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...
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...
The Carver neighborhood sits tucked between the highway and the downtown sprawl, close enough to reach everything and overlooked long enough to feel like its own island. So when CONEX appeared there a few weeks ago, rising out of a sunken concrete pit built from cargo containers and covered in murals, it felt like the neighborhood had quietly...
The GIANTS! Exhibition Preview Party was last night at VMFA, and for the first time in my 20+ years moving within Richmond’s arts scene, I saw a mix of people I honestly didn’t expect to ever share the same room. High-end collectors, street artists, curators, younger creatives, and this new art-forward middle class moving into the city were all...
"Mickael Broth is an artist, muralist, sculptor, writer, father, husband, skateboarder, and climber, quite the talented bloke. He’s created hundreds of public works of art across the country and around the world. A recipient of the VMFA Professional Fellowship, his work has been commissioned by hundreds of clients. The man stays busy, and I know...
