ABOUT PAWN WORKS GALLERY

Pawn Works is a contemporary art gallery that has evolved from showing studio exhibitions to exclusively creating and displaying outdoor projects, which has made them the perfect partners for Alderman Solis’ initiative.

In the last three years, Pawn Works put on about three to four shows a year.

“Awake” by Rae, Street artist from Brooklyn, NY.

“We figured if we can get 10 murals out publicly each year, than we’re creating more work than we would in our shows and 20 times more people would actually get to see it,” said Nick Marzullo, co-founder of Pawn Works.

With the help of Seth Mooney, Marzullo’s business partner who is based in New York City, they’ve been able to bring artists from Brooklyn, Nevada and Europe to the wall.

Marzullo sat down with OTW to talk about his gallery’s involvement with the “Art in Public Places” project in Pilsen:

By Samantha Peña

Gallery #2

This gallery contains 15 photos.

Works by out-of-state artists: Jon Bugerman, Reyes 78, Labrona, OverUnder and ROA. Photo credit: Rachel Syms

Gallery #1

This gallery contains 16 photos.

Works by Chema Skandal, Brooks Golden, Ricardo Gonzalez “Naco” & Roho and Nice One PHOTOS BY: Samantha Peña

About Yollocalli Arts Reach

Declaration of Immigration mural created by the students of Yollocalli Arts Reach.

Vanessa Sanchez is the director of Yollocalli Arts Reach in Pilsen. When Sanchez started out she was a student and then she became an intern, eventually working her way up to the role of director. The organization began in 1997 after The National Museum of Mexican Art purchased WRTE radio station on 18^th and Loomis and they decided to create a youth arts program. Their most recent projects involve teaching mural making and mixed media to the youth in the community.

OTW: What mural projects has the organization been part of?
VS: We’ve done over 30 murals and our most well known is the one on our building, which is about immigration. It’s called declaration of immigration and it was based off of The National Museum of Mexican Art’s show about immigration and they had this manifesto, this declaration, so we took some of the verbage from that to create the piece that we have on our wall. We’ve done three murals for the YMCA on Blue Island and Western, they’re all inside, and the newest mural has digital media involved in it as well and sculptural elements. We’ve just also last year did a really large mural for the new Lurie Children’s Memorial Hospital downtown, we did a large mosaic for that. This past summer we did a mixed media installation mural with the help of Chris Silva on 18^th street near Throop. He also then helped us create a mural for the 16^th street wall with our young people.

OTW: Chris Silva, is he a muralist?
VS: He’s just a local artist, who currently lives in Chicago. He’s a well-known artist. He used to do a lot of work with found wood pieces so that was the kind of piece that he helped our young people do recently.

The name Yollocalli comes from an indigenous language in Mexico where “yollo” means heart and “calli” means house.

OTW: How do you guys choose who can become an instructor here? Is there a selection process or do they just have to qualify?
VS: I would say it’s people that we kind of know, that we’ve known as artist ourselves, and that we know the young people would be interested in. So it’s based on their style, or their technique. And we either will solicit them to see if they can work for us or sometimes they would ask to work for us as well. And lately not just the mural artists, but  other artists, if we are looking for a new artist then we put out a call. We’re now trying to have our young people select those artist programs. So now it’s really their investment and their input into what they want.

OTW:How did you guys get involved in the 16^th street mural project?
VS:We actually were supposed to be involved last year with the resurrection project but they were not able to get the right permission from the railroad stations. So when Alderman Solis took over that initiative this past summer and was able to get permission and after he put out that call for proposals for artwork, we took it upon ourselves to see if we could get a spot on the wall. And that’s how it happened, you know, we spoke with the Alderman and he was all for having young people from the neighborhood put up artwork.

OTW: How long did that mural take to do?
VS: We did it pretty quickly actually. About 2 weeks, they had just finished six weeks of working with Chris [Silva] on the other mural on 18^th street and Chris [Silva] then had them work on a design that all combines this one sort of shape and all the young people had to make a design with that one shape. So they put all those pieces together to make that image and then they just went to the wall and went for it. They were all pretty advanced youth that were working with him, all pretty much over 18 and so they already had experience kind of working and knew the process of working on the wall.

OTW: And how many of them were there working on the wall?
VS: 10.

OTW: Very cool. So what’s your take on the alley, alley art, or art in alleys?
VS: Yeah we were really excited about that. So [Danny] Solis and Lauren [Pacheco] gave us permission to then continue in our alleyways. Because the corner right across from us used to always get plastered with either other peoples street art or it was tagged a lot, so Lauren [Pacheco] kind of wanted to deter that and so I know she commissioned an artist to work specifically in that corner that leads to they alley. And so, she then gave us permission to continue onto those walls. So we made a call out to our young people that if they wanted to paint on these walls we would provide the materials for them, they just had to send us a drawing of they would want to do and a reason why they want to do it. And then our interns and myself helped select the pieces that we wanted to be in the alley.

And so we like being able to have our work in that space because a lot of community members cross through that alley. It’s just a quicker way to get from one place to another. So it’s kind of nice now that they have imagery or artwork to look at as they walk past.

OTW: And is it just that one alley or are there others on 18th?
VS: I’m not sure. So the artwork that was supposed to go up on 16^th street last year, we were asking around the neighborhood, because we were already making on parachute cloth, the imagery and we had the image, we had everything, we just needed a place to put it. So we went to different businesses and [Taqueria Los] Comales, right there on 18^th, was the one that gave us the thumbs up. And we thought it was the best space so that’s actually another piece that’s in an alley that gets used because people walk from the parking lot, through the alley, to go to [Taqueria Los] Comales. So it’s kind of nice that we have another piece there. I’m not sure about other places, but you know it’s a good thing. People use alleys, might as well beautify them as well.

“Reach for Peace,” a mural painted by the students of Yollocalli located in an alley near 18th Street and Ashland Avenue.

OTW: How do you want the youth to feel after they leave this program or what do hope they takeaway from the program?
VS: Definitely that they’ve learned a new skill, especially mural making. That they feel confident in working large scale and that they can go out and perhaps do it on their own. And that they have now a landmark or a space within the community that they can say that they were a part of.

OTW: Why is it murals? What made you guys decide to do murals, instead of just, you know, a canvas or something?
VS: I think it’s just public art in general. It’s that great combination of being able to express yourself but then allowing a large audience to be able to see it, to be able to interact with it, to be a part of it. So it’s just a good way, again, to get the young people involved with their community or if it’s outside the community, it’s them learning more about the community that they’re providing the mural for. And then being able to put their creativity in a space that will either be there permanently or semi-permanently depending on the weather, or things that they make. But it’s something that they feel that they’re a part of and that other people they know will be looking at it.

OTW: What’s Yollocalli’s goal for the future?
VS: You know continue programming. We definitely want to continue our mural projects because again, we just feel like they’re a great way to have the young people be a part of Chicago and different neighborhoods within Chicago. And continue to offer more traditional and non-traditional art programs to keep young people creative and invested in the arts.

An alley mural painted by the students of Yollocalli located near 18th Street and Blue Island.

OTW: Is there anything else that you would like to add?
VS: You could just check out our website Yollocalli.org.

By Rachel Syms

A Q&A With The Talented Nice One

“I’m not really hiding anything,” says Nice One, about wearing masks at his shows. “I just think it’s fun.” (Photo courtesy of Nice One)

All the way from The Mile-High City, the Denver-bred artist known as Nice One moved to Chicago when he was just a 13-year-old skater kid. He discovered his innate passion for the arts at an early age, but Nice One says it was skateboarding that acted as the bridge to him displaying his art in public places. It was when he began looking at how he could use his environment to his advantage.

A 2009 fine arts alumni from Columbia College Chicago and now, a well-known, respected artist, the 26-year-old spoke to On The Wall about his craft and his involvement with the “Art in Public Places” project in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. Here’s what he had to say:

 OTW: So when did you fall in love with Art?

NICE ONE: I guess it was just kind of a lifelong thing. I always liked drawing as a kid and I kind of never grew up. I’m just a big kid in a way. One of my first experiences with drawing that I can remember was when I was in kindergarten. We were told to paint something with a sentence and I wasn’t a very good speller. I learned how to spell one word: Snow. I wrote, “I like snow” for 2 months straight and with that, I drew all sorts of snowmen, all sorts of crazy families, technicolored snowmen, it was awesome. I remember having a lot of fun and feeling so inspired by just drawing snowmen.

OTW: What would you consider yourself: a Street Artist, a Graffiti Artist, a Muralist? Is there even a difference?

NICE ONE: I’m multidisciplinary. I’m not just a street artist because I’ve done all sorts of different things. I’ve sewn and done needlepoint. I’ve screen-printed. I get a lot of enjoyment from doing various things. The same way contemporary art can’t really be defined, the same applies to graffiti and street art. I personally don’t feel like I can define myself as one or the other.

OTW: If you could describe your style of work in one word, what would it be? 

NICE ONE: A doodler. I’m kind of like a world builder. I have my own fantasy that I like to carry out in my art.

OTW: How did you become involved with the mural project in Pilsen?

NICE ONE: Through Lauren Pacheco and Peter Kepha from Chicago Urban Arts Society, they were my major connect to that project. I’ve worked with them twice before. I did a Pop-Up art show on State & Adams and we worked together on another mural on 18th street and Carpenter. When creating a mural you’re in a position where you’re engaging with people and Lauren knew I liked working in public spaces.

Nice One’s “Let It Rain In The City” mural (Photo by Samantha Peña)

OTW: Your piece really stood out to me, the vibrant colors and the phrase itself. What’s the story behind it? Why “Let it rain” and not “Let the sun shine in the city?”

NICE ONE: [Laughs] I was just pulling from dialogue from people my own age. I’m always listening to rap and hip hop, you know that whole phrase, “Let it rain,” it can be understood in different ways so I like to play off of that.

OTW: How long did it take to finish it?

NICE ONE: It took me four days. That wall is really tough and I’m still very fresh to murals.

OTW: Wow, that’s impressive. Was that your first time doing a mural that big?

NICE ONE: That’s the biggest that I’ve done to date. I think that wall’s about 80 feet.

OTW: So do you plan on doing any more murals on 16th Street?

NICE ONE: I hope so. I actually hope to go back to that wall and keep working on it at some point. There’s some other things I want to do with it now, but there’s some other plans brewing with people I know from that stretch of wall between Laflin Street and Blue Island, so I’m sure I’ll be around those areas again in the spring.

OTW: What is it that you want to add to your piece?

NICE ONE: Just more characters. That’s the great thing about having a wall. It’s yours and you can always go back to it. I mean it’s done now, but it can be done even more.

OTW: Where else can one find your work in Chicago?

NICE ONE: You can find some at a couple different galleries in the city and other walls. You can also find some of my stuff through the HOTBOX Mobile Gallery, that’s another project I’m working on.

OTW: Cool, what’s the HOTBOX gallery all about? 

The HOTBOX Mobile Art Gallery (Photo courtesy of Nice One)

NICE ONE: It’s an art mobile gallery ran between me and my girlfriend, Tara. She’s a designer and artist so we collaborate a lot. HOTBOX is a 22 foot truck that we made into a gallery for unconventional artists. It’s for people that work in the public space and for people that want to engage with different people in different ways with a public space. We’re a project-based gallery so we don’t have shows regularly and we don’t have a specific location, but you can find us in Pilsen, Bridgeport and Wicker Park. It’s an old truck so we try not to venture too far, but yea, we do projects pretty consistently in the summer.

OTW: Have you done any work outside of the U.S.?

NICE ONE: I went to Brazil in 2008. It was very much a community oriented project. We were in the villas painting walls.  Bringing color to areas like that can be very uplifting and motivational.

OTW: Where do you draw your inspiration from?

NICE ONE: People in my life, my friends, the community around me, my own imagination. My inspiration is all over the place.

OTW: Any upcoming shows you’d like the world to know about? 

NICE ONE: I can’t give too much away, but me and a really dope street artist that goes by Lucx have a dual show coming up at Galerie F in January. That’s going to be rad.

OTW: Nice One, thanks so much. Before we wrap this up, is there anything else you’d like to share? 

NICE ONE: I’m just a big kid and I like to share my world with everyone else, whether they like it or not [Laughs].

By Samantha Peña

Ricardo Gonzalez: The Peaceful Painter

Ricardo Gonzalez shifts the circle of the flag as he makes adjustments to his mural.
Photo by Rachel Syms

At the western end of Pilsen where 16^th Street meets Wood Avenue, a man in a plaid jacket stood leaning against his blue ladder with his head tilted to the right, and his eyes focused on the strokes of his paint brush.

His name is Ricardo Gonzalez, some people know him as NACO. Gonzalez has been working on his mural “La Voz Es Poder” since the end of September. After receiving approval from the projects director, Gonzalez began putting his eye-catching mural up on the wall.

“This piece I’m working on here is about music and empowerment,” said Gonzalez. “I wanted to pay tribute to my own culture and ethnicity so there’s a lot of Latino and Chicano imagery on here.”

Gonzalez’s friend and fellow muralist Erick “ROHO” Garcia created the artwork done on the right side of the cement canvas, which features the word music in Spanish and a face wearing a mask and a headdress that, according to Gonzalez, is based on Aztec symbolism.

“The heart of the culture.”
Photo by Rachel Syms

“In the middle of the mural we have a basic image with a turntable with a heart in the center to push the idea that music and heritage is kind of like the heart of the culture,” said Gonzalez.

Other key features included in Gonzalez’s mural were music note symbols, peace signs, realistic hearts and red cupcakes, playing into the painters love for vibrant pieces that project positive messages.

Gonzalez’s style tends to be the opposite of graffiti, an art form which he says can sometimes be perceived as aggressive. “When I do stuff out on the streets it’s usually hearts, cupcakes and I just try to do them as nice as I can, as detailed as I can, instead of writing a name or making something more hostile.”

By Rachel Syms

The Man behind “The Owl”: Brooks Golden

DIPSTCK, “Where Art and Metal Collide.” (Photo courtesy of Brooks Golden)

After spending most of his early years in Milwaukee, Graffiti Artist Brooks Golden felt it was time to venture out into a new city that was very dear to him; a city rich with artistic expression. In 2001, Golden moved to Chicago and jumped head first into the art community.

Golden has kept himself busy since moving to what he calls  “The Go” (Chicago). He attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago for 3 and a half years and began displaying his work in 2007. Golden’s been involved in various group exhibitions and also works on independent projects, such as the fictional art-metal band he created called “DIPSTCK.”

“I’m always drawing, I’m always working,” said Golden, 38.

Golden debuted his first mural in August of  2012. He was approached by Lauren Pacheco, co-founder of Chicago Urban Art Society, about Alderman Danny Solis’ plans to adorn the walls on 16th street with murals, and born was the popular Owl mural that can be found on Paulina Street. It’s his biggest piece of work yet.

“I’ve painted smaller pieces, but it was my first time painting something that large scale. It’s about 30 feet,” he said.

When asked why an owl, Golden simply replied, “ I’m obsessed with birds.” But his fascination with owl imagery began in 2007. The indigenous history behind these nocturnal birds of prey and the folklore attached to them appeals to Golden in a special way, particularly because of his Native-American descent.

Golden not only loves to paint owls, he also enjoys collecting owl figurines (Photo by Samantha Peña)

Golden often finds inspiration through his African-American and Native American heritage, then puts a modern spin onto those traditional influences. His work also reflects his appreciation for 70s Rock ‘n’ Roll music, early 80s Hip-Hop and Horror films.

He’s currently working on painting new murals for spring and is also working on a whole new body of work that will consist of 15-20 pieces for a solo showing next year.

For Golden, art is another form of communication. It’s problem-solving. “Drawing is thinking, but in symbols. Sometimes, what I’m saying is direct. Sometimes, I just want them [ the audience] to hear their own dialogue.”

Follow Brooks Golden’s blog to stay updated on his upcoming projects:

http://brooksblairgolden.blogspot.com/

By Samantha Peña

Meet Chema Skandal

Chema Skandal first projects his sketches onto a wall, then traces and hand paints it. (Photograph by Samantha Peña)

It’s day 10 for Chema Skandal, whose work is being featured in the mural project commissioned by Alderman Danny Solis on 16^th street in Pilsen. His piece, Cucurrucucu—named after a Mexican song—is his first in Chicago.

The 32-year-old was hired through the Chicago Urban Arts Society to participate in the revamping of the 25^th Ward. He’s been living in Chicago for just 3 years.

“This mural is about love,” said Skandal, a native of Mexico City. “It’s related to relationships and the struggle between lovers.”

Skandal began pursuing his passion as an illustrator and graphic designer after graduating from college in 2006. Since then, he’s been involved in projects local and abroad. His biggest mural can be found in Toulouse, France where he stayed as an artist in residence.

“Most of my works are about personal topics,” said Skandal. “I’m inspired by music and sometimes, political issues. It’s a mixture.”

Chema Skandal added phrases like “Amor es tormento” meaning “Love is torture” into his mural to help bring an understanding to his piece. (Photograph by Samantha Peña)

Skandal has also had the opportunity of getting his illustrations published in various magazines, but for the past year his latest joy has been teaching art classes to children at the National Museum of Mexican Art located on 1852 W. 19th St.

As for what the artist has planned next? He will be showcasing some of his new pieces during an art exhibition at U.N.A.M. Chicago.

For more information visit www.chemaskandal.com

By Rachel Syms

Murals on 16th Street

PHOTO GALLERIES

CLICK HERE to view murals by Local Artists – Works by Chema Skandal, Brooks Golden, Ricardo Gonzalez & Roho and Nice One.

CLICK HERE to view murals by National/International Artists – Works by Jon Bugerman, Reyes 78, Labrona, OverUnder and ROA.

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Done by Rodrigo Mireles AKA SOLO

“Awake” by Rae, Street artist from Brooklyn, NY.

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We hit the streets of Pilsen to find out what people in the neighborhood thought about the 16th Street murals and public art projects. Check it out!