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,...
RVA Street Art Festival celebrates the tenth anniversary of its first event in 2012 at the place where things began: the abandoned power plant along Richmond's Canal Walk where that first festival took place. The jury's still out on whether time really is a flat circle. After all, if True Detective season one character Rust Cohle were really...
It's that time of year again, The Richmond Mural Project 2014 is about to bring some of the greatest mural talent in the world (universe?) here to RVA and let these modern masters do what they do. It's that time of year again, The Richmond Mural Project 2014 is about to bring some of the greatest mural talent in the world (universe?) here to RVA...
Where West Marshall meets Brook Road, a new pedestrian plaza is coming -- and with local organizations like Gallery5, Venture Richmond, Big Secret, and more behind it, it’s set to brighten up the intersection through art. The already-colorful City of Richmond is about to get another rainbow upgrade, thanks to a grant from the Bloomberg...
RVA Magazine #39 is on the streets now! In this article from its pages, Humble, Richmond’s longtime muralist, clothing designer, and model, reflects on his journey from starving artist to modeling for professional shoots in the desert. Listen to the Radio RVA Podcast Interview with Humble here. Humbleness isn’t exactly a native concept in the...
Would I Lie To You? Mural Walk creator George Tisdale unreliably narrates tours of Richmond's murals. It's more entertaining than you'd think. The Would I Lie To You? Mural Walk showcases some of the most beautiful, and most hidden, murals in and around Richmond, but with a twist. The stories told at each mural could be complete lies, and it is...
If I die in my studio Like a mouse in my cage Will the neighbors smell my corpse Before the rats eat my face (go outside) The writing on the wall of Nils Westergard’s Museum District studio, while somewhat morbid, pokes fun at the compulsive working tendencies that have resulted in his expansive, cohesive body of work, despite the ingenious...
Tattoos and street art are undeniably Richmond to the point that we should erect a monument of a giant paintbrush on Monument Avenue. As of 2015, the city was the third most tattooed place in the country and has become apart of our culture just as street art is starting to. With the fascination and popularity of body ink, it only makes sense...
"Art shouldn't be hidden. Art should make you think. Art has a tangible value on a community and can bring people together." - R. Anthony Harris After five strong years and achieving its original mission of 100+ murals throughout the city, The Richmond Mural Project (RMP) is scaling back a bit this year and painting one large mural on the VCU...
In 2012, the city officially designated the Broad Street corridor as the Arts and Cultural District of Richmond. However, there was one problem, it wasn't actually overflowing with either. The city had monthly First Fridays, Gallery5, and other small exhibit pop ups of course, but when it came to larger-than-life works of art Richmonders and...
