Exploring Bali's Rising Street Art Scene

There's something special happening on the walls of Bali. Neighborhoods like Canggu are home to a thriving street art scene, with murals cropping up next to the rice paddies and hip cafes. The open-air gallery All Caps is the heart of it all. This graffiti supply store opened its doors in 2015 and turned a former rice drying warehouse into a gallery for the island's rising graffiti artists.

"Some people still see graffiti as pure vandalism and we want to show that it can be a form of art as well," said Julien Thorax, the store's owner. "But it's always a balancing act of respecting the local vandals. It's their right to do what they want to do, to tag, to bomb, and to run."

Julien Thorax, or TraX, has been documenting and collecting street art all around Europe for almost a decade. He owns pieces by the likes of Banksy, OSGEMEOS, and Invader. In 2015, Julien arrived in Bali and began to work with local graffiti writers and street artists, planning events, tours, and documenting it all online. One of the artists Julien found was DOBY, who signed on as one of the founding fathers of All Caps.

"With the increasing number of artists involving themselves in events held in public spaces and the increasing number of graffiti in rural areas local communities are indirectly starting to understand graffiti and street art," DOBY said.

People are slowly accepting graffiti as an art form in Bali, but it's still pretty risky to practice your craft in some parts of the island, DOBY explained. In Denpasar, graffiti is everywhere, but it's also still seen as vandalism.

"But outside of Denpasar, in Canggu for instance, the people are a bit more open because of Canggu's bustling tourism industry," said Tiger, an artist residence at All Caps. "Automatically people are opening up to the idea that this might be art. So it's understandable for them, some don't mind or even request their walls be painted on."

Julien said that the spread of large, intricate murals, and events like the Tropica Festival, one of Asia's biggest graffiti and street art events, will help raise awareness of graffiti as works of art. But it also takes work to educate budding graffiti artists about the potential backlash of throw-ups and tags.

"In Bali is about Karma and respect, we try to communicate with the artists that are more into bombing," he said. "We tell them try to be smart when you use your paint."