Meet Frankey, the Street Artist Delighting Amsterdam

In the spring of 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the always bustling Dam Square in Amsterdam was deserted, silent and surrounded by concrete counterterrorism blocks. The Dutch street artist Frank de Ruwe, who goes by the name of Frankey, decided these daunting studded blocks resembled something more innocent — giant Lego blocks — and that the city needed something to lighten the gloom.

The result? Later that summer, Frankey created and placed a giant yellow-and-black Lego figure of the Dutch folk singer André Hazes, whose songs have been pub favorites in the Netherlands for more than 40 years.

“It’s all about seeing the right thing,” Frankey said recently, over coffee in his Amsterdam neighborhood. “I think everyone was searching for a bit of bright news during these dark days.”

Frankey continues to delight Amsterdam with his whimsical, witty street art. Yes, every Saturday, he publishes a new piece in the Dutch newspaper Het Parool, as well on Instagram, but those are just the tip of the iceberg. He turns any unassuming spot in the city — a street sign, an oddly shaped brick, a ledge — into something more playful. You’re bound to run into his work on any trip to Amsterdam.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

In the press, your street art pieces are called ‘urban interventions.’ What does that term mean to you?

I just want to make people smile with my work, that’s the greater good. A 6-year-old and a 90-year-old can smile at the same thing; it’s amazing that you brighten someone’s day with just one object. It’s so easy to be a bit more friendly in the streets, and I think that’s what I’m doing. And if people want to call them urban interventions, I’m cool with that. It feels a bit like a buzzword, but people have been making fun stuff to brighten up the streets for centuries — it’s always been there. I’m just one of those guys who’s also doing that.

When you leave your art on the street, is it legal?

No. It’s illegal. I do have some rules for myself, because I love Amsterdam a lot. I don’t want to harm the city at all, so all the pieces I make can be removed quite easily without leaving any damage. I work a lot with magnets and tie wraps — I probably own every type of double-sided tape in the world. Sometimes I may not know how to construct a piece without using screws or kits or whatever. Then it becomes a nice challenge to connect it so it’s still safe and people could…