California Murals- Iker Muro for Wide Open Walls in Sacramento

 Art, Artists, California Street Art, Painting / Painters, Public Art, Sacramento, Street Art
Oct 142025
 

This colorful mural by Iker Muro (aka MurOne) was created for the 2018 edition of Sacramento’s Wide Open Walls Festival.

From Wide Open Walls about the artist-

Iker Muro (MurOne) is an illustrator and graphic designer who began creating public murals in 2002. Born in Bilbao, Spain, Muro describes his work as “an acid mixture of pop culture, graffiti, illustration, and graphic design.” As a youth, he began painting on skateboards and drawing caricatures of teachers and classmates at his desk in the back of the classroom. He went on to complete his studies in graphic design and has worked in many different disciplines including graffiti, graphic design, prints, and large-scale murals.

Muro’s vibrant, bold murals strike a distinctive balance between design and art. His work draws from his extensive international travels, and he takes inspiration from whatever city he is painting in. “Travelling and discovering different cultures is a gift,” he says. “I feel lucky to make my living with what I love, I don’t know what will happen in the future, I don’t have a job and a stable life, but painting and giving life to places that don’t have any is very gratifying.”

For more of his work, also check out his Instagram.

 

Flashback- NYC Public Art- Huma Bhabha at Brooklyn Bridge Park

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Brooklyn, Mixed Media, New York Art Shows, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture
Oct 102025
 

Today’s flashback is to Huma Bhabha‘s spooky figures for Before The End, which was on view until March of this year at Brooklyn Bridge Park.  It is just one of the many projects organized by Public Art Fund.

From Public Art Fund about the work-

With the ominous title Before the End, Huma Bhabha (b. 1962, Karachi, Pakistan) sets the stage to evoke mythologies as old as humankind. Conceived for Brooklyn Bridge Park, Bhabha’s four monumental painted and patinated bronzes were cast from carved cork and skull fragments. The mysterious figures recall ancient effigies cut into tombstones, their surfaces evoking centuries of eroded sediment and stone. Yet, unlike a tomb, these four-sided vertical forms stand elevated above the earth, their bones open to the sky.

“Before the End” is a title borrowed from the writings of Vincent of Beauvais (ca. 1184–1264), whose medieval imagination sparked with supernatural and apocalyptic visions. Today, the related popular genres of horror and science fiction continue to inspire Bhabha, as does art history from antiquity to the present day. Her rough-hewn figures are ambiguous—are they emerging or trapped within, rising from the depths of the earth or returning to the underworld? Set amidst an expansive landscape where the natural and man-made converge, Bhabha’s sculptures captivate through contradiction, seemingly forged in geological time yet animated with a visceral sense of immediacy.

 

 

Delaware Art Shows- Theo Platt and Steven Nederveen at Somerville Manning in Wilmington

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Delaware, Mixed Media, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Wilmington
Oct 082025
 

Theo Platt, “Chrome”, Oil on canvas

Theo Platt, “Sunstream”, Oil on canvas

Theo Platt, “Sunstream”, Oil on canvas (detail)

Theo Platt, “Deep Calm”, Oil on canvas

Somerville Manning Gallery is currently showing two painting exhibitions: Theo Platt‘s textured oil paintings from his Oceans series of works (pictured above) and Steven Nederveen‘s Stillness in the Shade of Green.

Below Nederveen describes his process for the work (pictured below)-

Using a mixed media approach to image making, I combine acrylic paint and C-print photographs. By layering these elements I can etch down into the emulsion of the photograph to reveal golden hues and also build up the surface with impasto and washes of colour. The result is an image with photo sharp detail in focal areas and painterly brush marks that obscure and create space for the imagination.

Both of these exhibitions close 10/11/25.

Steven Nederveen, “Gold Hidden Within”, Mixed Media

Steven Nederveen, “Gold Hidden Within”, Mixed Media (detail)

Steven Nederveen, “Breathe In the Forest Air”, Mixed Media

 

Throwback- Corita Kent at MoMA and at Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Drawing, Illustration, Los Angeles Art Shows, Los Angeles Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Politics, Printmaking
Oct 022025
 

Corita Kent (Sister Mary Corita)’s print I Should Like to Be Able to Love My Country and Still Love Justice, 1968, was on view at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in June of 2024.

From the museum about the artist-

Corita Kent, also known in the Catholic Church as Sister Mary Corita, incorporated a range of references into her silkscreen prints, spanning pop culture imagery and song lyrics, biblical allusions, and literary conceits. After seeing Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans in 1962, she was inspired to embrace the language of Pop art, using bold, graphic designs to convey anti-war messages. In the 1980s Kent’s posters and ephemera were collected by PAD/D (Political Art Documentation/Distribution), a New York-based art activism group with a mission to create an archive of politically concerned art and ephemera from around the world. The materials are now part of the MoMA Archives, Library, and Research Collections.

You can currently see some of her photographic archive at Marciano Art Foundation in Los Angeles for the exhibition Corita Kent: The Sorcery of Images, on view until 1/24/26. The show “focuses on a little seen part of Corita’s artistic practice: her archive of over fifteen thousand 35 mm slides that she and her cohorts took between 1955 and 1968 while she was a beloved teacher in the art department at Immaculate Heart College”.

As part of their press release they include this lovely quote from the artist-

“In a sense, the whole world around the artist is his source, his sorting and relating powers are his sorcery, and the one isn’t much good without the other. … Anything can be a source, even a mistake. The sorcery or the thievery is the art of relating sources into a new solution.”

Her work can also be seen in Los Angeles at the Corita Art Center. The center is free to visit on Saturdays (with appointment).

 

Jon Carsman’s “October Visions” from Akron Art Museum

 Akron, Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Ohio Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Oct 012025
 

Jon Carsman‘s painting October Visions, 1975, was on view at Akron Art Museum in 2024 as part of their permanent collection.

From the museum about the artist-

Jon Carsman painted from photographs, but though his pictures have a clear quality of precision, his intention was never to simply recreate what he had recorded on film. In his own words: “I want to give you a feel of what it was like to be there when I was.” To achieve this goal, Carsman stylized many elements of his paintings, often working toward a visual equivalent of the rhythm, movement, and energy that he found in music. He also worked most frequently with the rural scenery of Pennsylvania’s Wyoming Valley, where he was born and raised. As a result, images that began as still photographs take on new life through the artist’s personal experiences and memories.

Flashback- NYC Art Shows- Dread Scott at James Cohan in 2019

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Installation Art, Mixed Media, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Photographers / Photography, Politics
Sep 262025
 

“Imagine a World Without America”, 2007, Screen print and acrylic on canvas

The painting above is by Brooklyn-based artist Dread Scott and was on view as part of the 2019 group exhibition Borders at James Cohan gallery in NYC.

From the press release about the work-

His 2007 work, Imagine a World Without America, calls upon the viewer to participate in the titular thought experiment and contemplate that absence. The painting de-centers the United States of America from the middle of the map that most Americans are familiar with. Scott utilizes the language of cartography to encourage the exploration of social questions, not geography. Land mass and sea are depicted but—like the world as it actually is—borders don’t exist.

The work is currently on view as part of 15, a group exhibition at Cristin Tierney gallery, celebrating the gallery’s anniversary and new location. 15 will be on view until 10/4/25.

Dread Scott has created political works throughout his career in a variety of mediums. In the video below he discusses how one of his art installations, What Is the Proper Way to Display a U.S. Flag (1989), drew controversy- including denouncement by then President George H.W. Bush.

Flashback- NYC Art Shows- Sandy Williams IV at Socrates Sculpture Park 2020

 Art, Artists, Conceptual Art, New York Art Shows, Public Art, Queens, Sculptors / Sculpture
Sep 192025
 

Wax Monument IV (Free Wax) by Sandy Williams IV was on view at Socrates Sculpture Park in 2020 for Call and Response, Part II of the MONUMENTS NOW exhibition. The outdoor exhibition included ten monuments projects realized by the Park’s 2020 Artist Fellows.

From Socrates Sculpture Park about the work-

A monument to living history, this wax flag can be set alight from multiple-wicks and rests perpendicularly upon a black mulch base shaped like the borough of Queens. Rendered in black and white, the wax flag is reminiscent of – but not equivalent to – the U.S.’s own flag and emblem of patriotism. By enlarging the candle- a commemorative form often spontaneously employed in immediate reaction to events, Williams celebrates this popular, accessible form of expression. Alive with transformative potential, the work invites participation, mark-making, melting, and molding of a malleable symbol.

The 2025 Socrates Annual: Up/rooted– featuring new commissions from the Park’s 2025 Artist Fellows: Natalia Nakazawa, Pioneers Go East Collective, Rowan Renee, Catherine Telford-Keogh, Zipporah Camille Thompson – opened on 9/12 and will be on view until 4/6/26.

Throwback- Los Angeles Art Shows and Public Art- Mark di Suvero at L.A. Louver and in Venice

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, California Art Shows, Installation Art, Los Angeles Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Public Art, Sculptors / Sculpture
Sep 182025
 

Abstract expressionist artist Mark di Suvero‘s sculpture Declaration (pictured above) is located on the Venice Beach Boardwalk in Los Angeles. It was installed in 2001 to commemorate the Venice Art Walk’s 22nd year and in support of the Venice Family Clinic, a local organization that provides quality health care to those in need. Di Suvero turned 92 today, 9/18.

Although he is well known for his large sculptures, he is also a painter. Some of these works were shown in 2019 at L.A. Louver in Los Angeles along with some of his smaller sculptures (pictured below).

From the L.A. Louver press release about the paintings-

A selection of brilliant abstract paintings by the artist accompanies the sculptures. Like the sculptures, his paintings are never still. Created with dazzling colors in dense layers of linear and freeform gestures, they project a swirling sensation akin to the twirling movement in his three-dimensional works. Accented with phosphorescent paints, the works luminesce and reverberate even in the absence of light (and are especially dazzling when activated by black lights installed throughout the gallery space). “The heart of art is the search for form that is electrifying, that gives life to our vision,” explains di Suvero. “This is the language of emotion. Anesthetic is to kill feeling. Aesthetic is the opposite, aesthetic is feeling. The thing that is most important is the dream, the vision for what doesn’t exist that could exist.”

It was recently announced that L.A. Louver will be closing their Venice Beach space, but in happier news they will be donating the gallery’s complete archive and library to The Huntington in San Marino, California.

Throwback- NYC Murals- Nina Chanel Abney on the High Line

 Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, New York Art Shows, Painting / Painters, Public Art
Sep 112025
 

Nina Chanel Abney created NYC LOVE for the High Line in New York in November 2022 and it was on view until November of 2023.

From the High Line website about the artist and the work-

Nina Chanel Abney creates paintings, prints, and large-scale mural installations that reflect the frenzied pace of contemporary life. In a single painting, she may merge influences from news and politics, celebrity culture and gossip blogs, social media, art history, and popular television shows, all layered together to express the overabundance of contemporary culture. Layering spray paint and acrylic paint, Abney composes scenes of everyday life with graphic, angular figures posed in narrative scenes against bright, geometric backgrounds. In one of her recent series of works, Abney sets out to realize a rural Black queer utopia, inspired by the time she spent escaping New York City during the pandemic.

For the High Line, Abney realizes NYC LOVE, a new mural that celebrates the feeling of first arriving in New York City. NYC LOVE is a whimsical take on New York City’s classic iconography. When the artist moved to New York in 2005, she would meander through the city streets from Chelsea to Times Square, seduced by the hustle and bustle, bright lights, and the idea of a sleepless city. All of the “touristy” icons that most lifetime and long-time New Yorkers take for granted were gratifying and glossy to Abney, a self-described Midwestern suburbanite. NYC LOVE is representative of Abney’s first years as a student and tourist in New York City—an ode to the feeling of newness and unfamiliarity that breeds excitement and possibility. Featuring the many icons of New York—pizza slices and the Statue of Liberty, plenty of pigeons, and one Big Apple—Abney’s mural rides the subway, floats along the waterfront, and takes in all the city has to offer. NYC LOVE graces the High Line, an icon in itself that welcomes millions of New Yorkers and visitors alike to enjoy the many offerings of the bustling metropolis.

 

 

Ohio Art- Sol LeWitt at Akron Art Museum

 Akron, Art, Art Shows by Location, Artists, Conceptual Art, Design, Drawing, Installation Art, Ohio Art Shows, Painting / Painters
Sep 092025
 

In honor of artist Sol LeWitt‘s birthday today (9/9), here is his work Wall Drawing #1240, Planes with broken bands of color (Akron), located at Akron Art Museum. It was created in 2005 and installed at the museum in 2007.

The piece was drawn by Megan Dyer, Tomas Ramberg, Joe Ayala, Jennifer Bair-Shipman, Ashlie Dyer, Kathy Ilg, Sarah Sutton and Kelly Urquhart.

From the museum about the work-

Presiding over the McDowell Grand Lobby is a wall drawing by Sol LeWitt, one of the leading artists of his time. LeWitt’s approach to art stressed rigorous design and geometric abstraction, rejecting narrative, emotion and representation for the reality of art’s elemental components—line, shape, space, color and the most important, concept.

LeWitt began creating wall drawings in 1968 in response to his concern-and that of other artists at the time-that art was becoming too much of a commodity. These drawings are not so much physical objects as ideas. The artist conceived and planned them; his “drafters” (artists themselves) draw them directly on the walls of museums and public spaces around the world. Drawings may share forms and motifs, but each is unique and many, like Akron’s, are site specific.

Wall Drawing #1240 was created by the artist for the 18 by 34 foot wall where the museum’s historic 1899 building and its 2007 expansion interconnect. The triangular shapes refer to the angled supports and folded forms of the newer glass and steel lobby, while the blocks of color echo the brick wall removed from the south façade of the older building. Two drafters, assisted by area artists, worked for five weeks to fabricate the wall drawing.

 

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