For a decade, the mural outside the Romantix adult store, formerly Taboo, on Midlothian Turnpike has been one of Richmond's most debated pieces of public art. Now it's gone, replaced by a new collaboration between tattoo artist and muralist Jesse Smith and Miami-based...
Just weeks after bringing together Latino muralists from across Virginia for a collaborative project in Richmond, artist George Arturo is once again turning to public art. Following the fatal shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo by an ICE agent during an immigration enforcement operation in Houston last week, Arturo wants to donate his time and...
I went to Virginia MOCA expecting to hear Andy Howell talk about skateboarding. Instead, I left thinking about community and how people find each other. Howell's installation opens Seamless, the museum's new exhibition exploring the overlap between art and design. At first glance, it feels almost chaotic. A skateboard hangs in front of a wall...
Tucked into the alley behind 2512 West Main Street, a fever dream of the cosmos has taken shape across a brick wall. The mural is the collaborative work of four Latino artists working in and around Richmond: Visibly Hidden, Monolith, Mars, and Sol. A distant Earth floats above a mountain range and stars scatter across a deep purple sky. A Mayan...
Under the Manchester Bridge, what had been an idea for years turned into something tangible, at least for a day. Hundreds of people moved through the space as muralists painted, DJs played, and passersby stopped mid-bike ride or walk to figure out what was going on. By the end of the afternoon, the one-day test of a proposed arts park felt less...
The City of Richmond is giving organizers behind a proposed arts park under the Manchester Bridge a one-day opportunity to test the concept in real time. Scheduled for Saturday April 25 from 12-5pm, the event will serve as a live proof of concept for what supporters have described as a “vibrant arts park,” an open, artist-led space built around...
A mural in Richmond’s Northside has sparked a complex debate about public art, race, and neighborhood change, with artists, community leaders, and residents weighing in on how public art intersects with neighborhood history. The mural, painted by artist Lauren YS, depicts a woman holding a slice of watermelon with seeds spelling out “Free...
When I called Nicolás Aguilar earlier this week, he was standing on a Richmond street corner waiting to meet a few of the men who appear in his new exhibition at Art Brigade inside Health Brigade. They were planning to attend the opening together later that evening, a small but meaningful reversal. He had spent years sitting with them in their...
LA based street artist Lauren YS says their new mural on the side of Unkindness Art and Nevermore in Northside is an independent, self-funded project meant to communicate a human message rather than a political slogan. “There’s no sponsors, no corporations involved, no client to get upset. It’s all me,” Lauren said. “Street art is still a really...
I hadn’t seen him in years. Then I caught his pop-up photo show in an alleyway gallery in Oregon Hill a few months back. The images were real life. Honest. Some of them tough to even look at. Street people, prostitutes, gang bangers, punks mid-fight, scenes in bars, bikers, protests, pain, and joy all jammed into the same wall. But it wasn’t just...
