16 Sculptures You'll Fall In Love With

Sculptures, statues, and public art, they're integral to and definitive of a particular city. The visual creativity a city decides to display on their street is usually one of its biggest claims to fame. Public art contributes to the beauty, desirability, and overall livability of a city while also helping promote it as a tourist attraction. 

Some cities have a much better understanding of this concept but generally, more and more, small and large cities are getting into the public art, creative game. To see the breadth and depth of this practice I've put together a list of some of the most beautiful and creative sculptures from around the world. Let's take a look at how creativity has manifested itself for years upon years in so many different places. 

1. Awakening in Prince George's County, Maryland 

This was created by J. Seward Jr., first in East Potomac Park in Washington D.C. before being moved to the National Harbor resort in Maryland. The giant is 21 meters high and appears to be struggling to get up from the ground. 

2. The Shoes on the Danube Bank in Budapest, Hungary

This memorial was conceived of by film director Can Togay with sculptor Gyula Pauer to commemorate the Jewish people killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in WWII. The men were ordered to take off their shoes and they were then shot so their bodies would fall into the water (leaving their shoes on the bank). Therefore, the sculpture honors the men in the face of this terrible act. 

3. Franz Kafka Monument, Prague, Czech Republic 

This statue was erected to commemorate one of the most influential and experimental authors of the 20th century. Placed directly in the square under his home window, Kafka walked about this area every day of his life.  

4. Expansion, pictured here in New York City 

5. Love, Burning Man, USA

6. Bus Home is located in the city of Ventura, California 

This sculpture, by artist Margaret Hammon, is located at a major bus transfer area in the city. Built in 2002, it was the product of a contest to make a very unique and creative public bus shelter in the city. 

7. The Monument to the Anonymous Passerby in Wroclaw, Poland 

This monument was made in 2006 to honor those imprisoned, who disappeared, or who got "sucked underground" during the Communist regime. 

8. Man Hanging Out in Prague, Czech Republic 

In the city of Prague, in between an intricate network of streets we find a sculpture of man hanging from a pole a few stories above. Made in 1996, the sculpture depicts Sigmund Freud and it's meant to communicate the lengths intellectuals have had to go to over this past century.  

9. Maman in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada 

This enormous sculpture of a spider outside the National Gallery of Canada has intrigued (and frightened) viewers for many years. Completed by Louise Bourgeois, a prolific artist throughout over 8 decades, it brings to us a creature depicting motherhood in the nation's capital due to the eggs she carries underneath. She really is quite the sight, I highly suggest checking her out! 

10. Popped Up in Budapest, Hungary

Artist Ervin Loránth Hervé created this awe-inspiring sculpture of a gigantic man climbing out of the ground. It sits in Széchenyi Square was one of the highlights for the Art Market Budapest 2014 international contemporary art fair.

11. Hand of Harmony in Pohang Korea 

This huge hand was made in 1999 out of bronze and granite that's emerging from the water. This sculpture represents the continuous effort all of Korean people to lead better, more happy lives. 

12. Borders Installation in Chicago's Grant Park 

 Icelandic artist Steinunn Thórarinsdóttir has created 26 human forms cast in aluminum and iron that are purposely androgynous and beg interaction from the spectator. 

13. The Shark, Oxford, United Kingdom

Radio host Bill Heine had the Shark implanted in his house in 1986. He said "the shark was to express someone feeling totally impotent and ripping a hole in their roof out of a sense of impotence and anger and desperation." 

14. Nelson's Ship in a Bottle at the The Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square

Yinka Shonibare's work is shown in the most widely used space for public art in Britain. As well, the piece reflects on the square's vast history and early beginnings.

15. Mother and Child in China

This comes from artist Zhang Yaxi who created this monumental cast-concrete work in 2007 when the Qinghai Province became a gateway between China and Tibet.

16. Scallop in Aldeburgh

Maggi Hambling is a Suffolk-born artist who created this steel scallop shell in 2003 in a very picturesque yet dramatic beach setting. It is her tribute to composer Benjamin Britten who lived there.