Poland has a long, lauded tradition of graphic art, which continued to flourish under the constraints of communism and has exhibited an even greater depth of imagination since. And while anyone on a Sunday stroll about town in PL is likely to see the country’s proud poster art tradition in full force on city walls and signboards, that same creativity doesn’t seem to have translated off paper onto the graffiti found marring public spaces. Indeed, most of the graffiti found in Poland’s major cities is embarrassingly artless, failing to graduate beyond gang signs and slurs or football allegiances. With Wrocław perhaps being the only exception, the curators of the city’s vanguard Awangarda Gallery nonetheless saw fit to see more done in the right direction, organising the country’s first street art exhibition in July 2008 by inviting 20 of Europe’s biggest names in urban art to do installations in Wrocław. While half the exhibition – dubbed ‘Out of Sth’ – took place within the conventional, accepted art space of the city centre gallery, the other half took to the streets creating murals and large-scale art pieces within the urban landscape, reclaiming public space for skilled, provocative, purposeful, you know...art. And while the results may not have sparked a city wide artistic revolution, they do put Wrocław on a map of cities with a street art consciousness and will hopefully encourage more thoughtful public renderings, holding your next profane spray can scrawling to a higher court of aesthetic accountability.

We had no problem hounding down Out of Sth’s highlights and hope anyone else with an interest in urban art will do the same, so here’s our homework: Two of the event’s most evocative works come from the trendsetting, enigmatic Italian painter known as ‘Blu;’ his sardonic mural of a man sleeping on a pillow of money can be found covering the side of a building on the corner of ul. Pomorska and ul. Cybulskiego (A-1). Even easier to find, Blu’s second piece – a mural of a woman wearing a dress made of locks and bolts – adorns a back wall of the only building (hard to miss) on Słodowa Island (B-2). Beside it is a large figure painted by the Polish activist and artist going by the pseudonym ZBK, while discreetly tucked between them is a piece by home-grown sculptor and artist Olaf Brzeski. ZBK – who co-authored Out of Sth – has also covered an entire block of ul. Nabycińska (just off ul. Legnicka, E-4) with his comic figures, which can also be seen in a satirical composition on nearby Plac Jana Pawła II (A-4). Plac Jana Pawła II also shares its space with an iconic mural by one of the exhibition’s other premier participants – French painter and designer, Remed. Worth seeking out, Remed’s second mural – perhaps the largest and most captivating now in Wrocław – can be seen covering the entire breadth of an apartment building on ul. Ptasia (F-3), looking over a bleak, dishevelled marketplace in one of Wrocław’s grittier (and by that we mean s#!ttier) neighbourhoods. Before Out of Sth checked in, Wrocław's most visible graffiti street could and still should be seen in the spaces above and below the Plac Powstańców Warszawy roundabout (D-3/4). That is until cult culture hangout Niskie Łąki organised the Pink Piknik Festival and filled their entire Ruska courtyard with colourful wallpieces by ZBK and friends (E-4, ul. Ruska 46c). Finally, not to be forgotten is the CRK squat at Jagiellończyka 10c/d (F-3) which – since long before contemporary art galleries started endorsing street art – still boasts some of the best graffiti in Wrocław with elaborate murals by local heroes MCity and ZBK. That’s called credibility, kids.