Street art has long had a contentious relationship with the law. Judging by how New York is treating street-artist-in-residence Banksy, it doesn’t look to get better in America anytime soon. However, street artists in Poland are making a push to put legal street art on the map.Poland has become the land of giants!In cities across the country artists have transformed the sides of houses and apartment blocks with enormous murals, some pieces stretching upwards of ten stories.

The Etam Cru— comprised of Bezt (Mateusz Gapski) and Sainer (Przemek Blejzyk) — have been legally creating street murals in the cities of Poland for more than ten years. Because they work legally, usually in a public-private partnership, they are able to create paintings that can stretch as tall as ten stories high.

The duo has been so successful that they’ve even begun to do murals in the United States and the rest of Europe. This past year they painted massive murals in Richmond, Virginia for the Richmond Mural Project.

The duo has also worked with Natalia Rak, another young Polish artist who has produced her own larger-than-life pieces in Poland and the United States.

Most of the recent projects by Rak and Etam have been commissioned by local city festivals, which have given the artists permission to paint without worry about being caught or prosecuted.

From a tumbling jockey to a fantasy tree house, the artists employ a mix of modern styles and motifs from traditional Polish folklore.

Each piece takes around a week to produce, says Blejzyk, and the reaction from the public is usually positive.

Check out some of the images here:http://www.streetartutopia.com/?tag=poland

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)