A little girl from William Bouguereau’s 1886 painting ‘Au pied de la falaise’ looks out over the city of Memphis from the side of a seven-story building, freed from the original work’s confines within the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art. French street artist Julien de Casabianca is known for moving the subjects of famous paintings from the hallowed walls of perfectly-lit museums and into the streets, wheat pasting them many times larger than life onto urban surfaces. This particular monumental work coincides with the artist’s exhibition and workshop at the Brooks Museum.

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Brooklyn Street Art asked de Casabianca why this piece resonates for the artist. “She seems melancholic, I wanted to give her a second life in the real life, liberate her from the frame,” he says. “I feel always guilty when I leave from a wall where I pasted a child, as in Nuart Aberdee in Scotland, because even they are giants, I feel they are so fragile in this violent world and in this contemporary world. She’s a time traveller, she doesn’t know our new world and she’s probably surprised and moved.”

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It’s not the only character from within the museum to come to life in the streets of Memphis; the artist met with museum officials earlier this year to choose 20 figures from the Brooks’ permanent collection to place around the city. Other paintings chosen for the project include a two-story installation of Cloar’s Wedding Party and a 20-foot high selection from Luca Giordano’s The Slaying of the Medusa.

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De Casabianca has wheat pasted works like this all over the world, in fact, as part of his ongoing series “Outing Project.” You can find out where to see the works in person and follow their progress on Instagram.

Way cooler than your standard basketball court, these custom-designed settings and hoops turn the sport into something like an interactive art installation in which the players ‘perform’ in more ways than one. Outdoor courts are painted in vivid hues or plunked on rooftops, hoops are reinvented in stained glass or set within the crashing waves of the ocean, and court lines light up and transform.

Pigalle Basketball Court in Paris by Pigalle, Ill-Studio and NIKE

French fashion brand Pigalle teamed up with Ill-Studio and NIKE to paint a stunning sunset-hued basketball court set between two apartment buildings in Paris. Gradients of deep blue, fuchsia, pink, orange and yellow creep up the walls of the three surrounding structures and out to the sidewalk to celebrate the release of Pigalle’s latest collection with NIKElab.

Carlo Carrá Park in Alexandria, Italy by Gue

The muralist known as ‘Gue’ gave the basketball court at Carlo Carrá Park in Alexandria, Italy a bright makeover as part of an urban regeneration and redevelopment effort. “The idea was born from the possibility of being able to cross the field’s space,” says the artist, “and to stay inside the composition and change the perception of shapes through the game’s movement.”

House of Mamba Basketball Court by NIKE

Leave it to NIKE to create a totally functional basketball court that doubles as a work of modern installation art. The brand teamed up with AKQA to develop a full-sized LED court for the NIKE RISE basketball tour taking place across China, utilizing motion-tracking and reactive LED visualization to lead players through drills based on Kobe Bryant’s training. Then, in 2015, they completed ‘Rise 2.0,’ a second version of the court with LeBron James.

Rooftop Basketball Court in Venezuela by PICO Estudio

Design collective PICO estudio teamed up with local and international firms as well as volunteers and community members to transform a self-built house that was once a drug trafficking venue in Caracas, Venezuela into a valuable community space hosting a recording studio, computer area, waiting area, kitchen and an incredible rooftop basketball court retrofitted with vibrant green steel framing and chain-link fencing for safety.

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Nothin But Net 12 Slam Dunk Artistic Basketball Court Designs

Filling the city with art by literally painting right onto the streets makes it feel like everyone is immersed in an illustration, acting out some kind of larger-than-life story. Formerly bare patches of asphalt and concrete get splashes of color, patterns and imagery that can be humorous, fun or politically pointed. Roadsworth is among the street artists best known for this style, and recently debuted a new piece referencing the refugee crisis.

“A new record: as of today, the UN has counted 65 million refugees in the world,” he says. “I painted this in recognition of this tragic fact. Walls and Fences are for painting and climbing not for dividing and obstructing.”

In this particular mural, painted onto a street in Montréal, passersby are confronted with massive hands cling to a chain-link fence, effectively forcing them to recognize and think about the subject matter.

Other Roadsworth murals are more playful, like a stop-animation squirrel that appears to run down the street when the images are stacked in a GIF, and a crosswalk that has been turned into a rope bridge. A giant pink ice cream cone melts onto the pavement.

Prints can be purchased at Roadsworth.com, and you can keep up with the artist’s work on Instagram.

Psychedelic portals beckon you to enter another dimension, sea monsters lurk at the bottom of the stairs and illustrated figures playfully interact with urban infrastructure in works of art that bring color, levity and natural imagery to urban environments.

Sea Monster Stair Steps by Skurk

The creepy sea creature lurking at the base of these stairs is enough to make anyone nervous, even in broad daylight – but just wait until the sun goes down. Street artist Skurk used two existing lamps affixed to the building’s exterior as the eye and lure of an anglerfish to terrifying and delightful effect.

Site-Specific Wheatpastes by Levalet

Paris-based artist Levalet (Charles Leval) works with existing textures, colors and fixtures in urban environments to create playful site-specific works of art. Some are playful, some are a bit disturbing, but all of them pair sketched human and animal figures with fountain heads, drains, windows, utility boxes, staircases and other elements of the city.

Massive Murals in Italy by Millo

An illustrative black-and-white style accented by carefully chosen splashes of bold color characterizes the ground-to-roof murals painted onto buildings by Italian street artist Millo.

Giant Bees by Matthew Willey

50,000 bees now adorn surfaces around the world as part of the Good of the Hive Initiative, a project by artist Matt Willey aiming to raise awareness about the plight of the honey bee. Willey traveled all over the globe to paint a few dozen bees at a time in each location, with the goal number representing how many bees it takes to sustain a healthy hive.

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The City Is A Canvas 31 Murals Transforming Urban Spaces

Striking geometric shapes in acid-bright palettes breathe life into gray urban spaces thanks to the signature style of artist Maya Hayuk. Often appearing perfectly symmetrical, her work seems to be planned and painstakingly designed well in advance, but it’s often created spontaneously in response to the feel of the chosen setting.

Precise lines in rainbow fluorescents converge into chaotic arrangements of geometric shapes, interspersed here and there with more organic imagery like human eyeballs. Look into one of Hayuk’s kaleidoscope-like creations long enough and you’ll start to notice little eccentricities, like sharp-toothed creatures, hiding in the mix.

According to her bio, Hayuk is inspired by popular culture, Ukrainian handicrafts and advanced painting practices “while connecting to the ongoing pursuit of psychedelic experience in visual form.” It’s safe to say she achieves this effect, each massive mural looking trippier the longer you stare at it.

In addition to large-scale murals located all over the world, Hayuk paints works on canvas and collaborates on a range of other creative projects, from fashion to music videos. In an interview with Cooler, Hayuk says “I listen to a lot of music while I work, there are a lot of repeating patterns in my art and in music. I also found it exciting to help create an object that empowers the person holding or carrying it. I do believe in this kind of magic.”