Austin Murals: a guide to some of Texas's most Instagrammable street art

Where to find the best street art and murals in Austin

Austin, the capital of Texas, pleasantly surprised us with a treasure trove of street art when we visited, so much so that it warranted a separate post of it’s own. Austin murals are scattered everywhere and the themes of these Austin street art surprisingly diverse and are just drop dead awe inspiring! Murals winking from garages, decrepit lanes, dusty sidewalks, busy intersections, store-fronts, parking lots and in the darnedest of places, we literally stumbled upon street art in all kinds of places in Austin while walking or driving by.

Home to dozens of Instagram worthy murals (I have showcased many of them here), this city is a paradise for mural and art lovers and is in the big league with other mural choked cities in USA and the world, such as San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. Being a big city with murals in far flung corners, most are well preserved, i.e. not tagged or defaced and indulge in varied themes from classic rock and roll references to bohemian to pop art to kitsch to Austin pride to art for art’s sake.

Here are some, i.e. 50+ murals that we cobbled together during our 3 days of visit. Austin street art photos were snapped either from a moving vehicle or from me jumping out like a ninja to do the same in the middle of traffic or while walking around the city and pleasantly stumbling upon some sneaky ones. If you’re not in the mood to do all the mural hunting legwork on your own, go on a Street Art Walking Tour which is one of the best tours in Austin to join!

Murals came in different shapes and sizes and different themes. Some of them are pretty popular on Instagram, such as the “You are my butter half” or “I love you so much” or “Hi, how are you” and even the iconic sign “greetings from Austin” which we found near an overpass. The more you seek, the more you will find these amazing Austin murals.

So do your research and map your itinerary accordingly since the murals are scattered all over the city. I have also provided locations for many of these Instagrammable murals and street art in Austin. Scroll down to read more on how and where we found them. Links to more information on the murals and their artists are here, here, here and here.

Psst…looking for other street art posts? Then check these out!

All photos are my own but murals are copyrighted to the respective artists and subject to change.

Other Austin posts – The perfect three day itinerary of Austin, Where to eat in Austin if you’re not into BBQ

a) Austin Murals: “Greetings from Austin”

This mural with a vintage postcard vibe is one of the most popular Austin street art on the internet and can be found on 720 S 1st St (on S 1st & Annie street intersection) on the wall of Roadhouse relics. So very Instagram worthy, this mural symbolizes Austin in such a fun way and is definitely one hell of a background for posing!

b) Austin Street art: Alien cuties

We found these famous creations by Daniel Johnston at two separate locations. The “Hi, how are you” mural was at West 21st & Guadalupe while E. 4th & Attayac streets had the how you doin’ one peeking out along with the coiled snake and Prince murals.

c) Guadalupe street murals in Austin

We also found quite a few other murals in Austin as we drove down on Guadalupe street. See below for the Bob Dylan mural with his iconic song lyrics, another bright Texas mural and a stretch with four panels (cat, rainbow, lips and wasabi cloud) along this road. We also found this cute romantic mural of a girl whispering in a boy’s ear by chance in a garage. The locations are given below these murals:

Found: 3700 Guadalupe St

Found: 2538 Guadalupe street

Found: 2426 Guadalupe Street

Found: W 3rd St & Guadalupe Street

Found: 23rd & Guadalupe Street

d) Most Instagram worthy Austin murals

These Austin murals are the most “Instagrammed” ones and are super popular on social media. We found the “I love you so much” mural on one side of Jo”s coffeehouse in S. Congress (a very trendy neighborhood where we found some other murals too), the “You’re my butter half” in a relatively quiet neighborhood and my favorite author O. Henry’s mural in downtown, not too far from his residence which is now converted to a museum. The “Let’s band together” and “Til’ death do us part” are also two other popular street art pieces in Austin that are worth the hunt. We also found another beautiful blue and white mural on Austin signalling the growing tech influence in the city.

Found: 1300 S. Congress street

Found: 2000 E Martin Luther King Jr Blvd

Found: 121 E 5th Street

Found: E. 6^th & Chicon streets

Found: E. 7th & Waller streets

Found: E. Cesar Chavez & Waller streets

e) Other popular Austin murals

Murals art Austin texas travel streetart

Found: 1500 East 6th street

Found: 1600 East 6th street

Found: 6th St & SB I-35 (The cat mural and the Austin mural)

Found: Cesar Chavez Blvd, East Austin (Kissing cowboys mural by Erin Bower)

Found: 1600 E 6th St

Found: 1115 W Lynn Street (Love is the answer)

Found: 509 Rio Grande street

Found: 716 West 6th St

Found: 1511 E 6th Street (these three panels from the bottom are part of the Cisco’s mural stretch)

f) Best of Austin Graffiti: Hope outdoor Gallery

This outdoor gallery is a community graffiti park located on 11th and Baylor street and is a treasure trove of graffiti and murals. The graffiti here is bold and challenges the status quo. It was fun to stroll in this colorful space and it was a stone’s throw from our Airbnb residence.

The famous artist Shepard Fairey was involved in launching this street art project 2011 and it is the only one of its kind mural and street art park in USA that supports and provides a space for street artists and muralists to express themselves via the powerful medium of street art. This unique collection of graffiti and Austin street art was definitely the highlight of our street art hunting effort!

g) Street art in Austin

Finally , here are some more Austin murals to look at which we stumbled upon during our street art quest. I hope you enjoyed this mostly photo essay of murals and street art in Austin. We could only see a handful during our 3-4 days of visit. There is so much more beautiful street art and murals in Austin that we missed and need to revisit just for that purpose.