Where to find the best Denver murals (and why the RiNo walls never stay the same)

Denver is one hot ticket when it comes to street art. With its quirky character and cultural focus, it’s no wonder its urban art scene is popping, and believe me, it is. This is my street-by-street guide to the city’s murals, from the alleys behind a food hall to the neighbourhoods most visitors never reach, with a map to plan your own walk.

Denver was the first stop on my Colorado road trip in May and boy, did I fall in love with it HARD.

Plentiful sunshine, all the breweries you could ever wish for and (most importantly) a banging street art scene.

I’m ashamed to say that before my trip I had no idea that Denver was such an arts hub… turns out that pretty much everywhere you go, there’s a cool piece or two to be found.

With only a couple of days in the city, I gave most of the museums a miss and spent my time wandering RiNo, neck craned at one wall after another. The only street art neighbourhood I’ve seen that comes close is Shoreditch in London, and I don’t say that lightly: Denver is a serious contender for one of my favourite street art cities anywhere.

Denver has a long history of public art. Since 1988, 1% of every city-funded building project worth more than $1 million has been set aside for art, and the city’s collection now runs to more than 400 works, from huge sculptures and installations (like the famous Big Blue Bear) to pieces you’ll walk past without noticing.

Large scale murals and street art are a part of that movement too, moving from the underground to the mainstream within the past few decades.

If you’re really serious about finding the best of Denver’s street art scene in a short period of time, I’d suggest you head to RiNo (River North), which is what most of this guide to Denver’s murals and street art focuses on.

Of course, one of the big things about street art is its transitory nature. There are so many times that I’ve gone back to one of my favourite walls only to find a new piece has gone up in its place. Don’t be surprised if you find the same.

In RiNo that happens faster than almost anywhere I know. Most of the walls are repainted for festivals, and plenty of the pieces I photographed have since been painted over. So on each street you’ll find the murals that are there now first, followed by the pieces I found when I visited, which give you a feel for the artists who paint here (several of them have painted newer walls nearby).

That’s why I’ve organised this article by street and area rather than by the individual pieces themselves. Enjoy!

Looking for a guided tour? This two-hour RiNo Art District graffiti and street art tour takes you round the alleys with someone who knows the artists.

Where to find cool Denver murals in RiNo

Hip and happening RiNo is the heart of Denver’s street art scene.

Taking a few hours to explore the area’s walls (the RiNo Art District’s own list runs to more than 100 murals, and no, I’m not exaggerating, plus more than a few unofficial ones) is one of the best ways to see the neighbourhood.

When I visited, a huge street art festival, CRUSH WALLS, took over RiNo every September, bringing the boldest and the brightest from the international street art scene (as well as a tonne of homegrown Denver talent to boot) to splash the district with all kinds of street art.

The RiNo Art District cut ties with CRUSH at the end of 2020 and has commissioned its own walls since. In 2023 it welcomed Denver Walls, the local edition of the international World Wide Walls festival, and its new murals go up in late September and early October, so visit then and you can watch artists at work.

Though lots of cities around the world have similar festivals (Madrid, London and Montreal being three examples that spring to mind), I’ve never seen anything quite as extensive as the festival walls here.

It’s huge, to the point where it feels like every corner holds more pieces to be discovered, each one jostling for your attention, making the most of every centimetre of their allotted space.

I’ve picked out my favourite spots in RiNo below. If you want a full breakdown of every wall and its location, the RiNo Art District’s website lists its murals with a map pin for each.

Expect it all to change again come autumn, though.

PS. I wouldn’t blame you either if you stopped off at one or two of the many craft breweries dotted around the area as you were checking out the spots because hey, it’s Denver and walking is thirsty work.

The parking lot next to Denver Central Market

This was the first place I started in RiNo and what a start.

The pieces here are huge and, thanks to the contrasting styles of the different artists, the overall effect is pretty impressive.

Just don’t get so distracted by the art that you forget it is actually a car park with sporadically moving vehicles and everything.

If you’re really short on time, I’d suggest sticking to the car park of Denver Central Market (2669 Larimer Street) and the block surrounding it, including Alleys 1, 2 and 3 plus a section of Larimer.

Power and Equality by Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is one of the biggest names on America’s street art scene, in no small part thanks to that iconic Obama poster for the 2008 election campaign.

His strong use of shape and limited colour palette guarantee that his works always pack a punch, and Power and Equality is no different.

The strong message is reminiscent of civil rights causes of times past, and serves a timely reminder that the message the piece conveys is no less relevant or required today.

Fairey painted it for CRUSH in 2018, and it’s one of the pieces from my visit that’s still there today.

We Are Here, We Are Still Here by Danielle SeeWalker, Gregg Deal and JayCee Beyale

Across the same lot, three Native American artists painted this mural for Native American Heritage Month in 2021, as part of the RiNo Art District’s own mural programme. Its full title, We Are Here, We Are Still Here: Re-imagining Stereotypes, tells you exactly what it sets out to do.

More from the lot when I visited

When I was there, the walls around the lot also held these three. Look out for the artists’ newer work around the district: Nick Napoletano and Marissa Napoletano painted a wall at Rackhouse in 2020.

Brown Diamonds by Cryptik. Cryptik has painted quite a few pieces around the RiNo District, and this megalith was on Larimer Street when I visited. The artist’s clever use of Islamic script and geometric forms is mesmerising: it’s like staring into an intricate kaleidoscope.

Keep Smiling by David Shillinglaw. Londoner David Shillinglaw is not afraid of a bold stroke of colour and a happy message. This was one of the many pictures in his positive “Keep Smiling” series.

Woman’s Reflection by Napoletano Art. Nick Napoletano blends hyperrealism with a palette of gorgeous colours to create this large-scale inverted piece of a woman staring at her reflection.

Alleys 1, 2 and 3

The alleys run behind Larimer Street: Alley 1 between 25th and 26th Streets, Alley 2 behind Denver Central Market and Alley 3 between 27th and 28th.

Make sure you don’t miss them. Even though they’re not actually that long, it took me at least an hour to dawdle my way along them as there are so many pieces cleverly fitted into each alley.

This does have the flipside that these three alleys are some of the busier RiNo street art spots, but I think you’ll agree these pieces are worth waiting a little longer to see.

Holding Hope by Chloé Duplessis and Valerie Rose

Chloé Duplessis and Valerie Rose painted Holding Hope in Alley 2 in 2021, for the district’s Disability Employment Awareness Month wall, and it’s one of the newer pieces that has stuck around.

Alley 2 changes almost every year. Since my visit it has gained collaborations by DINKC, Shitty Kitten and Esic, and by Karma Leigh and Miss Meeg (three of the artists I’d photographed there), plus Denver Walls pieces by Chelsea Lewinski, Kimchi Juice and the DF Crew. In Alley 3, look for Mythik’s wall (more on that below) and a collaboration between BILD and The Designosaur.

The alley pieces I found when I visited

I’ve picked a few of my favourites from my visit for you to peek at. Most have since been painted over, but they show you the range of styles these alleys attract.

Psychedelic Creatures by Pharaoh One. Local artist Pharaoh One blends South American artistic influences with more than a touch of the psychedelic in his eye-popping mural.

Still Wave by ESIC. Denver-based ESIC focuses on small details, bringing them to life in striking colours, in this case a wave caught mid-motion.

Surreal by MPEK 36. Mexican street artist MPEK is a huge name internationally and you can glimpse his signature style, blending surrealist forms with three dimensional shading, in this cool piece.

Spirited Away by Miss Meeg. On a completely different note, I was totally digging the Hayao Miyazaki-inspired Spirited Away vibes in this piece by Miss Meeg. Miss Meeg, aka Meeg Conroy, combines paint and wheatpasting to create murals of the people and animals that define Denver.

Running Things by Jher Seno and the Arty Deeds Crew. The scale of this piece will totally blow you away. Practically running the length of the whole of Alley 3, Running Things paid homage to everyone’s favourite creepy alien Netflix programme, Stranger Things, with a series of murals depicting scenes from the show.

Casey Kawaguchi is still painting in RiNo: his Denver Walls piece is on the side of Il Posto on Larimer Street.

Larimer Street

Larimer Boy and Girl by Jeremy Burns

Jeremy Burns has created one of the most unique Denver murals with Larimer Boy and Girl by using a three dimensional canvas to create two completely different images depending on which way you approach it from.

It’s painted on fins fixed to the Aspen Linen building on Larimer and has been there since 2015. Walk up from 27th Street and you’ll see the girl; come from 28th and you’ll see the boy. Stand right in front of it and it all but disappears.

EL MAC and Hoxxoh at the Ramble Hotel

The Ramble Hotel, near the junction of Larimer and Broadway, has a 2020 CRUSH wall by two heavyweights: Los Angeles portrait painter EL MAC and Miami artist Hoxxoh, known for his hypnotic, rippling colour.

More from Larimer Street when I visited

The Scourge of Society by Nomad Clan. British duo Nomad Clan are tipped as two of the hottest female street artists in the world, and they painted this cool piece for CRUSH in 2018.

PS. It was in an inaccessible forecourt around the back of the Ramble Hotel, almost at the junction of Larimer and Broadway, as was Lindee Zimmer’s below, but they were so large that seeing them wasn’t exactly a problem!

Lady Larimer by Lindee Zimmer. You can find Lindee Zimmer’s mystical ladies all over Denver (and a couple of places internationally too), including a low wall she painted in the Denver Central Market lot in 2020.

Orange, Blue, and Red Eyes by Aholsniffsglue. Mesmerisingly creepy, Ahol Sniffs Glue’s piece contrasts the intensity of hundreds of eyes staring at you with bright colours and outlines.

Representing Ahol’s vision of life, it’s definitely one that will make you look twice.

It’s Almost Too Hard Not to Look Away by Scot LeFavor. LeFavor makes a political statement with this bold (in more ways than one) piece, the subject reflecting the written statement.

LeFavor created it to channel the worry and anxiety we feel about the things happening in today’s world, in line with his generally outspoken and politically charged works.

Walnut Street

Queen Fathima by Jodie Herrera and Miles Toland

In a parking lot off Walnut Street between 27th and 28th, Jodie Herrera and Miles Toland painted a portrait of Fathima Dickerson of Welton Street Café, the Five Points soul food institution. It went up in 2023.

Walnut is worth walking end to end: Kendall Rose Kippley has a wall at 26th and Walnut, and Keya Tama painted the side of Corsica at 2801 Walnut for Denver Walls in 2023.

More from Walnut Street when I visited

Eyeballs by Vyal One. Vyal One’s mystical eye paintings have been popping up all over the country, but this one, which covered a whole building on Walnut, couldn’t fail to catch your eye. There’s so much detail.

Unusual in an abstract painting, and I loved the contrast between the black background and neon colours.

27th Street

Nina Simone mural by Detour 303. Detour takes up the mantle of portraying minorities in heroic graphics, and I think it’s safe to say that he had spectacular success with none other than Miss Nina Simone.

Channelling pop art simplicity with bold uses of outline, it was one of my favourite pieces that I found that day.

Thomas “Detour” Evans has painted all over the city since. In RiNo, look for his 2021 collaboration with Carmen Richards at Nocturne, the jazz club at 1330 27th Street, and the floor mural that covers the entire top deck of The Source Hotel’s car park on Brighton Boulevard, his piece for the first Denver Walls.

Broadway

Love This City by Pat Milbery. What a way to make a statement. Splashed over the corner of a block on Broadway, there was absolutely no missing this cool piece, one of many by Pat Milbery dotted all over the city.

This one was my favourite though. It was painted on sheet metal, so when its building was earmarked for demolition the artist was able to rescue it: don’t expect to find it on the same corner.

His Love This City hearts, painted with his So Gnar Creative crew, are dotted all over the city, including “With Love From Denver” at 2314 Broadway in Five Points, a heart at 722 Santa Fe Drive in the Art District on Santa Fe and another at 3206 Osage Street in Lower Highland. In RiNo, he and So Gnar painted a wall at 2813 Blake Street in 2020, and there’s a collaboration with Gamma at 3121 Larimer.

Alleys 4, 5 and 6

Alleys 4, 5 and 6 might not have quite the same concentration of pieces as 1, 2 and 3 (though they’re not far off) but you’re certainly not going to struggle to find cool works along them at all.

They also have the added benefit of being a lot quieter (particularly 5 and 6, which are some distance away from Denver Central Market at the hub of the action).

That way you can pose away or study pieces closely, whichever floats your boat, with minimal chances of being disturbed.

The Sister Cities wall at 32nd and Blake

Near the end of Alley 6, Wen2, Worm, Anna Charney and Mike Graves painted a big collaborative wall in 2022 celebrating Brest in France, one of the city’s sister cities. Mike Graves also has a wall with Birdcap at Stem Ciders.

More from the alleys when I visited

Hermes Messenger of the Gods by PichiAvo. Hermes was given a thoroughly modern makeover in this piece by Spanish duo PichiAvo, painted for CRUSH in 2018 (it was on Blake, tucked around the corner from Alley 6 at 32nd Street).

Fallen Masters by Delton Demerest. Colorado native Delton paid homage to three lost friends in this eye-catching piece.

Blake Street

Monochrome World by Rumtum

RUMTUM (or John Hastings) uses monochrome colours and fine detailing to create a cool landscape on this building at 2750 Blake Street. He painted it in 2018, and it’s still one of the easiest walls in RiNo to find.

More walls on the edges of RiNo

The block surrounding 35th Street

I totally failed to make it over the railway lines to 35th Street as I completely underestimated the distance and ran out of time.

Disappointing, right? I know. I trust that you will do better on that front though. If you do, a wall by the SWS Crew awaits at Zeppelin Station.

The Denver Walls murals on Brighton Boulevard and beyond

The first Denver Walls festival in 2023 left some of the biggest walls in the district, and they’re spread out enough to need a plan:

• Austrian artist NYCHOS and local artist ILL.DES both painted the Mission Ballroom, the concert venue on the northern edge of RiNo
• South African artist Faith47 painted the wall at Barcelona Wine Bar on Larimer
• Berlin-based James Bullough painted 3750 Blake Street
• Greg Mike’s cartoon characters are on The Block Distilling
• Detour’s floor mural covers the top deck of The Source Hotel’s car park

A second festival in 2024 added 13 more walls, with artists including TelmoMiel from the Netherlands, Ledania from Colombia and MurOne from Spain.

Newer RiNo murals to hunt down

The RiNo Art District and CRUSH parted ways at the end of 2020, so the 2020 festival walls were among CRUSH’s last in the district, and several are still there. Street art here is ever-changing, but these are some of the most impressive pieces to have gone up since my visit.

Portrait by BakPak Durden

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by CRUSH WALLS (@thecrushwalls)

BakPak Durden’s portraits have a big following, and there’s something hauntingly beautiful about this Hamlet-esque piece from CRUSH in 2020.

Woke Cartoons by Mythik

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by CRUSH WALLS (@thecrushwalls)

Not only a brilliant artist, Mythik is also a teacher, and his 8th grade students helped him to complete this mural for CRUSH in 2020. You’ll spot this wall in Alley 3, to the north of 27th between Larimer and Walnut Streets.

Rebellion by the RTD Crew

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by CRUSH WALLS (@thecrushwalls)

The RTD Crew have been part of the CRUSH programme since the beginning, and created this stunning piece to celebrate 30 years of rebellion in Denver. Find it in Alley 1, south of 26th between Larimer and Walnut.

Skyline mural by Kendall Paints, Reverie Ink and Anna Charney

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by CRUSH WALLS (@thecrushwalls)

This epic trio of badass women have created a skyline mural like no other, on the roof of Denver Central Market. It’s a shame that you can’t see it too well from the ground, because look at how beautiful it is! Though, who needs an excuse to throw a rooftop party?

Floral walls by Remington Robinson and Jason T. Graves

> View this post on Instagram A post shared by CRUSH WALLS (@thecrushwalls)

Another of the best murals in the city. Robinson and Graves teamed up in 2020 to create this beautiful flower artwork on the Green Spaces building, and the level of detail on the petals is insane. You’ll find it on the corner of Walnut Street and 26th.

Other cool areas for hunting out Denver’s murals

Five Points

Next door to RiNo, Five Points was the heart of the city’s Black community and its jazz scene, and Welton Street is its main drag. In 2021, the Five Points Outdoor Mural Gallery opened at Five Points Plaza (26th Avenue and Welton Street): eight murals, each designed by a different Black artist, including Moe Gram, Vincent Gordon and Giovannie “Just” Dixon, who also painted the frames around the others. Pair it with Queen Fathima on Walnut, a few blocks away.

East Colfax

I didn’t get to spend any time over in East Colfax (best believe I’m saving that for the next trip though).

With its reputation as one of Denver’s liveliest cultural hubs (particularly in the music department), it’s no surprise that it has a lot of cool wall art that you should add to your Denver graffiti tour if you have time.

Confluence Park

The area surrounding Confluence Park, where Cherry Creek meets the South Platte River on the edge of LoDo (Lower Downtown to those not in the Denver know: there’s a reason that South Park took the piss out of the city for its area names), also has a good number of street art pieces for you to explore, especially along the riverside paths.

The Art District on Santa Fe

Well, the name pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? The Art District on Santa Fe has around 30 galleries, the biggest concentration in Colorado, and opens late for a First Friday art walk every month.

Not content with that, it also boasts a number of cool pieces on pretty much every outdoor surface that you can think of, including one of Pat Milbery’s Love This City hearts at 722 Santa Fe Drive.

La Alma Lincoln Park and Sun Valley

Just west of Santa Fe, La Alma Lincoln Park is where the city’s Chicano murals live, and locals describe them as the soul of the neighbourhood. The one to see is La Alma, painted by Emanuel Martinez with Michael Maestas and local residents in 1978 at the La Alma Recreation Center on West 11th Avenue. Look out too for the Su Teatro mural by Carlos Frésquez and students from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

A short hop south-west in Sun Valley, David Ocelotl Garcia’s Huitzilopochtli (2007) at 2895 West 8th Avenue was painted over in 2020, and in July 2022 the artist spent three weeks stripping the white paint back off it. His El Milagro is in RiNo ArtPark, by the river.

Westwood

South-west of the centre, the Westwood Creative District along Morrison Road is a different world from RiNo: murals rooted in the area’s Latino culture cover walls, electrical boxes and even bins.

40 West Arts, Lakewood

Just over the city line on West Colfax, the 40 West Arts district in Lakewood has more than two dozen public art installations, many of them big colourful murals.

The Big Blue Bear

Not a mural, but if you only have time to see one piece of the city’s public art, make it this one. I See What You Mean by Lawrence Argent is a 40-foot blue bear pressing its nose against the glass of the Colorado Convention Center on 14th Street, and it stands for the wild outdoors on the city’s doorstep.

Tips for your mural hunt

• When to go: RiNo’s First Friday runs from 6pm to 9pm on the first Friday of every month, and Denver Walls paints new murals in late September and early October.
• Getting there: Denver Central Market is about a 30-minute walk from Union Station; for the northern end of RiNo, take the A Line one stop to 38th and Blake.
• With a guide: the RiNo beer and graffiti tour mixes walls with brewery stops over two and a half hours. I saw a lot of the city’s public art from an e-tuk, with some of the funniest guides I’ve met.
• Be considerate: a lot of these walls are on working car parks, loading bays and garage doors, so don’t block anyone in for a photo.
• Where to stay: I stayed downtown at the Sheraton Denver Downtown, an easy ride from RiNo; to sleep among the murals, The Ramble Hotel is on Larimer. More in my guide to where to stay in Denver.

Map

And that’s it. You’re all set to go and explore Denver’s cool street art scene.

Honestly, it really is something special.

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