Monday, December 28, 2009

The Flat Iron Artists' Association, have started preparing the serpentine halls of the Flat Iron Building for the upcoming "Now You See It, Now You Don't" one-night-only wall art show on February 5th, so to fuel the excitement I thought I'd start combing around for some inspiration.

In imagining the opening (and only) night of this show, I think about the effect of taking art off nails and wires and spreading it directly against the walls on which it usually hangs. There's something elemental and thrilling about ensconcing ourselves in artistic expression and letting the colors and figures bleed into our own space. Some cultures have used wall art to transform ordinary spaces into sacred, didactic ones. Today it seems like the public art form of choice is the mural, maybe because it so easily slides into our daily lives, or because of its unique relationship to the surface on which it's painted. I wouldn't be surprised if many a mural has saved some amazing yet overlooked architecture from destruction. On the other hand, the stigma attached to graffiti and the persistence of taggers further complicates the role of wall art in contemporary culture.

Here's a few inspirational images I found around on the internet tonight.


















(All images copyright their respective owners, websites, etc.)