Portraits. Cartoons. Graffiti-style messages. A new, collaborative mural by 17 Chicago artists showcases the different styles of street art and graffiti writing for drivers sitting in traffic under the I-90 viaduct at Western Avenue and Logan Boulevard in Logan Square.
The goal, say curators James Sturnfield and the artist known as BboyB, is to advertise high-quality local work and encourage Chicago residents and businesses to hire their neighbors instead of flying muralists and painters in from other cities.
“Organizations bring in these muralists from different cities and different countries, and they pay them a lot of money to come and paint in Chicago,” BboyB said. “But there’s a plethora of amazing artists right here in the city.”
Those who contributed to the wall include artists known as Face, Exhaust, Hink, Koal, Megan Kind, Shan, Cool Disco Rich, Sens, Oscar Joyo, Hatek, Morgan Nicolette, Serk, Joey D, Stuck One and Kera. BboyB and Sturnfield also contributed to the wall. Work by most of these artists already can be found around Chicago. This mega-mural brought them together in one place.
BboyB coordinated with Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st) and the city to make sure the entire process was above board. Sturnfield served as the liaison for artists, organized supplies and figured out the flow of the wall.
“We started off with a theme of road trip and summer vibe and colorful,” Sturnfield says. Not everyone stuck to it, but many did.
Sturnfield says he sought to “show the unity of Chicago’s art and graffiti culture. I tried to have a nice balanced and framed piece.”
To that end, he mixed gallons of primary colors and painted a graduated background across the length of the viaduct. He assigned artists their slots on the wall and asked them to stick with the color scheme already there. After that, the space was theirs to craft as they wished.
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Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
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Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
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Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
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Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
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Arthur Maiorella/For the Sun-Times
The murals also came in response to a request from La Spata to clean up and beautify what was a drab and dingy underpass more known for its eyeroll-inducing gridlock than its eyeball-catching art.
Sturnfield and BboyB have worked on collaborative projects before. Last year, Sturnfield put out a call for local artists to revitalize the Union Pacific retaining walls on Hubbard Street in West Town. Dozens answered his call. BboyB organized the massive collaboration on the Congress Theater in Logan Square.
Hiring local artists comes with another perk, too, the men say: Their work is less likely to be vandalized as they are already respected by others in Chicago’s street art and graffiti scenes.
If a street artist “is not from the state or the city, of course it’s going to get vandalized,” says BboyB, “because all these kids don’t know them.”
Working with local artists brings respect for the piece, they say, which in turn can last for years without ever being touched.