Aches creates optical plays of form and color using the RGB (red, green, blue) and CMYK (cyan, magenta, yellow, black) color models. On a white background, the CMYK colors show their full vibrancy. Where the transparent colors overlap, new hues emerge across the rainbow spectrum. A lifelong fan of comic books and illustration, Aches explored Dutch comic history for this mural, focusing on the work of Marten Toonder. On the right, a photorealistic portrait of Toonder appears; on the left, one of his most beloved characters: Olivier B. Bommel (known in English as “Sir Bumble”), the good-hearted bear from the legendary Tom Poes comic series. Aches combines his expertise in graphic design and graffiti here: Sir Bumble seems to shift and dance before your eyes while Toonder seems to be looking straight at you.

Onesto draws inspiration from his hometown, São Paulo. His work focuses on the relationship between the city and its inhabitants, how people shape the city, and how the city shapes them in return. Since 2007, Rotterdam had a mural by Onesto titled Sobe e Desce (“Up and Down”), located on the West-Kruiskade. Recently, it was removed due to building maintenance that couldn’t preserve the artwork. Fortunately, during ALL CAPS 2025, Rotterdam once again welcomes a new mural by Onesto. The new work, titled Not Pearls Before Swine, refers to the proverb warning against giving something valuable to those who cannot appreciate it. Onesto illustrates how vulnerable we become when we share something, an idea, a feeling, a work of art, with the outside world. If we misjudge how others will receive it, good intentions can backfire, causing more harm than good.

HERA (Jasmin Siddiqui) has been active in street art since 2001. Large, shimmering eyes gaze out from her murals, her figures seem not entirely of this world, often accompanied by or fused with creatures from the world of animals. For her mural for ALL CAPS, HERA created a dialogue with her surroundings. She arrived half a day later than most other artists at ALL CAPS 2025. On the walls next to hers, Lauren YS and SATR had already begun their murals. On unpainted brick, HERA quickly brought to life a face whose gaze directly connects with the figure in Lauren YS’s mural. From the green hair of HERA’s character, a heron takes flight, inspired by SATR’s birds. The green hair seems to flow directly from the tree growing next to the wall, so that leaves and feathers merge together, linking her work to the environment and to the heron’s flight. HERA’s imagery is almost always accompanied by a motto, this time: “I do what I can, where I am, with what I have.” This life motto has appeared in her works since 2014; it carries her through difficult times and represents resilience and the power of creativity.

Under Kristopher Ho’s hands, a white wall becomes the blank page of a sketchbook. His works, typically made with black markers on a white background, are unmistakable. Expressive strokes and intense attention to detail reveal his background in graphic design and illustration. From large murals to postcard-sized drawings, his works impress at first glance and unfold into layered stories upon closer look. For this mural, Ho had to adapt his technique, recreating his marker-based style with brushes and paint, since markers don’t work on brick surfaces. In The Hollow Beast, the tiger takes center stage. For Ho, the animal embodies the struggle of “being masculine” and the mask one wears for it, a hard, powerful exterior versus a vulnerable inner world. The tiger’s empty white eyes symbolize a broken connection with that inner self. Seeking to restore that bond, Ho turns to inner peace and Buddhist philosophy. Attentive viewers can spot the lotus, a symbol of serenity, peace, and purity.

Lauren YS (they/them) weaves powerful storytelling rooted in a background in English literature and fine art. Vivid colors and compelling portraits form worlds where BIPOC and queer people find space and representation. Their mural, China Bone Blue, combines two references: China bone, a white clay used to make porcelain, and Delft Blue, the Dutch ceramic tradition inspired by Chinese porcelain. Lauren explores how ceramics in the Netherlands and China have influenced each other through trade and reinterprets this cultural exchange through their own visual language. In the mural, you can spot these references in the porcelain figurines, the face painting patterns, and the Dutch lion on the necklace the figure wears. Lauren found the porcelain figurines in an antique shop in Jersey, to their surprise, they were made in the Netherlands. This sparked the idea for a mural that invites reflection on shared histories and the unexpected ways our worlds intertwine.

Mikolaj “Miko” Stojanowicz reads the urban landscape as a grid of repetition and patterns. Through his work, he disrupts the influence systems have on how we perceive reality. Urban architecture is not only shaped by humans but shapes us in return. His multidisciplinary work arises from the tension between taking control and letting go. The materials and surfaces he uses guide the outcome of the work. He begins without a predetermined image, led instead by intuition, his process becomes a dialogue with the wall and with himself. The material and location guide him, while his fascination with alchemy constantly plays a role. For this project, he ordered just one color: ultramarine, a deep blue pigment with historic significance, once precious and used sparingly most often in religious art. Miko places it here in a contemporary, urban context. He plays with negative space, seeing the work as a game where the eyes gradually learn to detect patterns, sometimes appearing in forms or shadows on the wall. The entire process is meditative, allowing for surprise and stillness.

Rotterdam based Nina Valkhoff turns the city into a vibrant jungle. Plants and animals in vivid colors seem ready to leap off the walls. Endangered species receive special attention in her work. Sometimes, the animals are specifically linked to the urban environment where Valkhoff paints them. With her work she brings the animals and plants a bit closer to the urban, concrete jungle where people live far away from nature.

Peter Skensved and Lars Pedersen run the Institute of Urban Art in Denmark. Skensved is versed in various styles but best known for his hyperrealistic murals with a graphic twist, a style that perfectly suits their collaborative mural in Beverwaard. The mural portrays Lars’s great-aunt, Helga Pedersen, the first female judge at the European Court of Human Rights, former Danish Minister of Justice, and the second female justice of Denmark’s Supreme Court. She was also awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau, the highest rank in that order. Helga’s story is remarkable and aligns perfectly with ALL CAPS 2025, which celebrates female role models. Peter and Lars researched her life and work through archives, family albums, and royal press photos. The composition intertwines symbols such as Lady Justice and the dove of peace. The mural is built with cool tones in the background and a warm light illuminating Helga, inspired by traditional 17th-century Dutch portraiture. This project exemplifies collaboration in which artists elevate and strengthen one another’s work.

Satoshi Nakomoto, no, not the creator of Bitcoin, but the Rotterdam-based street artist, works with an unexpected material. After experimenting with stencils and spray paint, he turned to Ministeck, a nostalgic plastic mosaic system. In the limitations of color and form, he finds creative freedom. In preparation for ALL CAPS 2025, Satoshi researched local, national, and international female role models. Over ten months, he created 50 portraits that now adorn the streets of Beverwaard. All the portraits are also collected in the publication IMPACT, which celebrates and amplifies the positive influence of these women, in the neighborhood and beyond.

SATR paints the birds she observes around her in Beverwaard. Various species, large and small, live together in harmony within the greenery of the neighborhood park. The spiritual and intuitive power of animals inspires SATR toward curiosity, mindfulness, and strength. The blue heron takes center stage in her Beverwaard mural, surrounded by other birds such as the coot and the duck. In addition to local wildlife, SATR draws inspiration from metalwork of the Shang dynasty. The S-shaped pattern of this decoration is a symbol of peace, similar to the line separating Yin and Yang. Her murals are recognizable by their limited color palette and the influence of Eastern brush techniques. She reinforces her black-and-white imagery with striking red accents. The painterly brushstroke effect is achieved through transparent spray paint and misting. This gives the animals in her work a sense of motion, through smoky shadows and flowing lines, the birds seem to swim and glide across the wall.

The artist duo SNIK are masters of stencil art, a technique that is both precise and full of potential for artistic expression. Each one is hand-cut and layered to create incredibly detailed compositions. For their mural in Beverwaard, SNIK arrived in Rotterdam with a huge roll of paper stencils, meticulously prepared and ready for use. The mural was applied in a highly methodical way, yet the handcrafted process remains visible. The dripping paint plays a role in this too, it reveals the artist’s hand, the material, and a touch of chance in the final result. Their style combines modern street art with the aesthetics of early Dutch and Italian Renaissance painting. The mural in Beverwaard is a portrait, not of a specific person, but of a face that symbolizes a new way of seeing strength. The figure radiates calmness and composure. The face is surrounded by flowers that are not typically associated with masculinity. In this way, SNIK shows that strength is not only about hardness; it can also be soft, open, and renewing. Rotterdam felt like the right place for that story, a city once destroyed and rebuilt. That sense of growth in unexpected places reflects the kind of strength they aim to capture here.

The work of the French artist Twopy can be found not only on the streets but also in children’s books, concert sets, festival designs, and music videos. Since 2017, rats and mice have frequently appeared in his art. This motif was born when his studio moved into a former laboratory that had conducted animal testing on rodents. These creatures have since become symbols of urban life. In Beverwaard, his mice appear in unexpected places. For a week, Twopy wandered through the neighborhood, drawing inspiration from people, buildings, and daily scenes for each scene. Swans and cats chase the mice; one mouse leaps happily into the Oude Watering canal wearing a floatie; another, dressed as a monk, keeps company with a resident who turned a small green space into a meditation corner. Follow the mice through the neighborhood for a playful glimpse into everyday life in Beverwaard.