Bogota Street Art: Catch an Eyeful on This Extensive Tour

Bogota’s street art is entirely original and intensely local. This Bogota graffiti tour will give you the backstory on these amazing affworks and help you figure out where to find them.

Street art Bogota- mural by Carlos Trilleras. Indigenous woman wearing a scarf and nose ring — This mural by Carlos Trilleros features Colombian indigenous culture.

The Backstory on Graffiti in Bogota

Like so many other gritty cities featuring street art, Bogota’s movement was inspired by the New York City’s graffiti explosion in the 1980’s. By the 1990’s, Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel and the long running civil war conspired to keep Bogota poor, dangerous and dysfunctional, the prime conditions for the emergence of a graffiti movement.

For most of the 2000’s, the Bogota graffiti scene was largely one of tags and throw ups by gangs, disaffected youth and soccer hooligans. Graffiti was very much illegal and the kids doing it were often arrested.

APC Crew Bogota Graffiti. Blue lettering on black background — Modern day Bogota graffiti by the APC crew, which includes 500 members.

By 2011, the scene had begun to evolve from tagging into more artful graffiti and murals. The public was beginning to accept the art form, although the police were still having none of it. Things came to a head when the police shot and killed graffiti artist Diego Felipe Becerra.

He was simply spraying a wall, but the police overreacted. They then engaged in an elaborate cover up, accusing Becerra of attempting to rob a bus. The incident and subsequent cover-up enraged the public and there were mass demonstrations and graffiti protests.

The city responded by arresting the officers and also moving to make street art legal in Bogota. This had a profound affect on the quality and scale of Bogota street art. Many walls transitioned from quick tags thrown up in the dead of night to artful murals executed in the full light of day. Conditions were ripe for fostering a next generation of home grown street artists whose works now color the whole city.

Bogota streetart by nazza malefigure. Black paint on building — Nazza is a prolific local Bogota street artist. His stencil works often feature male figures.

Today, every neighborhood has a graffiti committee and there are festivals, commissions and ongoing painting happening all the time. Many building owners commission murals in an effort to discourage tagging. That said, the UNESCO-designated areas of the La Calendaria neighborhood are supposed to be a no-go for graffiti and murals. Whatever works you find there (and there are many), are probably illegal.

Bogota street art by Seis- woman on hostel wall — This is a commissioned piece on a local hostel that offers lodging to street artists.

Finding Bogota Street Art

There are several neighborhoods where you can find clusters of street art in Bogota.

Santa Fe behind the central cemetery.
The Puente Aranda warehouse district.
The downtown Centro District between Calle 16-18 and Carerra 3-5. Also at the Parque de los Periodistas.
La Calendaria between Calle 12c-12f and Carrera 1-3. Also at the Parque la Concordia.

Santa Fe and Puente Aranda are best explored with a local who can show you the right spots and help you avoid the dangerous ones. The downtown district and La Calendaria are next to one another and fairly compact. They can easily be explored in 2-3 hours at a leisurely pace. However, be very careful in La Calendaria at night. The warnings about nighttime muggings aren’t just talk and even the locals are wary.

Bogota mural- hairy monster — Walking around Bogota at night can be dicey. You don’t want to run into this character, for sure.

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Choosing a Bogota Graffiti Tour

If you want the full background on Bogota street art, you’ll need a guide. Bogota Graffiti Tour runs excellent, well informed tours. They were founded by the artist Crisp and their guides are specialists in street art, graffiti, anthropology and local history. They offer two hour tours every day at 10am and 2pm. The tours are free, but you need to tip the guides. If you have a small group and want a specialized tour, you can pay $200 mil ($62USD) for a custom tour of up to five people.

Even if you don’t take their tour, you should stop into their gallery at Casa Bogota Graffiti. They have framed prints of local artists work on display and for sale. It’s located near the Plaza Chorro de Quevedo.

Mural at Bogota Casa Graffiti- pink heart on orange background — The gallery run by Bogota Graffiti Tour is liberally doused with colorful murals and whimsical stencils.

There are also free (for tips) tours offered by Gran Colombia Tours. They cover similar territory but don’t have quite the street art cred as Bogota Graffiti Tour. You can also combine a light primer on street art with a bike tour of downtown and La Calendaria with Bogota Bike Tour.

Collaborative mural in Bogota: lesivo and DJLU. Three parrots, airplanes and songbirds — This collaboration by Lesivu and DJLU typifies street art in Bogota. The mural criticizes the government’s inability to deal with the cocaine trade (the parrots are slang code for cocaine)

What Makes Bogota Graffiti and Street Art Unique?

Unlike Bristol England, which curates large murals from a global pool of artists or Nashville, which focuses on big, pretty Instagrammable murals, Bogota’s graffiti ethic is intensely local and political.

Many of the murals and stencils tackle political corruption, influence of the drug culture and indigenous culture. There is also a growing population of female artists in Bogota, which is nice to see in such a male dominated field.

Bogota Graffiti tour Guache mural of an Indigenous person with blue, green and pink colors — This beautiful piece is by Guache. He celebrates indigenous Colombian culture with highly stylized portraits of real people.

Creative Collaborations

Unlike London’s Shoreditch, where murals get mashed up and covered over by new works, Bogota’s street art scene features very intentional collaborations between artists. You can see how well this works with the parrot mural above and the piece below, which features a Nazza stencil and a background by Aeon.

Street art Bogota- three boys by Nazza on multicolored background — By Nazza and Aeon

There is also a remarkable multi-generational collaboration in Parque La Concordia. RODE2 is the father and he is joined by his sons, Nomada and Maleoria. They have completely festooned the park with murals on the walls, graffiti on the steps and whimsical coverings on the benches. If you don’t have time for a full Bogota graffiti tour, be sure you make time to see the park, because it is a singular work of art.

Bogota graffiti tour Parque la Concordia- mural on park wall with three masks — Here is the exterior wall of the park, featuring a piece from each of the three family artists.

Street art Bogota Parque la Concordia deer mural — And here is a gobsmacking mural on an interior wall of the park.

This beautiful collaboration features Skore99, Resko and Stinkfish. Three very different styles tied together with a bright color palette.

The most important and strong message of all my graffiti is a clear message of independence, anonymity, freedom and illegality
–Stinkfish

Bogota blue face mural by skore999 — And yet another collaboration featuring Skore99 and VSK.

Bogota street art skeleton mural by Nychos. two horizontal skeletons in black and yellow — Street art is always ephemeral and Bogota is no exception, with pieces going up (and then coming down) during construction. Skeletons by Nychos.

Crazy Cats

For some inexplicable reason, cats have grabbed a starring role in street art and Bogota is no exception. I asked Monica, our tour guide about it. She figures it’s because cats are nocturnal creatures and quite often, street artists have to slink around in the dead of night to do their art. I’d love to hear your theories on this topic, so please comment below if you have one.

Bogota street art cat by Brandalism. Multicolored cat wearing a hat — Cats by Brandalism

Bogota mural- lion and bird with red background by Franco — Wild cat by Franco

Mural in Bogota- cats by ION totles, Multiple cats on two exterior walls — But wait, here are even more cats. This mural was part of an environmental installation by ION Totles. It originally included the light post and street signage.

Sinkfish stencil in Bogota. Boy holding a rat — Here is a paste-up from Stinkfish.

Bogota mural by Hoxxoh — Not all Bogota murals are made by locals. This piece is by Miami-based Hoxxoh.

Bogota’s street art culture is not willing to leave Colombia’s history in the dust. These murals and and graffiti keep its political awareness and cultural traditions up front and in your face. Because of this, it’s worth prioritizing Bogota on any Colombian itinerary.

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Bogota graffiti wall in La Calendaria. Graffiti, cheetah and faces in multi colors — Here’s a mash-up of many Colombia artists. And…another cat in the upper left corner.

Read More: Explore more of Colombia with this two week itinerary, a guide to Old Town Cartagena and this guide for visiting San Andres island. Get inspired to go there with this list of books set in Colombia.

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