Art in Ghent

Something that struck me about Ghent was how much their art spilled onto the streets. This including graffiti, unique store signage and shop windows with oddities galore (like the squirrels playing poker).
We stumbled upon this alleyway that was pretty impressively covered with tags, more mural than vandalism.
I always love seeing graffiti when traveling, probably because in our own home city it seems to be painted over as quickly as it is put up, unless it was specifically commissioned. As much as I liked the feeling that I got a glimpse of art before it was 'erased,' it's also fun to see a week or month or year or decade's worth of it piled up.

This one's for my mom, whose favorite animal is the penguin, or at least it was back at the age where I asked everyone what their favorite animal was.
I can't vouch for the quality of the fries here at "Best Frit" but I did enjoy their fry sculpture. (My feeling was similar to Don Draper's opinion of Ali... if you have to say you're the best, are you really the best?)
As the day got grayer, we decided to go inside for some 'real' art - our very first museum visit of the trip. The man at the front desk of SMAK (the Contemporary Art Museum) thanked us for "our sense of adventure" and off we went exploring.
This was definitely my favorite. It looks like there's a glare, but when you move around it to see it more clearly, it still looks like there's a glare. From every direction. Merlin hypothesized that the artist took a photo with a glare and then took a photo of that photo - hence, the constant glare effect. It was really frustrating, which I enjoyed.

Here are a few pictures of Merlin 'sploring. I think art looks better with him in it.