The Detroit-based gallery, Library Street Collective, recently started a big project in downtown Detroit. In collaboration with Detroit entrepreneur/real estate mogul Dan Gilbert, they are commissioning 23 artists from all over the world to paint murals in a newly constructed mixed-use development (referred to as “The Z”). Known as The Garage Project or The Z, this project is now about 30% done. The organizers came up with a impressive list of street artists, muralists, graffiti artists and fine artists to come and paint large-scale murals throughout the interior spaces of the garage, as well as the roof of the building.
How & Nosm (Raoul and Davide Perre) recently finished their mural (seen above) which included all their familiar elements – red, black and white color palette, and abstract imagery. Their clean, sharp lines formed geometrical objects, that after careful examination reveal characters, symbols, depth and narration. Their feeling for including intricate detail on their large scale works came to it’s full light with this complex piece they worked on.
Another abstract piece was painted on the roof of “The Z” by Smash137 while Ukrainian art duo Interesni Kazki created another colorful surreal mural with a strong fairy tale feel to it. Tristan Eaton created a heavily layered and expertly rendered mural depicting iconography and insignia from WWII era patches created originally by Walt Disney. Mexican artist Saner created nice scenery featuring his masked characters, and Australian art couple Dabs Myla added an even more cheerful spirit with their happy vintage cartoon imagery and clean, sharp lines and shapes. Greek artist B. did his contribution in the form of a colorful, uplifting image as well, while Hense created a big expressive and abstract piece.
“Each artist has been carefully selected for their unique contributions to the global contemporary art community, and for his or her special abilities to transmit their personal experience in Detroit to a broad audience. No two artists come from the same background, some educated in Europe’s best Fine Art programs and some from the mean streets of NYC,” said Matt Eaton, co-owner of Library Street Collective. In the following few months artists such as Cyrcle., Revok, Gaia, Remi Rough, Sam Friedman, Maya Hayuk, Augustine Kofie, Pose, Logan Hicks, etc will be stopping by Detroit, leaving their mark on what’s shaping up to be one of the biggest indoor collection of street art murals.
