ATHENS: From political slogans scrawled on the walls to works of street art in run-down neighbourhoods, Greece's economic crisis is inspiring graffiti that probe acute social themes ahead of Sunday's elections.

Ghoulish drawings of gas masks, portraits of suffering Greeks and invectives against the International Monetary Fund or Germany now plaster many walls in Athens alongside more fantastical images of monsters and gang-style tags.

“Every work I do is a statement,” one of the most prominent artists of this new wave, who prefers to keep his anonymity and goes by the name “Bleeps”, said on a night-time tour of areas now heavy with drug dealers and petty thieves.

A recent topical work he drew on a street corner is of a saintly female figure clutching a bag of euros — representing Greece's international bailout.

In a reflection of the wider impact of his work, someone has since written on the figure in a black marker: “You keep your jewellery, but still you bow.”

Another work on a wall in the Psyri market district shows a man with an animal head in a cage which bears a resemblance to the Greek parliament.

“It's called 'Rage in the Constitutional Cage',” said Bleeps — a bearded 30-something who left behind a career in dentistry to devote himself to art.

The figure wears a shirt with the anarchy symbol because “from my point of view Greece at the moment is on the edge of going into anarchy.”

In a parking lot in the area, Bleeps has drawn a beautiful woman in a bikini with an amputated leg alongside the slogan: “Greece Next Economic Model.”

One of his works shows a classical Greek statue holding a placard reading “Vote for No One”. In another, which has been scrawled over by neo-Nazi graffiti, a woman holds a sign reading: “Knowledge is Powerlessness”.

Street art has flowered in recent years in neighbourhoods like Psyri and Exarchia, which has a large student population and has seen violent clashes over the shooting of a 15-year-old in 2008 and protests on social and political issues.

One large composition which covers the side of a house in the area shows an angry mob against an army of robots with portraits of US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel watching from clouds in the sky.

Cannot afford spray cans

“After they cut the breath of one country, they now ask for the rest: death,” reads a slogan alongside the drawing.

“Graffiti was always a popular means of expression in Athens,” said Kostas Kallergis, a freelance journalist who documents some of the most striking slogans and street art on his blog whenthecrisishitthefan.com.

“The last two years have seen a boom as part of the social anger is excluded from the mainstream media and is rather expressed on Athens' walls,” he said.

That was the case for Bleeps, who returned to Greece in 2008 after a spell living in Britain and said he found a country already in tumultuous change.

“Social issues are more intense so I have more things to discuss,” he said, pointing to another of his works on the side of an abandoned public health building showing a man on crutches with a sign saying: “Health No Good”.

While his work has been acclaimed by academics and the media, Bleeps complained that sometimes it is unappreciated by ordinary Greeks.

“The truth is sometimes something you don't like to watch or hear,” he said.

At the spray can and skateboard shop “Revolt” tucked away in a basement on an Athens back street, owner Mikos Aivalis said social street art is only a small part of a movement which began a decade ago.

“There are some writers that can pass political and social messages through graffiti but it is not a very big percentage of the whole,” he said.

The economic crisis has had one big effect on his graffiti business, however: “Writers cannot afford spray cans. We are about 35 per cent down.”

Bleeps's latest work is a complex composition combining a traditional Greek scene with a table and a vase of flowers against a deep-blue background alongside a young man wearing a shirt with the American and British flags.

In his hands he holds a placard stamped with the German eagle symbol and a famous line of verse from the Nobel-winning Greek poet George Seferis.

It reads: “We lived our life: a mistake! So we changed our life.”