had a much stronger focus on social impact.