If you’ve ever been to Penang, you’d probably visited and posed for photos at some of its most iconic street murals, notably Little Children on Bicycle and Boy on the Bike.
However, it has never been revealed on who were the people that provided inspiration for the murals or how they looked like in real life.
Not until now.
Faces behind Penang’s street murals revealed
12 years after the two street murals were first painted by Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic, the individuals behind the murals were finally shown to the public for the very first time.
The first was a pair of siblings who inspired the Little Children on Bicycle mural, and their names are 17-year-old Chen Yi and her younger brother, 15-year-old Chen Ken, reported China Press.
As for the Boy on the Bike mural, it was modelled after a young man named Aiman, who was only 11-years-old when the mural was painted back in 2012.
Adding on to the occasion was also the fact that Chen Yi, Chen Ken, and Aiman had the chance to pose for a photo with Zacharevic alongside Penang State Tourism and Creative Economy Committee Chairman Wong Hon Wai to commemorate their reunion.
Zacharevic, who is an artist trained in London, also had a hand in other famous murals across Penang such as Boy On Chair in Lebuh Cannon, Little Boy With A Pet Dinosaur in Lebuh Ah Quee, and Two Children on a Boat in Chew Jetty.
At the start of this month, Zacharevic worked on restoring the iconic murals after it became faded over the years and has since attracted huge attention from both locals and tourists:
