Street art is the ultimate visual source of social commentary, and the pandemic has set fire to the feet of muralists around the world.
Some works are humorous and even playful, like that of the San Francisco-based artist FnnchHis stickers include his distinctive honey bears with face masks and light blue soap donor bears that encourage people to wash their hands. They can be found all over the city, in districts like Inner Richmond and Cow Hollow, on sidewalks and mailboxes. The works of other artists are more serious and underline, for example, the importance of healthcare workers.
From Norway to Colorado there are some places where street art inspired by Covid-19 has appeared.
Norway
In March the artist Pobel returned to his Norwegian homeland after a trip to the Peruvian jungle and found an obligatory lock. He was hit by people with masks, he said.
So the idea for “The lovers“A mural of a young couple with bright blue face masks was born. He sprayed the picture on a concrete wall on the main street in Bryne after making a stencil drawing on cardboard.
“There is a beautiful lamp above it that really lights up at night,” he said. His inspiration came from hope. “Even though everyone has gone through struggles and difficult times, there is still heart and love and compassion,” he said.
In Bergen, street artist Pyritt painted a woman in a traditional Norwegian costume called Bunad with a gold face mask. He called it “May 2020This is an allusion to the country’s constitutional day on May 17th, which is celebrated with parades and has not been canceled since World War II. “A bunad is a very important part of the collective self-image,” said Christer Holm, who represents the artist, and found that there is a high probability that the celebrations will not take place this year.
Since then, on April 19, Pyritt has painted another mural entitled “Contagious,” a picture of a girl kissing a bottle of Corona beer.
AFK, another artist based in Bergen, has a nostalgic paste-up called “Embrace the world”On a wall under a city bridge: two girls hug the earth in a pink shade. Near the painting, the artist wrote, “If you can’t control what happens, challenge yourself to control the way you react to what’s going on.” Here is the power. “
Denver
On April 10, Denver-based artist Austin Zucchini-Fowler painted an arresting, multi-colored mural “Healthcare Hero” on the wall of an abandoned building on Colfax Avenue. The mural shows a winged health worker wearing a face mask and a pair of red boxing gloves.
The mural, which took less than 10 hours to paint, “resonated with the health community,” said the artist, adding that he had seen many medical professionals taking photos before that. He used a mixture of spray and acrylic paints, including continuously Seillat-like pointillistic points.
Governor Jared Polis issued an order to stay at home in Denver on March 26, and Mr. Zucchini-Fowler said he wanted to be proactive in his community during this period of social distancing.
“The participation of the community was really great, both the manufacturing process and the interaction (by passers-by),” he said. Since then he has started Sell prints from his work for $ 30 by printing to every other hospital in the United States for every 10 copies sold, and having plans for more coronavirus-inspired street art in the city.
You can watch “Healthcare Hero” and Mr. Zucchini-Fowlers The latest mural “Frontline Fighter” on his Instagram Channel.
Charlotte, NC.
After visiting his local supermarket on March 12th, Charlotte-based artist Darion Fleming realized that soon there would be no more disinfectants anywhere: a thought that inspired his work. “Pure gold. “” I thought it would be a fun idea to see gold running out of a Purell bottle, “he said, adding the words” Nowhere available “to the bottle.
He painted the mural in a quiet residential building on North Davidson Street. It took eight 10-hour days to finish. “This was not a commission, and everything was fine because I wanted to do something that the community could enjoy in serious times,” he said, adding that the project cost him around $ 500.
Since then, he has more than doubled the number of his Instagram followers and made the area a busy place. “It could take a long time, or if all of this explodes, I could cover it up and paint something else. That’s the cool thing about public art, nothing is really permanent, ”he said.
Visit Mr. Flemings to view “Pure’ll Gold” virtually Instagram page.
Berlin
The Berlin artist Eme Freethinker wanted to make a statement about greed during the crisis. “I thought about what to paint all night and laughed a lot about it. In the morning I told my son that I would paint Gollum from “The Lord of the Rings”. with a toilet paper roll with the words “My darling”, “he said.
The original mural in Mauerpark (a public park in the Prenzlauer Berg district) was painted on March 19, but has since been covered with artwork by others, but can be seen Here, on the artist’s Instagram account.
He has painted several more, including his latest, Gollum and Scrat, the squirrel from the film “Ice Age”, who has now snapped up the toilet paper roll. Although the work has attracted a lot of attention, he does not know how many more pictures with virus motifs he will create in the future because he does not want to use the subject too much.
“Gollum and Scrat” can be seen virtually on the artist’s Instagram account. Eme Freethinker.
Milwaukee
Mexican-American artist Mauricio Ramirez commutes between Chicago and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his family lives, and has been painting murals since he was 16.
“My news feed was filled with Covid-19 and I was just tired of it,” he said. He wanted to create something positive for healthcare workers. “I just wanted to let them know that they are valued.”
He chose a mixed-use building with a flawless brick facade in the residential area of Lincoln Village as the canvas for his 15 foot high, 30 foot wide work. “Heroes at the forefront. “” The building is opposite an basilica in an area that looks a bit like Rome, and some of my family members were baptized there, “he said.
The striking mural with geometric waves shows a nurse wearing a mask in a prayer-like pose, in the background the colors of the Puerto Rican and Mexican flags. Mr. Ramirez started the mural on April 9, finishing it in two days, saying that everyone tagged a healthcare worker in his Instagram post.
“Frontline Heroes” can practically be found at Mr. Ramirez Instagram page.
