BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Freshly coiffed botanical crowns, community stakeholders, a formal design committee, studio photography with stylized gender blending sitters, two weeks of public mural painting, a certain inflection of romanticism, and an opening celebration anointed with live jazz performances on the sidewalk by two stunning talents with their fingers on the pulse.
This is the wholistic, even transformative work you’ve come to expect from the collaborative approach of street artist, muralist, historian, activist, lecturer, trend watcher, and sociologist GAIA – but it keeps coalescing into a plentiful and integrated cosmos.
This project is called “Overjoyed,” a mural completed this autumn on Greenmount West and Old Yorke Road in Baltimore, Maryland. In what he describes as the satisfying outcome of 18 months of planning and community collaboration, GAIA summons a richly textured, quietly reverential visual and floral feast of natural, yet poised, beauty. Moreover, it is rooted in the people who live here and the location itself.
“Considering this wall sits in an important intersection for local transportation history and that the 32nd street farmers market is such a beloved aspect of the neighborhood,” says GAIA, “a composition with flowing floral arrangements and past street scenes from Waverly was ultimately developed.”
The three sided wall took four weeks of painting to complete and was concluded by an informal celebration with a performance by Brandon Woody and Devron Dennis.
GAIA would like to extend many thanks to the Central Baltimore Partnership for the funding through their Spruce Up Grant program, @waverlymainst to apply for and administer the grant and community engagement, and Greenmount Partners for the private funding and wall donation.
An additional thanks to all of the project models; @reedbmoreart @kid.august @kyartin @w.a.s.t.e @blackrodite and Ms. Grace, as well as thanks to Sarah Ruberto, the owner of @pomona.floral, photographer Schaun Champion, and the musicians Brandon Woody and Devron Dennis (@brandonwoody @_devron).
238
138
45
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Our weekly interview with the street El Coucho has a certain savoir-faire, don de gente (El Coucho) (photo Jaime Rojo) Clayton and Maybelle still remember their first blind date. (Pe...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. URBAN ART 2014 on Auction 2. Building Detroit - Revok, Nekst, Pose 3. Sheryo and Yok in Indo...
In advance of Moniker in Brooklyn this May, we are interviewing some of the artists who are influenced both by street practice and fine art as the contemporary urban art category continues to evolve...
Join the party today in Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the street art festival Kin Graff 4 brought many to celebrate the murals, the artists, and the festival itself with mus...
The dynamics of collaborations between artists are often informative, even revelatory to the viewers as well as the artists. By deliberately casting your creative lot with that of another you are taki...
