Mural Arts Philadelphia debuted four new temporary installations in Fishtown on Thursday from local artists as a part of the “Front Street Walls” project.
The program empowers designers to have more direct involvement in public artwork — a concept the organization seeks to build on with future initiatives.
Murals from Philly-based artists Anna Mraz, Chelsey Luster, Dan Fetters and Gianni Lee will be on display along Front Street between Columbia Avenue and Oxford Street for the next two years.
Conrad Benner, the founder of local art blog Streets Dept, was the curator of this cycle’s installations and chose the artists due to their status as “emerging” muralists, local roots and diversity in styles.
The paintings display a wide variety of inspirations and methods — from the maximalist styles of Luster’s “Celebration of Love” to Fetters’ “Untitled” abstract design.
“Front Street Walls” originally started on the building front of the former Honeygrow headquarters at 1601 Front St. between 2016 and 2018, during which 11 different artists were able to design and display their work.
In 2023, Mural Arts Philadelphia, Streets Dep and CookNSolo’s Lilah Events and Goldie Falafel collaborated to bring the “Front Street Walls” project back to Fishtown and give artists an opportunity to showcase their work.
As Benner explains, most of the mural projects around Philadelphia are community-based, which typically involves an artist being hired to execute a vision designed by various community members.
“There are a lot of people who make those murals happen, and it’s wonderful; it’s what makes Philadelphia’s mural scene so different from other mural scenes,” Benner said. “But what it does mean is that we have very few spaces where there are straight-up artist-driven murals.”
The four artists were selected from a pool of over 200 applicants, Benner said. To him, this indicates an increased demand for artist-led installations around the city.
“There are so many working artists in Philadelphia who want opportunities like this,” he said. “We as a city should see that as a gift and work with that more.”
Mural Arts Philadelphia and Streets Dept hope to find more spaces around the city for similar projects, and the groups are in talks with business corridors where this type of artwork can rotate through.
“I think that will offer the greater community in Philadelphia really dynamic works of art from artists that are directly from their vision,” Benner said.
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