Erich and Ian at BELIEVE/BECOME at Urban Nation Berlin. Photo by Nika Kramer
Hello Rochester!
This year has already been off to an incredible start, giving us the chance to bring a taste of Rochester and WALL\THERAPY to our friends in Berlin at Urban Nation. We’re so proud of our crew, bringing our special family vibe abroad and sharing what we do with a whole new community.
This year, as Ian and I discussed future plans, we both felt that it would be good to take a year off from our annual July event, giving our amazing crew a chance to visit other festivals, work on their own special projects, or just simply take some time off to relax! Our core team donates their vacation and personal time each year to bringing WALL\THERAPY to life, and we are so grateful for all that they do. We absolutely could not do this without them!
We do plan on having a few artists drop in on us this Summer, so you’ll still see some WALL\THERAPY happening around the city! Stay tuned to this site and our social media for announcements about our guests. We’ll be focusing most of our efforts this Summer on fundraising, building more relationships with partners, and taking some time to enjoy our awesome city.
After 10 days of frenzied activity, logistical maneuvering, creative expression, and many laughs, group dinners, and companionable conversation at our home base at The Yards, WALL\THERAPY 2015 has come to an end. In its fifth year, the project continued to evolve, most significantly this year through its new partnership with URBAN NATION, which co-curated roughly half of the project’s artists and contributed to the continued realization of our primary goals: transforming Rochester’s urban landscape, providing healing inspiration, and building community.
WALL\THERAPY 2015 was punctuated by three open-to-the-public events. It kicked off with its first ever art exhibition in support of IMPACT! – IMProving Access to Care by Teleradiology, featuring studio work from all of the participating artists. A portion of all sales from the show will go directly to The Synthesis Collaborative to support the IMPACT! project. You can view available work here: http://shop.1975ish.com/category/impact-wt15
IMPACT! seeks to provide easier access to better care in underdeveloped and underserved regions through cloud-based x-ray services and a network of volunteer radiologists supporting IMPACT! sites. Both WALL\THERAPY and IMPACT! are projects of The Synthesis Collaborative. The Synthesis Collaborative is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health status of communities in the developing world using the tools of teleradiology and cloud computing.
Photo by Jason Wilder
Photo by @markdeffphoto
On Thursday, partners, artists, staff, volunteers and visitors enjoyed the FLOOR\THERAPY dance party hosted by The Lobbyist at Rochester’s Bug Jar to celebrate the week’s work.
Finally, on Friday, media partners Brooklyn Street Art hosted their popular BSA Film Friday—Live from WALL\THERAPY at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester.
Photo by Jason Wilder
Photo by Jason Wilder
You can view a short trailer of our upcoming artist spotlight videos that we’ll be releasing every Monday in August below:
Focused on a theme of surrealism and the fantastic, the artists’ work did not disappoint, with subjects ranging from a whale of melting ice, a young girl with a blooming mind to a retaliating beaver and a battle royale between monsters and robots.
Click on any of the images to open a larger version in a new window.
Prior to the official start of WALL\THERAPY 2015, Dutch artist Handiedan completed a wheatpaste mural in Rochester’s South Wedge/Swillburg neighborhood entitled “Bollywood Sugar.”
820 South Clinton Avenue – Photo by @markdeffphoto
New York City-based artist Daze completed three murals during his time in Rochester, “Rochester Dream” on Rochester’s north side, a collaboration with the city’s local FUA Krew and a final wall on Atlantic Avenue.
646 Joseph Ave – Photo by @markdeffphoto
646 Joseph Ave – Photo by @markdeffphoto
FUA KREW production wall with DAZE – Photo by @markdeffphoto
From L – R: Daze, Range FUA, Zoner FUA, Snoe FUA, Mas, Bones FUA
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Jason Wilder
Daze’s third mural merged into clouds emanating from Nate Hodge’s mural just around the corner on the same building.
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Tomas Flint
Continuing to round the building, visitors will encounter Brazilian artist Eder Muniz’s mural of vibrant animals and mythological creatures dancing across a saturated blue background.
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Erich Lehman
The final mural located on the building belongs to Vexta, a Brooklyn-based artist, whose mural of fluorescent cosmic shards is anchored by the face of a masked woman.
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Tomas Flint
Just down Atlantic Avenue, artist Li-Hill completed a large, three-story mural in just over three days.
Prior to tackling his giant wall, Li-Hill first created an installation piece in an undisclosed location in the Northwest side of the city.
Detail Shot Photo by Lisa Barker
Nearby on Greenleaf Street, Swedish artist Andreas Englund wrapped up his second ever mural of a resting superhero entitled “Pebbles.”
40 Greenleaf Street – Photo by Jason Wilder
Just around the corner on an eastern wall at Fedder Industrial Park, which is also populated with work from 2014 WALL\THERAPY artists Addison Karl, Omen, Jarus and Troy Lovegates, local artists Joe Guy Allard and Matthew Roberts created a giant blockbuster mural of a battle between monsters and robots.
1237 East Main Street – Photo by Jason Wilder
Early in the week, California-based artists Jeff Soto and Maxx242 quickly completed a massive mural in Rochester’s Public Market and then promptly headed to another on which Maxx completed a scripted mural with the words “Love and Sacrifice.”
43 Public Market – Photo by @markdeffphoto
912 Hudson Ave – Photo by @markdeffphoto
Near Daze’s first mural on Joseph Avenue, Rochester artist Brittany Williams lay down a striking portrait of a young woman in profile, whose mind splits open to reveal flower petals flowing from her mind.
488 Joseph Avenue – Photo by Jason Wilder
Swiss artists NEVERCREW created a stunning wall downtown, already popular among WALL\THERAPY followers, that shows a small whale inside a larger whale made of melting ice with the city skyline reflecting back, intersected by a burning ombré ray of sunlight.
14 Capron Street – Photo by Jason Wilder
Also hailing from Switzerland, artists Onur and Wes21 created a masterpiece of the natural world’s retaliation against human incursion on Main Street.
880 East Main StreetV-VPhoto by Jason Wilder
Year after year, it becomes more evident that WALL\THERAPY’s mission of inspiration has caught on among its supporters—artists, staff, volunteers, sponsors and community partners alike—and has created an undercurrent of passion in action that makes a project such as this possible. With just 15 artists, our event was an intimate one that allowed the artists time to appreciate the city they are helping to heal, and gave volunteers and staff time to meet those artists whose work will grace 14 of its walls.
THANK YOU!
The WALL\THERAPY team is sincerely grateful for the support we receive, without which it would be impossible to deliver inspirational mural art throughout Rochester.
To the Rochester community, your support is integral to our continued work. You’ve helped us to raise more than $35,000 on our Indiegogo campaign, without which we would not have gotten the project off the ground. Community sponsors provided meals and beverages that fueled artists, staff and volunteers throughout a busy week. And the donation of time and sharing of links and photos help us to reach more and more community members.
To our major partners — URBAN NATION, Brooklyn Street Art and Montana Cans — your involvement helped us to raise our 2015 event to even greater heights through increased outreach and support.
To business owners who donated walls now graced with WALL\THERAPY murals, thank you for the opportunity and trust you have granted us. You have helped us to continue the work of positive change and healing throughout Rochester.
To our contributing artists, who have honored us with their incredible creations and helped us to continue to heal our city, and whose appreciation for our city is reflected in their dedication to the work, and kind regard for our community members and volunteers, we thank you.
To our volunteers and staff, many of whom took time from their jobs to work long hours in support of our project, managing the complicated logistics of artists and volunteers spread throughout the city, providing hospitality to our artists, ensuring they had the cans of paint and supplies they needed when they needed them, and delivering much needed refreshment and shade during the long hot days of the past week, you are the heart and soul of WALL\THERAPY.
To our photographers and videographers, who often worked long into the night alongside artists to ensure we documented the images of the work, and but also captured the sense of community and enjoyment that surrounds the work, we are enormously grateful.
Our new site is jam-packed with bios and photos from the last five years, a searchable map of the murals, and tons of easier ways to find our murals or be a part of the project. We’ve integrated our Google Cultural Institute exhibitions so that you can view the murals in high resolution year by year. Best of all, the entire site is now searchable!
We want to thank our team member Katie Verrant for the seemingly countless hours she’s put in to both this site, our Google Cultural Institute presence, and a few other projects about to come out! We couldn’t have done this without all her hard work!
Let the 2015 show begin!
WALLTHERAPY and URBAN NATION are excited to launch the International exchange program between Rochester and Berlin. Artists curated by the UN Director Yasha Young have been invited to participate and contribute to the program of WALLTHERAPY 2015 curated by Ian Wilson (founder, co-curator) and Erich Lehman (co-curator, lead organizer). WALLTHERAPY 2015 will kick off on July 17, 2015, and our theme for this year is surrealism and the fantastic.
Brooklyn Street Art founders Jaime Rojo and Steve Harrington will be contributing with a very exciting special BSA FILM FRIDAY at the Memorial Art Gallery.
To start things off right, we will be holding our first proper exhibition kickoff titled IMPACT! This exhibition will take place at 1975 Gallery (89 Charlotte St.) and will showcase artwork from all the 2015 participating WALLTHERAPY artists in support of IMPACT! – IMProving Access to Care by Teleradiology – www.impactrad.org. IMPACT seeks to provide easier access to better care in underdeveloped and underserved regions through cloud-based x-ray services and a network of volunteer radiologists supporting IMPACT sites. Both WALLTHERAPY and IMPACT! are projects of The Synthesis Collaborative.
FRIDAY – JULY 17 – IMPACT! art show and kickoff featuring work from this year’s participating artists!
Portions of ALL sales will go directly to The Synthesis Collaborative to support the IMPACT project!
THURSDAY – JULY 23 – FLOOR THERAPY at the Bug Jar!
$5 at the door.
WALL\THERAPY & The Lobby present the third annual FLOOR/THERAPY with Thievin’ Stephen, DJ Tim Tones, Stay Gold, Lord Krow, and more TBA. Come boogie as the 2015 roster of visiting WALL\THERAPY artists take a mid-week party break at Bug Jar. 10pm-2am Thursday, July 23.
FRIDAY – JULY 24 – Brooklyn Street Art hosts BSA FILM FRIDAYS at the MAG!
Free and open to the public (limited to capacity of the auditorium)
BSA FILM FRIDAY LIVE
with hosts
Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo
Founders of Brooklyn Street Art (BSA)
Friday July 24, 2015 – 5:00 pm
MAG Auditorium
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester
Take an entertaining trip with Steve and Jaime through many of their favorite short video pieces selected from the last 10 months of the popular BrooklynStreetArt.com section: BSA Film Friday. Experimenters, explorers, anti-heroes and dreamers all, you’ll see how WALL\THERAPY 2015 is on-point with this year’s theme of surrealism and the fantastic
How can a blog capture all that has happened in the past 2 weeks?
If a picture is worth a thousand words, than what is the exchange rate of a mural 4 stories tall?
With the July 2014 WALLTHERAPY event finally wrapped, the cans of paint empty, and the artists already on to their next projects, the crew are left with a deafening quietness after the past week of excitement and creativity. But more importantly we are also left with over 15 unique and awe-inspiring murals placed all around the city of Rochester.
Seeing only half the artists as last year, this year’s July event was a much more intimate experience for all involved. A chance for all the crew to get to know the artists, and the artists more of a chance to learn about the city they are helping to heal.
The curatorial focus on this event was portraiture, and each artist brought their own unique style to the walls they were healing.
Click on any of the images to open a larger version in a new window.
The first to finish his mural was Sam Rodriguez, an artist who joined us from San Jose, CA. His brightly colored image of a female face and lettering was added right next to the Greenleaf Ave murals created during our event earlier this year, Writes of Spring. www.samrodriguezart.com
40 Greenleaf St. – https://goo.gl/maps/VnCWv Photo by Tomas Flint
Next to the Rodriguez piece is a large and beautiful image of a woman, brought to you by artist Omen from Montreal, Canada. – www.omen514.com
40 Greenleaf St. – https://goo.gl/maps/VnCWv Photo by Mark Deff
Jarus, coming down from Toronto, Canada, to paint not one but two stunning murals,finished his first south of the city at 390 Seward St. in the PLEX neighborhood, where the focus was of a woman and her feline companion, resting upon a couch shrouded in mist. – www.instagram.com/youngjarus
390 Seward st. – https://goo.gl/maps/vyDJe
Photo by Tomas Flint
The Susan B. Anthony area of Rochester is now home to the brightly stylized visage of Jimi Hendrix, offered by Baltimore’s ERNEST SHAW, JR. www.instagram.com/eshaw_art
53-59 King St. – https://goo.gl/maps/MEmKX Photo by Lisa Barker
Local artist Caitlin Yarsky offered her amazing talent by creating a mural on Boulder Coffee on Alexander St. featuring one of Rochester familiar faces, Andy and his accordion. – www.caitlinyarsky.com
Boulder Coffee – 100 Alexander St. – https://goo.gl/maps/Om5k8 Photo by Helio Sun Photography
If you want to look at a mural and realize that best years of playful fun are ahead of us, then you’ll want to check out Elicser Elliot’s mural on Canal St off W. Main St. Elicser joined us last minute for a visit with Steve from Well and Good up in Toronto and cracked this gem out in about a day. – www.elicser.com Photo by Mark Deff
Once you get a paint gun in the hands of OMEN, he will make short work of creating another stunning beauty. This massive mural can be seen out front of the Fedder Industrial Park on E. Main St. Photo by Helio Sun Photography
From Reno, NV, OVERUNDER used the shapes of the natural world, and human form to create this masterpiece at Lake Ave and Latta Rd. www.erikburke.com
78 Latta Rd. – https://goo.gl/maps/R9L7l Photo by Mark Deff
None of this year’s muralists managed to capture the true spirit of Rochester more than hometown hero John Perry. He created the iconic image of Armand from the great House of Guitars to greet those walking into the Rochester Public Market. www.pennylessandinsane.blogspot.com Photo by Jason Wilder
Addison Karl made his way to Rochester all the way from Germany, leaving us with one of the largest murals of the entire project so far. 4 stories tall and brightly colored, the solemn and thought provoking look of this man from Brussels is one you will no doubt spent time admiring as you stand in the parking lot of the Fedder Industrial Park building. – www.idrawalot.com
Fedder Building – 1237 Main St E https://goo.gl/maps/dE3XC Photo by Helio Sun Photography
NY City artist Alice Mizrachi created one of the longest murals of the year, with the help of over a dozen 5th-7th graders from Rochester Prep. Each child lent a hand to paint a part of the mural and its message that ‘Together We Stand in Peace’. – www.alicemizrachi.com
53-59 King St. – https://goo.gl/maps/MEmKX Photo by Lisa Barker
For a captivating mural that offers a true sense of atmosphere, then you’ll have to look across the street from the Village Gate to see the eyes created by David Walker from the United Kingdom – www.artofdavidwalker.com
277 N. Goodman St. – https://goo.gl/maps/2oetM Photo by Mark Deff
The next time you are questing for a coffee, make your way to Fuego Coffee, and check out the mural from local artist Shawnee Hill. The hauntingly beautiful woman shrouded in a galaxy will help you enjoy that delicious coffee that much more. – www.coroflot.com/shawneehill
167 Liberty Pole Way – https://goo.gl/maps/7dDqi Photo by Helio Sun Photography
What might be one of the best pairings of building and artist, Alice Pasquini from Italy created a lovely portrait on the wall of Small World Books, owned by Rocco, also from Italy. – www.alicepasquini.com
Small World Books – 425 North St. – https://goo.gl/maps/xNr9Y Photo by Mark Deff
And the final mural is a second one from Canadian artist Jarus. One of the old silos of the Beech Nut Factory has been emblazoned with a strikingly beautiful painting of a young brunette local. The detail in the fabric and expression has left everyone who’s seen it feeling quite impressed.
Fedder Building – Main St. Photo by Tomas Flint
The WALLTHERAPY team would like to offer our sincere and heartfelt thank yous to those that helped make this a reality. Starting with the community, without your support we wouldn’t have gotten off the ground. It was your help that allowed us to raise over $35,000 on our Indiegogo campaign. And it’s the donation of your time and sharing of our links and photos to help raise awareness that has made this such a success.
To the artists, we are truly honored for what you have created here in our city. We hope that each mural will have a ripple effects of positive change throughout the city.
A thank you to the volunteers that came in early mornings, and stayed late into the evenings. To people that delivered the much needed cans of Montana spray paint and equally needed cups of coffee.
A thank you to the photographers and videographers who documented not just the images but the community responses and enjoyment. It’s these special moments that show the work we are doing is important.
A big thank you to our partners and sponsors Montana Cans, Graffmap, and Podio. They helped us pull off another successful event and help show the world where are our murals are!
And finally a special thank you to the business owners that donated their walls for our artists to create their work upon. For putting your trust in us and for allowing our team to help make this city better.
As the July 2014 WALLTHERAPY comes to a close we will leave you with this:
“WALLTHERAPY is like a big adoptive family full of love and creativity that makes me sad to leave. I loved the experience and love you guys! Until we meet again. #bittersweet”
These are the words from mural artist Omen that he shared with his Instagram followers upon leaving. We are so honored to know that our passion for healing a city with art can resonate with such talented and compassionate people as the artists that joined us for 2014.
Please continue to share the links and images of this years event! And look forward to coming events this August and Fall!
To learn more and to see photo albums from all of our events, please check out our Facebook Page : http://www.facebook.com/walltherapyny
As we gear up for this week’s WALLTHERAPY main event, we want to give a special shout out to some folks behind the scenes. In addition to our amazing volunteer team, we are incredibly fortunate to work with some amazing partners who help us make this whole project happen on a yearly basis.
Since the beginning, Montana Cans has been a strong supporter of our project, and we are thankful to continue our partnership with them! We have used thousands of their cans in this project over the last few years. Check out their sites for their great products:
GRAFFMAP
Our newest partner is Graffmap, who are about to launch an app for iOS and Android that will enable you to find, locate, and upload graff and street art pics all over the world. We are incredibly fortunate to be one of their first featured festivals, and we’ve been doing some field testing the last month or so. It should be available for free in those app stores soon! Check out their sites for their more info:
Behind the scenes, we’ve been using an organizational tool called Podio to help coordinate all aspects of the WALLTHERAPY project, including volunteers, walls and supplies, locations, and events. It’s helped us streamline our process a lot, and we are stoked they believed in our project! Check out their sites for more!
Tuesday night, WALLTHERAPY was awarded CITY Newspaper’s “Best Local Art Exhibition of 2013.” We were awarded this distinction last year among a field of esteemed nominees. Without equivocation, I can say that the same is true in 2013.
To the team…
This is an award to be shared with each of you. Your collective intellect and dedication were necessary for the execution of this project. You made this happen!
To our supporters…
You’ve continually shown the world that the Rochester community supports the arts! As we work in earnest to make WALLTHERAPY another one of Rochester’s world-class offerings, your support is especially meaningful and appreciated.
To the artists…
Thank you for sharing your talent wholeheartedly. The diversity of your work has changed our cityscape and, more importantly, our consciousness about art in the public space . . . indelibly!!
