10 Incredible Works of Art in Unexpected Places

The vast majority of artworks can be found in galleries and museums. Those casting a slightly wider net can take tours of artful graffiti on the sides of city buildings and explore pretty sculpture gardens. But for those seeking something a little more unusual, there are also art pieces that can be found in rather unexpected places (which often adds to their impact!). Here are 10 such unusual artworks—from hidden gems that most people unknowingly pass by to strangely located pieces that purposefully draw the eye.

Related: 10 Crazy-Expensive Paintings That’ll Make You Scratch Your Head

10 Miniature Art in Bollards in Wales

Since 2010, The Hayes in Cardiff, Wales, has been home to some bollards with a secret: miniature monochrome scenes lie in wait inside the metallic posts. Small lenses are set into the bollards, allowing passers-by to crouch down and take a peek at the 11 tiny scenes. The artwork, called Post Secrets, was created by Jane Edden with the help of students from the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama (they’re the people who are depicted!).

After sketching the students, Edden explains that she “used those drawings to laser cut tiny people that let the viewer build their own narrative about the scenarios I created.” She then “used mirrors and careful modeling to make the space inside appear slightly magical, larger than it really is.” Although there have been some problems with vandalism in the past, this hidden public art has been restored for those in the know to appreciate.^[1]

9 Utility Pole Sculptures in Los Angeles

The vast majority of utility poles are purely functional, but in Mar Vista, Los Angeles, the poles also serve as perches for whimsical art sculptures. Designed to look like odd creatures and fashioned out of objects such as toolboxes and fire extinguishers, the sculptures were sneakily put up by Lori Powers in 2017. Most of the residents love them. Unfortunately, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power does not.

When the DWP found out about the eccentric metallic sculptures in 2024, they said that while they weren’t pursuing charges against Powers, they would be “removing the items as quickly as possible to mitigate clear and present safety hazards for any utility workers that have to access the pole.”

Former L.A. City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter has spoken out in support of Powers’s charming but illegal creations. “There is a procedure to make it legal. And if anybody cared, they would do that,” she said to the Los Angeles Times. But until that time, the sculptures are continuously being put up by the artist and then taken back down again by the DWP.^[2]

8 Canning Bridge in Australia

Plenty of bridges are in themselves basically art pieces—from the Dragon Bridge in Vietnam to the Helix Bridge in Singapore—but the area underneath bridges doesn’t tend to be all that spectacular (and when there is art, it’s often sloppy graffiti). But the underbelly of Canning Bridge in Perth, Australia, is a different story. The bridge itself isn’t all that noteworthy, but underneath is a world of colorful, eclectic, and ever-changing art.

Who started painting and creating art installations down there isn’t known, but the locals love it. There was fear at one point that the government would remove it all, but thankfully, the vast majority of it has been left intact. “I’ve noticed new additions every once in a while,” says Tyler White, a resident who campaigned to save the unofficial gallery. “I’ve also noticed that when someone comes in and just tags over it with spray cans that the graffiti gets painted over pretty quick.”^[3]

7 The Shark House in England

It’s not every day that you drive or walk down the street and see a 25-foot (7.5-meter) shark sticking out of the roof of a house, but that’s exactly what you’ll find in Oxford. Known as the Headington Shark, the marine predator has been bursting through the house’s roof since 1986 after owner Bill Heine had architect John Buckley install the statue. His son, Magnus Hanson-Heine, says that the shark was put up as a form of protest against the property restrictions enforced by the council: “Authority control is exactly what [he] was against.”

In 2022, controversy hit the shark when the house was added to Oxford’s heritage register. Hanson-Heine declared that this was contrary to “the whole principle of the sculpture,” explaining that “it is exactly against that kind of government interference in people’s lives.” Heine died in 2019, so he never lived to see his protest shark authorized by the government.^[4]

6 Kelburn Castle in Scotland

Despite being a small country, Scotland is home to hundreds of castles, but in terms of art, one of them stands apart from the rest. Kelburn Castle—found on Scotland’s west coast—looks like a regular castle from most angles, but since 2007, the structure’s south side has been covered in brightly colored graffiti.

Rather than being the work of local vandals, the castle’s owner, the Earl of Glasgow, hired four Brazilian graffiti artists—Nunca, Nina Pandolfo, and twins who go by Os Gêmeos—to make their mark. They used more than 1,500 cans of spray paint for their massive murals on the external walls of the ancient castle. The artwork was originally only supposed to be temporary (the exterior facade needed to be replaced anyway—hence why the earl, encouraged by his kids, decided to try something fun). However, it ended up being a hit, and visitors can still see the graffiti on the castle to this day.^[5]

5 Frescos in the French Alps

French artist Saype is famous for his larger-than-life, but still hyper-realistic, frescos, which are created using biodegradable paint and often take shape on large swathes of grass. In 2023, Saype took his art to new heights—literally. “Encordés” comprises two separate frescos located 6,562 feet (2,000 meters) high in French Alps. Painted directly onto the snow, each fresco—individually measuring 10,765 square feet (1,000 square meters)—depicts a child climbing the mountain. They are connected together via a rope.

“By drawing this roped pair of children, I wanted to show that working together and trusting each other is essential to move forward and overcome the challenges we face,” the artist said of his gigantic ephemeral creation. Although the paint has long since disappeared, there are photographs of the figures among the mountains, and they are striking, to say the least.^[6]

4 Wellington Dam in Australia

The vast majority of the world’s dams are simply huge blank concrete sheets, but Wellington Dam, near Collie, Western Australia, has been painted with a massive mural measuring a staggering 86,111 square feet (8,000 square meters). Created by Guido van Helten, the mural is called “Reflections”. It depicts real-life children from Collie fittingly playing in the water.

“The title is a play on not only the natural environment, which is really beautiful, but also memories,” the artist said in an interview with the West Australian. “I was searching for a collective memory that could speak for all the different communities that have experienced this place.” As well as being culturally important, the mural—the largest dam mural in the world—has boosted local business by drawing in tourists.

Van Helten slept in a tent near the dam for 130 days while painting the massive artwork. Due to the enormous size of the image, he used a grid system to upscale the photographs of the kids into their considerably larger-than-life artistic representations on the dam.^[7]

3 Manhole Covers in Japan

Many people walking the streets of Japan don’t realize that they sometimes walk on art in the form of decorated manhole covers. The creative circular steel covers started being laid in the 1980s as a way to cushion the blow of increased taxes, which were needed to fund expensive sewer improvements. There are now thousands of these artistic manhole covers on streets throughout the country.

Most of the designs are simply molded into the steel, but a small number of them also employ bright colors. The covers are typically designed to reflect something important to the community in which they are located—a local flower, a historic landmark in the area, or a sports team. There are even Hello Kitty and Pokémon manhole covers.

A whole community of people actively seek out the artistic manhole covers and document them online. There’s even an annual Manhole Summit for enthusiasts to gather and admire some of the best examples of this unusual—and often overlooked—art.^[8]

2 Chewing Gum Art in London

Since 2004, artist Ben Wilson has been taking his tiny paint brushes to the chewing gum spit out onto London’s streets. Although the idea of creating miniature artworks on discarded gum may seem strange, Wilson explains that “there is some symbolism in transforming something thoughtlessly spat out into something meaningful.” He has also done chewing gum art trails in other cities, including Brussels and Amsterdam.

Wilson starts by taking a blowtorch to the gum to soften it and create a flat surface to paint on. He then coats it with lacquer, creates his miniature picture with acrylic enamel paint, and finally uses another layer of lacquer to seal it. Wilson has painted countless pieces of gum over the years and often works from requests he’s received from passers-by. He’s painted everything from Ivan the Terrible to a murmuration of starlings. A small selection of his tiny creations can be seen on his website.

Although most people who notice his eccentric artwork are charmed by it, he has run into trouble in the past. In 2010, while working on London’s Millennium Bridge, the police arrested him for criminal damage. Thankfully, he managed to fight the charges with the help of his supporters. He now carries a letter from the police that explains his work in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the jail cell experience.^[9]

1 The Fallen Astronaut on the Moon

Even the most ardent art lovers will have trouble viewing Paul Van Hoeydonck’s Fallen Astronaut… because it’s on the moon. The little aluminum sculpture—measuring just 3.5 inches (9 cm)—is a stylized representation of a person and lies next to a plaque etched with the names of the astronauts who died in service of humanity’s efforts to reach the stars. Sadly, Valentin Bondarenko and Grigori Nelyubov’s names are missing, as their deaths weren’t publicly known when the sculpture was installed in 1971.

The idea of putting artwork on the moon came from Louise Tolliver Deutschman, the director of van Hoeydonck’s Manhattan Gallery. The artist managed to speak to the astronauts of the Apollo 15 mission, and they were not only happy to place the sculpture but also helped shape its meaning. “We came up with the idea of recognizing the guys who’d died in the pursuit of space,” David Scott told Slate in a 2013 interview.

Scott carried the Fallen Astronaut into space and placed it at Hadley Rille on August 2, 1971, where it has been ever since. Mission control wasn’t aware that he had done so until he returned to Earth. There are a few replicas of the Fallen Astronaut that can be viewed in museums, but the lunar setting of the original is, of course, what makes it so special.^[10]