What does it take to impress an award-winning superstar who toured the world multiple times?
A Kyiv mural, it turns out.
U.S. rapper and producer Will I Am (written will.i.am) didn’t hold back his delight when strolling through the streets of the Ukrainian capital on July 2.
The leader of Black Eyed Peas posted an Instagram video of walking around Podil, Kyiv’s district that is home to the countless creative establishments, studios and various street art.
“Ok so I’m walking down the streets in Kyiv in Ukraine, and I look up at the building and what do I see? A Nunca painting! Yo! Nunca bro! This is freaking beautiful!” the celebrity exclaims.
Francisco Rodrigues da Silva, also known as Nunca, is a Brazilian artist who uses a graffiti technique to create images or indigenous people on urban structures while incorporating Brazilian native history.
Located on Spaska Street, his mural portrays a 15-meter-tall Cossack man. Uniting Brazilian and Ukrainian cultures, Nunca combined patterns and colors from both origins.
It is not clear what is the purpose of Will I Am’s visit to Ukraine. The rapper hasn’t addressed it on social media.
Since 2014, a wave of street art appreciation has sparked in Kyiv. Numerous international artists have come to the capital to paint pieces throughout the city. The locals contributed as well, resulting in more than 150 murals bedazzling passersby all over Kyiv.
The pieces range from those that address political issues and the environmental crisis to simple aesthetic portrayals of landscapes, objects and people.
Australian artist Fintan Magee’s “The Dreamer” comments on Russia’s occupation of Crimea. The “Renaissance” mural by Seth Globepainter and Ukrainian artist Kislow pictures a Ukrainian woman on the side of the building on Andriivskyi Descent.
