Wide Open Walls

Painting The Town With Wide Open Walls

2018-08-14T01:31:26-07:00

It’s summer which means new artwork is quickly approaching the walls of Sacramento! Widen Open Walls, whose mission is “to promote art and celebrate public art” has announced their lineup for the summer of 2018. The lineup is filled with 29 amazing local and international artists. The headliner for 2018 has a piece of art you might just recognize.

Shepard Fairey, whose iconic “Hope” poster became monumental part of former president Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign. With an image so well known around the world, Sacramento is excited to have his art on it’s walls.

Faiery will paint a large mural of Johnny Cash on Marriott’s 16th Street wall, facing the Folsom State Prison. The mural is a tribute to Cash’s iconic performance in 1968. He will paint the image below which includes pieces of history within the larger scale mural.

The lineup also includes local artists like Michele Murtaugh, Stan Padilla, and Jenn Poci, and many more. “In 2017, thousands of art enthusiasts visited the 44 walls during and after the festival, and Sobon says 2018 should be no different. “ The festival runs from August 9-19th at various locations.

Throughout the 11-day festival, there are self-guided walking or biking tours, small live concerts, pop-up art shows, and block parties around the area. For more information on whats happening and what artists are participating take a look at this article from Sactown Magazine and visit Wide Open Walls website.

Let’s paint the (SAC)town!

STREET SMARTS • SHEPARD FAIREY DISCUSSES THE PAST AND PRESENT OF HIS LIFE’S WORK

2018-08-13T00:07:30-07:00

Whether or not the name Shepard Fairey automatically conjures images of pop culture subversion, punk rock idolatry or street-art politics is irrelevant at this point. The 48-year-old artist is responsible for some of the most iconic imagery to have ever befouled the sacred real estate of public spaces in the last 28 years—from the salad days naïveté of an “Andre the Giant Has a Posse” guerilla stickering campaign throughout the Northeastern United States in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, to an uncommissioned but extremely powerful presidential campaign poster for then-candidate Barack Obama with the simple message of “Hope” emblazoned beneath his image later on, Fairey’s work has possessed the kind of omnipresence that few artists in history have achieved. His has been a life inspired first by reclaiming public spaces with his artwork (rather than continuing to be inundated by corporate advertising), then marveling in the stoking of conversations raised by the imagery he’s introduced—a “vocabulary of motifs,” as he puts it, that at once are recognizably his, but which afterward have become the centerpoint of international protests, provocation, even lawsuits.

That Fairey has been arrested some 18 times for distributing his artwork is perhaps the greatest indicator of its power, though he admits that he relishes the benefits of no longer having to be quite so anonymous, or quite so secretive.

“I enjoyed the freedom of anonymity when I started, but I also didn’t enjoy the poverty,” Fairey explained to Submerge. “Having the opportunity to make art without worrying whether or not I was gonna survive, that took 10 years for me to get to. Even though I loved walking around New York City putting up a poster, walking another 20 feet and being able to hear people discuss the poster that just went up without having any idea I did it and getting that eavesdrop, then there was the other part of my day where I was putting my last two bucks toward a burrito [laughs]. My spirit, in terms of speaking my mind and taking risks, is the same it’s always been.”

That spirit will be in full force during the Wide Open Walls muraling event taking place in Sacramento from Aug. 9–19, when Fairey headlines a stacked list of artists all doing their part to take back the streets. Fairey will be creating a giant mural of Johnny Cash on the L Street side of the Residence Inn by Marriott, with Cash’s gaze cast in the direction of Folsom Prison. Fairey talked about his contribution to Wide Open Walls and more with Submerge recently.

Read More here:

Painting Her Truth

2018-08-13T00:03:29-07:00

Painting Her Truth • China Native LIN FEI FEI Gifts Holy Diver with Stunning Melancholic Mural for Wide Open Walls https://submergemag.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=8953cd872f15c6deb2f8a1061&id=94ca99a077&e=f438b5db9b

“The theme of the mural involves the concept of humans becoming reborn... I want it to be positive and fierce. Something special for the building. The images will involve a kind of screaming war between figures.”

Click HERE to read more!

40 local and international street artists to live-paint murals at Sacramento festival this month

2018-08-09T03:36:52-07:00

By Mikaela Luke
Aug 10, 2017

Street art is big here, but it's huge in Sacramento—more than 600 murals have appeared to brighten the walls of California's capital city over the last 40 years. And starting today, artists from all over the world are flocking to Sactown for the Wide Open Walls festival to create a few large-scale pieces of art themselves.

Having debuted last year as the Sacramento Mural Festival, Wide Open Walls—now through August 20th—is a full-blown street art extravaganza with gallery openings, mural tours, artist panels, and parties—the Wall Ball, on August 19th, will cap the festival with live DJs, craft cocktails, and interactive art to benefit local arts education.

But the real reason to make the drive to Sacramento is to see no fewer than 40 artists live-painting before your eyes. Look for hearty representation from Sacramento artists, as well as talent from around the world, plus Bay Area native Jeremiah Kille. (Check the map for locations).

Headed that way? Keep an eye out for these 10 international artists.