Nelayan Beach Street Art Strip
The Nelayan Beach Street Art Strip in Canggu, Bali, is an open-air gallery of murals created on fishermen's shacks during the 2016 Tropica Festival by over forty international artists. Organized by Julien Thorax, the event brought street artists like Seth Globepainter, Roa, and Felipe Pantone to the lane. Seth painted signature murals of children in vivid tropical tones, though a local landowner later painted over several pieces to deter tourists.
Canggu, Bali · from the walk “Canggu Unlocked: Surf, Murals & Island Vibes” · audio ~3 min · Generated
Jl. Lkr. Nelayan, Canggu, Bali
- Former Parisian finance worker Julien Thorax launched Bali's first street art festival, Tropica Festival, in 2016.
- Over forty international artists painted murals along Jalan Lingkar Nelayan during the week-long Tropica Festival in Canggu.
- French artist Seth Globepainter painted at least three murals depicting children on abandoned fishermen's shacks at Nelayan Beach.
- Artist Seth Globepainter has painted murals in nearly fifty countries since starting his global journey in 2003.
Why were some of Seth Globepainter's murals at the Nelayan Beach Street Art Strip defaced?
Okay, so check this out. You're standing on Jalan Lingkar Nelayan... and this quiet little lane might look like just another backstreet in Canggu. But look around you. These crumbling fishermen's shacks and weathered walls? They're actually an open-air gallery, hiding some of the most Instagrammable street art in All of Bali. Here's the story. In two thousand sixteen, a guy named Julien Thorax, a former finance worker from Paris who'd ditched his desk job to chase art, launched something called the Tropica Festival... Bali's First street art and graffiti festival. More than forty artists descended on Canggu for one wild week of parties and painting. And we're not talking random taggers. Names like Sofles, Askew, Roa, Felipe Pantone, Fintan Magee, and Seth Globepainter showed up and basically put Bali on the global street art map. Now... the star of This particular spot? A French street artist named Seth Globepainter, whose real name is Julien Malland, visited Bali in two thousand sixteen and painted a series of murals right here at the Nelayan fishing village. These abandoned fishermen's shacks and huts near the beach provided the perfect canvas. And here's what makes Seth's work so recognizable. His signature is painting colorful, thoughtful children that transform urban walls into spaces filled with imagination, innocence, and hope. He put up at least three pieces right here at Nelayan Beach. Can you spot them? Look for those dreamy kids, painted in vivid greens and blues that blend right into the tropical jungle behind them. He used green tones specifically to tie together the surrounding nature with his artwork. But here's the wild part that most people don't know. The grandmother who owns much of the land around here actually got tired of watching tourists come every single day to photograph the murals... so she decided to Deface them herself. Just buffed right over some of the art! Can you imagine? World-class murals, destroyed because grandma had had Enough of people in her yard.
Seth himself graduated from the famous Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Paris and started his global journey in two thousand three. He's now painted in close to Fifty countries, from Cambodia to Ukraine to Palestine. He even hosted a TV show on Canal Plus called Les Nouveaux Explorateurs, where each episode focused on a different country's local mural artists. So as you walk this lane, keep your eyes peeled. Some murals survived, some are fading, some are layered with newer work by other artists like Caratoes and Más Gaga. The Tropica Festival later teamed up with a foundation called Pangeaseed to raise awareness about plastic pollution and ocean damage... a Huge issue here in Bali. So what started as paint on fishing shacks became something much bigger... a movement where art meets activism, right here on this sleepy black sand beach. Take a moment. Grab some photos. And hey... see if you can count how many different artists left their mark on this one little street.