Do you like your street art? Want a global perspective? Well, if you haven’t used Google Maps to find your way around the country, you can now do so to explore amazing murals from around the world. The Google Art Project’s Street Art site takes you on a Street View tour of splendid murals across the globe, including in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The number of high resolution art works now stands at 10 000, with guided audio tours offered to certain designated projects, ranging from Sweden’s Artscape 2014 street festival, to a virtual walking tour of the artistic water tanks among New York city’s rooftops, to the multi-coloured walls of Buenos Aires’ Barracas and Colegiales districts. There are also a number of online exhibitions displaying some of the leading art from the Green Villain Gallery, the Kosmic Krylon Garage, Festigraf, and one of our favourites, the Street Art Museum in Amsterdam.

Writing on the Google Blog, Lucy Schwartz, program manager of the Google Cultural Institute noted: “So much goes into making a piece of street art. Yet its transient nature puts it at risk of being scrubbed out and lost forever. The Google Art Project allows these works of art to transcend the walls, be transported to your screen and live on.”

Lost Walls, 2013, El Seed, Street Art 13

While Johannesburg is well represented, Cape Town is, well, a bit sparse, only offering El Seed’s Lost Walls work. We hope Google will be recording a few local stories soon, as well as expand on the amazing work done by artists in Cape Town, considered the heartland of the local street art scene. Below some awesome examples from Jozi, if you want more, head to the Street Art site.

Jan van Riebeeck, 2013, Acrylics Wall Collective, Maboneng Precinct.

Remeds View, 2012, Remed, 300 Commissioner Street, Johannesburg

WWF Earth Hour, 2013, Freddy Sam, Maboneng Precinct

I Am Because We Are – Part 1, 2013, Freddy Sam, Maboneng Precinct