GOING FORWARD PHOTONIQUE WILL BE ADVERTISMENT FREE
GOING FORWARD PHOTONIQUE WILL BE ADVERTISMENT FREE
Originally Photographed August 2026
I USED A SONY A7RVI
Photographed in August 2026 Using a Sony A7RVI
The corner of Meeting House Lane and Thomas Street offers one of the most compelling vantage points for street art in Waterford. Overlooking an open car park and pocket-park space, the tall gable of 15 Thomas Street has served as a dynamic, high-turnover canvas across multiple editions of the Waterford Walls International Street Art Festival.
The current monumental portrait at this location was created in August 2021 by Dutch urban contemporary artist Marcus Debie, known internationally as GOMAD (Marcus GOMAD Debie). Executed during the festival's seventh edition, the mural fuses classical fine-art aesthetics with modern street culture. Rendered in photorealistic detail, the serene profile of a young Asian woman wearing wire-rimmed glasses emerges from cascading, sculptural folds of purple and turquoise drapery—a nod to classical Renaissance and Baroque draperie. At street level, GOMAD anchored the piece in graffiti heritage by incorporating oversized, reflective spray-paint cans, directly celebrating the muralist craft itself.
The gable wall has undergone three distinct visual incarnations since the early days of Waterford Walls:
While the 15 Thomas Street gable has been refreshed every few years, two other major adjacent murals within the same enclosure have stood untouched, preserving earlier chapters of the festival:
Tracking the changes across this single junction illustrates a wider stylistic transformation within international muralism. In its initial formative years (2015–2017), Waterford Walls drew heavily on traditional graffiti culture, comic-strip illustration, and expressive character design—exemplified by Vunik’s playful animals, raw cartoon motifs, and graphic linework.
From 2018 onwards, festival curation shifted increasingly towards polished "urban contemporary fine art." Monumental photorealism, classical draughtsmanship, and elegant portraiture have largely supplanted the earlier underground comic sensibilities. Smooth, aesthetically harmonious portraits—such as those by Taquen, GOMAD, and Smug—serve as landmark civic art, balancing fine-art traditions with public accessibility while reshaping the visual identity of the historic city.