Art Whino, with the help of RVA Mag, has kicked off the second edition of The Richmond Mural Project. For those not familiar on what is happening on our Richmond streets, let us drop some knowledge. The project is about street art, specifically large murals. We are creating an open air museum that you can explore anytime you want. Art Whino is bringing a top notch group of artists from around the globe that, over the next 10 days, will be adding over 20 new murals throughout the city. Combined with the 23 that were created last year with the G40 Mural Project, the result is like a giant treasure hunt. So go have fun! Oh, and make sure to tag any photos you post on Instagram with the hashtag #richmondmuralproject, and follow our Instagram for daily updates:
@artwhino
@rvamag
Let's meet the artists:
ANDREW HEM (CALIFORNIA)
His introspective, otherworldly paintings explore realities one step away from our everyday waking life. What if our thoughts flickered across the surface of our skin like ephemeral silent movies? What if spirits walked among us, trying to find their path? What if there were no racism, and even the most outlandish people were accepted? What if the children of Andrew's native land had been allowed to live in peace and thrive?
Born during his parents' flight from Cambodia in the wake of the Khmer Rouge genocide, Andrew grew up poised in the balance between two cultures — the gentle animistic society of his Khmer ancestors, and the dynamic urban arts of the tough Los Angeles neighborhood where his family eventually came to rest. Fascinated by graffiti at an early age, he honed his skills with graphics and composition on the walls of the city before following a passion for figure drawing to a degree in illustration from Art Center College of Design. Working in gouache, oil and acrylic, he weaves atmospheric, richly textured narratives in a vivid palette of twilight blues enlivened by swaths of deep red and splashes of golden light. His haunting impressions of culture and landscape evoke the life of the spirit through the visionary manifestation of memories and dreams.
See his murals in person here:
-14 S. 15th Street
ANGRY WOEBOTS (HAWAII)
Angry Woebots, aka Aaron Martin, was born on the island Oahu 1977, Hawaii. Most of his childhood was spent growing up and moving from Southern California to Nevada before finally landing back into Hawaii during his Junior year in high school. In 1999 a car accident changed everything; this life-threatening experience inspired him to leave the island once again, this time to Seattle, Washington. Inspired by the rain and being indoors, he started playing around with different art mediums again. He then left back to Hawaii with a new perspective, Aaron had his first show in 2002 and has not stopped. He has showed in galleries up and down California, the east coast, and even in shows that have traveled from the U.S. to Hong Kong. His focal medium is acrylic paintings on wood and canvas. Using minimal colors and detailed character design, these paintings are usually comprised of stressed out emotional pandas. The pandas tend to represent the story of struggle.
See his murals in person here:
-110 N. 18th Street
-311 W. Broad Street
-2416 W. Cary Street (side 2)
-807 Oliver Hill Way
-825 W. Cary Street
ANIEKAN (WASHINGTON, DC)
The 36-year old Udofia achieved DC notoriety for his towering murals of Duke Ellington, Fredrick Douglas and George Washington as well as his solo and group live paintings at Washington events sponsored by the likes of Red Bull, Heineken, Honda, Current TV, Timberland and Adidas. He garnered national attention with his caricatures and photorealistic illustrations for urban publications XXL, Vibe, Rime, Elemental, DC Pulse, Frank 151 and The Source. He further entrenched himself within the visual vernacular of the hip-hop landscape with designs for urban athletic wear companies And 1 and the D.C.-based Native Tongue.
aniekanudofia.com
See his murals in person here:
-205 E. Marshall Street
-535 N. 2nd Street
image from jetsetfashionmagazine.com
BEZT from ETAM CRU (POLAND)
Born in 1987 in Turek (Poland). After study in Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz he moved to Warsaw where he is still doing canvases and murals around Europe and the world.
Founder of ETAM group. Started to paint about 10 years ago in Turek, after few years of doing styles and illegal walls he started to paint graphic characters, started to travel to graffiti jams, meeting people. Collaboration with association Stumilowy Las opened him to big murals and collaborations with good polish painters. On study he learned and still learning techniques of academic painting and uses it in painting big murals. He's influences are artists like Mucha, Klimt, Vania, Malczewski and many many more. He grown in graffiti and hip hop culture so it's still a big influence in his paintings and walls. He's paintings are made in characteristic illustrational style.
SAINER of ETAM CRU (POLAND)
Sainer is a graduate of Finish Academy of Fine Arts in Lodz and works as a freelance artist and designer. His paintings are mix of people, animals and things seen in everyday life and uses these forms in a way that they become surreal to the viewer. His work is influenced by all that surrounds him, the street, people around him, music, films, books, etc,. Inspiration for him is everywhere.
See their murals in person here:
-1011 W. Grace Street
EVER (ARGENTINA)
Ever (Nicolás Romero) is a former graffiti writer who began painting in the streets of Buenos Aires in the 1990’s. From the beginning, he was inspired by the street’s potential for projecting concepts and colour into the daily lives of thousands of passers-by. Though he began as an artist practising letter-based graffiti, Ever’s style developed over time and moved into the realm of murals and street art. As he moved further away from graffiti, he began to explore different subjects such as portraits of ex-lovers, his brother and anonymous faces. He also experimented with more conceptually motivated pieces; such as giant portraits of chihuahuas, meant to refer to materialistic cultural tendencies. Ever is highly skilled with both aerosol and brush work and frequently integrates both into his murals. Recently he has begun to explore creative juxtapositions between his strikingly realistic portraits and abstract details, such as bright-patterned thought clouds pouring out from the eyes of his faces. With his more traditional “painterly” style, Ever often creates works one would expect to see hanging in a gallery instead of adorning a concrete urban wall. This is part of what makes Ever’s work so engaging. The anonymous faces he paints acquire gravitas through being recreated at scale throughout the city, and with his style seldom seen in the context of the street, it becomes all the more powerful for its unexpected presence.
See his murals in person here:
-534 N. Harrison Street
-2416 W. Cary Street
image from blog.vandalog.com
GAIA (BALTIMORE, MD)
Drawing on his new and evolving body of imagery depicting human and animal figures, Gaia's work reflects on the ancient themes of animal and human sympathies, but now in the context of the city and the human built environment. Working with myth and symbolic animal figures, Gaia's street murals are like the works of an urban shaman drawing on a positive force from animal protectors. Gaia employs recognizable animal figures to remind us of lost human connections to nature and the environment. He constructs an image of a reversal of the "natural order" where animals intervene as protectors and avatars for a new awareness of the human condition in the natural world. He is known world-wide for street murals placed in areas to elicit surprise and reflection by passers-by who encounter the symbolism and fragile narratives of his work.
See his murals in person here:
-11 W. Grace Street
-2 N. Rowland Street
GREG MIKE (ATLANTA, GEORGIA)
Born and raised in Connecticut, childhood trips to NYC in the mid-’80s exposed Greg Mike to the creative potential of reinventing public spaces through art and design. Always obsessed with the boundless energy and crisp line work of iconic American mid-century cartoons, by his early teens Greg began using the walls of his native state to fuse these two passions together. Mixing the take-no-prisoners bombast of classic NYC street art with the eagle-eyed precision of mass market illustration and animation has been his goal from the beginning. Further inspired by his deep involvement with skate culture and his intersections with the fashion world, he has become known for pieces that incorporate vivid explosions of incandescent color filtered through a Surrealist Pop Art perspective. Populated by gleefully twisted characters, his world is unsettling, mischievous and uniquely captivating.
See his murals in person here:
-821 W. Cary Street
-2600 W. Main Street
KELLY TOWLES (WASHINGTON, DC)
Towles is a professional artist living, working, and making things happen in DC. Currently represented by David Adamson Gallery located in DC. Towles tries to capture our individual and collective triumphs and failures with an arsenal of characters armed with boxing gloves, masks and even their own physical awkwardness. He makes work that interacts with the environment as well as the viewer. Creating murals with DC Brau, Toki Underground, U Street Music Hall and numerous spots in DC, looks like he won't stop.
See his murals in person here:
-2929 W. Cary Street (Inside Don’t look Back)
NATALIA RAK (POLAND)
Since childhood she knew that she wanted to paint and use my imagination to create. She has always enjoyed exploring with a variety with many different media such as drawing, screen-printing, graphic design, package design, traditional graphics, painting, sculpture, and visual identification. She has been working with spray paint for three years now and find a connection to nature in street art. She enjoys the changing experience of it and the sort of magic that painting at that scale creates. Her influences are old photos, daydreams, book illustrations, Marvel Comics, and artists like: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy),Jacek Malczewski, Norman Rockwell, Hans Rudolf Giger.
See her murals in person here:
-2103 W. Main Street
SONNI (NEW YORK)
Sonni was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he studied graphic design and worked as an Art Director for animation and film companies, he resides in Brooklyn, New York. In his art, he is constantly searching for that lost moment in adolescence where adventure makes dreams a reality, where the imagination and playing develop invisible forces to re-capture those lost memories from your childhood. He works with different mediums that include paper and pencil, illustrator, acrylic on canvas, and wooden sculptures. Yet, his passion is to paint murals in public spaces, finding that dialogue with the public through primary colors and playfulness!
See his murals in person here:
-2907 W. Cary Street
STORMIEMILLS (Australia)
With a career that spans over 25 years Stormie is starting to emerge as a serious mid-career artist as he continues in his quest to examine the human condition through his though provoking work. With a strong international following for his iconic character based work that has seen him travel, work and show across the globe including London, New York, Tokyo and Miami, Stormie has carved a distinctive niche that’s seen him sited in a global context as a highly collectable contemporary artist
. With sell out solo shows in Melbourne, Sydney and Perth over the last two years Stormie’s work has been taken to a new level in Australia attracting a broad collector base for his signature style of work that explores the idea of isolation in a restricted palette of black/dirt, white/the attempt to remove dirt, grey/for the cityscape & silver/for dreams.
See his murals in person here -
-300 W. Broad Street
-3336 N. Boulevard
-203 N. Lombardy Street
Art Whino is a DC based art gallery whose mission is to bring together the pioneers and freshest talent from around the world. With over 1200 artists in the Art Whino arsenal, ranging from California to New York, Germany to Japan and beyond, Art Whino has become an all encompassing force in the art world. Exhibitions cover the whole spectrum of new art forms ranging from exposing emerging stencil and wheat pasting artists to showcasing the most skilled leaders of many different genres.
Lets not forget the artists from last year's G40 Mural Project.
Watch RVA G40 Mural Project 2012: A Photoanimation by Todd Raviotta
RVA G40 Mural Project 2012 from Todd Raviotta on Vimeo.
Check out the map, sponsored by Gungho Guides. Makes sure to pick up the official Gungho Guides printed edition, dropping on July 26th around town. Its has the RMP map and over 100 other locations you should check out around the city.
You should come to the Richmond Mural Project's official reception on Saturday, July 27 from 12-6 PM and meet the artists--they will be gone by August 2nd, so this may be your only chance. Oh, and join us for drinks at Portrait House later that night.
And never, EVER forget to thank your sponsors.
