Popular street art festival Nuart Aberdeen has been officially opened by Aberdeen Inspired earlier this afternoon.
Eleven internationally-renowned artists spent the past 10 days exploring the theme of this year’s festival – reconnect – to create stunning works of art in the heart of Aberdeen.
While Elisa Capdevila was seeking to reconnect with herself, Slim Safont wanted to connect the tedious punishment of writing lines from his school years with his adult life.
Reconnecting with Aberdeen was also Norwegian artist Martin Whatson who returned to the north-east to once again take part in Nuart Aberdeen – five years after he created one of the festival’s first murals.
His popular mural of a golfer on Queen Street was demolished in early 2021, so the artist was thrilled to be invited back to “put a mark on the city” again.
Jofre Oliveras, Mohamed L’Ghacham, Jacoba Niepoort, Nuno Viegas, Miss Printed, James Klinge, Pejac and Erin Holly also travelled to the north-east to create attention-grabbing murals for the festival.
Adrian Watson, chief executive of Aberdeen Inspired which is behind the festival, welcomed the crowd that gathered on Broad Street for the official opening of Nuart Aberdeen 2022.
The ceremony took place at 1pm today (Saturday June 11) and was followed by a walking tour of both old and new artworks.
He said: “I’m absolutely delighted to be here with my team today, working alongside the wonderful Martyn Reed who’s the curator for Nuart.
“Nuart Aberdeen started in 2017 and really has been transformational for the city and brought a real positive buzz to Aberdeen – at a time when it really has been needed.
“Aberdeen city centre – like so many others across the country – is going through a difficult, challenging transition and it’s events like Nuart that make the difference culturally.
“Get behind your city centre.”
The P&J entertainment team attended the official opening ceremony and spoke to a few locals who decided to go on the first Nuart Aberdeen 2022 walking tour.
Alan Brown, retired chemical engineer, said: “It’s very interesting. My daughter Jenna was volunteering (for Nuart Aberdeen) for the last nine days.
“We came three or four times to see the artworks progressing. It’s nice to see something evolve out of a plain brick wall.”
Evgenia Maiburova, energy transition and technology student at Aberdeen University, ventured to the city centre with her friend Irina Shustova, corporate finance and law student at Aberdeen University, to take in the new artworks.
Evgenia said: “I’m really excited because I like street art and I liked the artworks from previous years in the city.”
“I’m also very excited,” said Irina.
“It’s an exclusive opportunity to explore vibrant UK art and culture and to listen to Scottish music (a bagpiper performed at the opening ceremony).
“I’m enjoying the atmosphere here – people are so friendly and I’m enjoying the new street art as well.
“I love all the artworks – I can’t choose a favourite because they’re all really impressive and colourful and I think they add something new to the Granite City – something modern and new.”
WATCH: Nuart muralist Mohamed L’Ghacham receives warm welcome in Aberdeen
Check out our interactive map below to see where you can find old Nuart Aberdeen artworks as well as the new creations.
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