15 fresh mural illustrators to inspire you in 2026

We talk to a lot of illustrators here at Creative Boom, and one question we like to ask them in interviews is: what's their ideal next project? Often they say they'd LOVE to do a mural, or a piece of public art.

It's not just the opportunity to work at scale they crave, although this is a factor. Creating a mural means getting out of the studio, away from the Mac, and into the real world. There's a good chance it will involve hands-on work with brushes and/or aerosols. And there's also that rewarding sense of accomplishment when you execute a big, big, big piece of art. Blood, sweat and tears, and all that.

But perhaps the most compelling thing about creating murals for a living is the chance to see people engage with your work not just as individuals but in groups. The artwork connects in a social context in a way that book covers, magazines, and online illustrations can't. Depending on the brief, the local community might even be involved in planning the artwork alongside the illustrator.

It really is a chance to make a difference, and while doing our research for this piece, something else stood out – there are lots of opportunities out there. If you'd love to do a mural, let people in your community know, and it could well lead somewhere.

Judith Mayer

"Don't hold back" is the advice of Chicago-based creative director, designer, and illustrator Judith Mayer.

"When I turned 50, I decided I wanted to paint murals before it was too late – it has always been on my bucket list," she says. "However, I was also determined that I would not work for free. It's hard to convince someone you can create a mural when you don't have one in your portfolio.

"Many artists are forced to work for no pay to get their first job. I found a local co-working space willing to hire me, and I have since gone on to do bigger and more challenging murals and public art projects. I even travelled to Costa Rica for a residency to paint a mural. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to try!"

A few years on, and she seems to be one of the go-to mural artists in the city. What we're showing you here is the typographic treatments Judith created for a series of massive planters installed in the Lincoln Square Arts Plaza.

Freddie Denton

Based in West Yorkshire, Freddie Denton has worked with the world-famous street artists D*Face and Shepard Fairey in the past, but now indulges in a wide range of creativity from fine art pieces to commercial illustration briefs.

He continues to work at super scale, and his murals have appeared in locations from Leeds to Los Angeles and back to London. Nike, PepsiCo and Adidas might be on his client list, but we love his latest mural for Westminster City Council and the Mayor of London. Ebb & Flow adorns a building next to a London canal and near Queen's Park Primary School, and Freddie kicked off the design phase with a workshop with year six pupils.

Michelle Abrahall

Michelle Abrahall has declared war on boring walls, and nowhere is safe. Throughout Leamington Spa, where she's based, Michelle has attacked art galleries, pubs, cafes, schools, and shops, and even livened up the local dog-walking business with one of her murals.

What Michelle has shown is that you don't have to wait for a global brand or megacorporation to commission a mural – if you get out there and talk to the people you'd like to work with, it bears fruit. The piece you see here is in a local community centre. Boring. Wall. Defeated.

Samme Snow

Engagement with the viewer takes different forms in a mural, and this is what London-based illustrator Samme Snow focuses on when planning a piece. "My aim is always to build in layers: recognisable elements and hidden details that reward the people who live and work alongside the piece every day," he explains. "That tension between accessibility and discovery is what I think about."

It's a principle he put into practice when creating a mural for the London headquarters of the office interiors company M Moser Associates. Samme must be doing something right if a global workspace décor specialist is hiring him to create artworks for their own workspace.

Yeye Weller

OK, do you want to go really big? Let's go really big. Yeye Weller is the handle for a duo of creatives based in Münster, Germany, who went monster last year with a three-storey building on the seafront in Cape Town, which you can see below. It was part of the Sea Walls project, which featured murals on buildings across the city's fantastic shoreline, highlighting the need to protect the ocean and all that lives in it.

Whether painting from a cherry picker or artworking on their Macs, these guys are on a mission to make it fun, with whimsical characters, plenty of colours and lots of smiles.

Dave Bain

Bristol-based illustrator Dave Bain has drawn tarot cards, pub signs and rafts of editorial illustrations, but when it comes to murals, he has skin in the game.

He's written the Association of Illustrators' guide to site-specific illustration, he lectures on the topic and runs community engagement courses designed to get people involved whenever a big new artwork is in the planning. We're betting Dave is super proud of the piece he created in his hometown for one of its greatest creative outfits, Aardman Animations. He should be.

Harkiran Kalsi

Harkiran Kalsi is a London-based illustrator and muralist who preaches artivism – the idea of using outdoor art as a form of activism. As such, she's created murals calling for peace, a free Palestine, Black Lives Matter, anti-ableism messages and more.

Her bubbly lettering, bright colours and positive messages pour over into her commercial work as well, such as this beautiful new wall space promoting Ignition Brewery on Sydington Road, in Southeast London.

Elin Matilda Andersson

Based in Sydney, Elin Matilda Andersson is a Swedish-Australian illustrator who plays with proportions in her drawings of the human form and likes to go large with her artworks whenever she gets the opportunity.

The mural, as pictured at the top of this article, was created for Barnardos, Australia and was proudly painted on the wall of the charity's Sydney offices. Influenced by her Scandinavian roots, the power of community building, and her young daughter, Elin prefers to work for clients who do good, and there's no better example than that.

Nick Liefhebber

Simple, graphical forms come together in Nick Niefhebber's artworks, creating imagery that is impactful and not without charm. He loves all forms of printmaking, from silk screen to linocut to woodblocks; perhaps this shines through even in his murals. The work below adorns a reception area in the redesigned Philips headquarters in Amsterdam.

"Nature's flowing, transformative side is a recurring theme in my work, and this resonates with Philips' values for change, growth and transformation," says Nick. "The challenge was balancing semi-abstract metaphors and figurative representations of Philips with my artistic vision for the mural. The colour palette is based on brand colours, enriched with my own personal flavours." Nick is based in Brabant, Netherlands.

Jocelyn Tsaih

Jocelyn Tsaih is an artist and illustrator who focuses on identity, connection and belonging in her work, which spans oil painting, sculpture, illustration and murals. Shared experience is something she reflects upon, and murals are the perfect medium to explore this, as they are never intended as a solitary pleasure.

Jocelyn has been an artist-in-residence for tech giants such as Google and Facebook, where, yes, her murals did appear. We like her work with the Collision Project, called After the Rain. It's all about light entering our lives after the darkness of the COVID lockdown.

Elisabetha Pars

A Ukrainian artist now based in Stockholm, Elisabetha Pars, specialises in classic-inspired artwork and recreates it at a grand scale. For example, her project Vineyard Serenity, at an old chateau, covers 110 square metres and, with its trees, meadows and stream, it really does look serene. Rhythm, mood and a dreamlike atmosphere are what she sets out to create.

It's the historical and timeless over the contemporary here, and Elisabetha's other projects have titles like Whispering Trees, Golden Olives and Alice in Wonderland. Murals don't have to excite – sometimes a moment of calm is what we all need.

KMG Studio

KMG is the practice of Scottish artist Katie Guthrie, whose murals can be found in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and further afield. With 20 years' experience covering walls with mythic imagery, she was invited to participate in Belgium's Crystal Ship street art festival in Ostende in 2024, where she created several pieces, including this one, inspired by the work of Ostende artist Ensor.

"My work is inspired by the Celtic folklore stories that have shaped my own cultural identity and is created to celebrate, revive and reclaim the mythologies and history of oral storytelling that are often overlooked and forgotten," says Katie.

Vicarel Studios

Inspired by a trip to the Philippines, Denver designer Adam Vicarel set up a studio that now covers art direction, brand identity, typography, packaging and murals. The latter is a big part of what they do, and their big, bold projects can be seen all around Denver. The company has benefitted from working with local businesses – such as ski-related travel companies – as well as national broadcasters like Syfy and NBC. Vicarel's poolside mural at the Denver Sheraton sums things up perfectly – hello from Denver.

Land of Julia

Júlia Mota Albuquerque is an artist based in Berlin who has painted murals on properties across Germany, as well as France, Belgium, Czechia, Croatia, Romania, and her country of birth, Brazil. Housing, cultural and social projects rank highly in her portfolio: "My most cherished types of projects are the ones that allow me to put my work in public and urban environments, especially when it can benefit local communities through accessible art.

"I am very interested in urban design and busy cities." What we're showing you here is a mural that brings colour and character to housing estates in Magdeburg and Pleks Fellbach in Germany.

Maria Björklund

Even motion experts can turn their skills to mural art, and Finnish creative Maria Björklund enjoys bringing elements of her original craft – animation – into the mural and street art she creates. As shown in the example, this might be achieved simply by using character keyframes.

As you drive along a road, roll along the track or ascend an escalator, Maria's character appears in different forms, progressing through a motion sequence like this bounding kittything. The mural can then live in the wild or on social media as a GIF or similar.