ROA Returns to The Crystal Ship with New Monumental Mural in Ostend, Belgium

Internationally acclaimed Belgian street artist ROA has returned to The Crystal Ship in Ostend with a new monumental mural created for the festival’s landmark 10th anniversary edition.

The new ROA The Crystal Ship 2026 mural reflects Ostend’s coastal identity through monumental seabirds. Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026

ROA, The Crystal Ship 2026, and the Return to Ostend

Located at Edith Cavellstraat 70, the new large-scale artwork marks ROA’s first contribution to The Crystal Ship since the festival’s inaugural edition in 2016, when the artist created his now-iconic pyramid of rodents, a mural that became one of the defining images of the festival’s early years.

ROA, The Crystal Ship 2026, reconnects the artist with one of the festival’s most iconic early moments. Image copyright Bjorn.

For the 2026 edition, ROA shifts his attention from urban rodents to seabirds and fishing birds deeply connected to Ostend’s coastal environment. Towering across the facade of a multi-storey structure, the monochromatic mural presents a fragile vertical composition of birds rendered with the artist’s signature anatomical precision and intricate detail.

Close-up drawing from ROA’s latest mural for The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary. Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026.

Known internationally for his monumental black-and-white animal murals, ROA has spent more than two decades transforming walls across Europe, Asia, Latin America, and the United States. His works frequently depict local wildlife and often explore themes of coexistence, mortality, migration, survival, and the relationship between nature and the urban environment.

ROA returns to Ostend for The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary with a new large-scale public artwork. Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026.

The new mural continues that dialogue while responding directly to Ostend’s maritime identity and the atmosphere of the Belgian coastline.

Detail of ROA’s black-and-white mural exploring Ostend’s coastal identity during The Crystal Ship 2026. Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026.

ROA’s return forms part of The Crystal Ship 2026, curated by Belgian actor and artist Matthias Schoenaerts under his artist name Zenith. Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the festival welcomed more than 20 national and international artists who transformed the city with new murals, installations, and public artworks, further expanding Ostend’s reputation as one of Europe’s leading open-air museums for contemporary urban art.

ROA returns to Ostend for The Crystal Ship 10th Anniversary with a new large-scale public artwork. Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026.

With more than 100 permanent artworks now embedded throughout the city, The Crystal Ship continues to redefine how contemporary art can exist beyond institutional walls and within everyday public space.

ROA’s towering seabird composition overlooking the streets of Ostend during The Crystal Ship 2026. Image copyright photographer Jules Césure and The Crystal Ship 2026.

ROA’s new mural is now permanently accessible to the public as part of The Crystal Ship art trail in Ostend.