White Wall Review: Beyond Walls Lynn
Beyond Walls
https://www.beyond-walls.org/2019-festival
A Brief History
Beyond Walls was born as an entirely volunteer-driven, grassroots initiative in 2016 when Founder & Executive Director Al Wilson began planning four inaugural projects in response to community input outlined in a third party Downtown Action Strategy calling for increased public art and greater walkability. Drawing inspiration from projects in Brooklyn, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Kings Cross, London, Wilson saw Lynn's rich history, architecture of scale, and burgeoning arts and cultural district as the perfect landscape for several placemaking projects.
Lynn Housing and Neighborhood Development/Neighborhood Development Associates, Inc. (LHAND/NDA) in Lynn, initially served as our fiscal agent. Their strong partnership enabled us to transition from a volunteer organization to a formal 501c3 organization in 2019.
WE ARE BACK for our annual two week arts and culture fest in downtown Lynn. Over these two weeks, locally and internationally renowned artists will produce large scale pieces of public and mixed medium street art. Lynn is the place to be with exclusive events, live music, artist talks and a legendary Closing Block Party.
The success of our work and partnerships has not gone unnoticed. Beyond Walls has received the MassInc. Gateway Cities “Innovation” Award; the HubWeek Art Award for most “Impactful Public Art,” and the Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence. Founder Al Wilson has been asked to speak at conferences relevant to creative placemaking and grassroots initiatives in New Orleans, St. Louis; Jackson, Mississippi and, most recently Atlanta, Georgia.
The Murals
Cedric “Vise” Douglas
@vise_1_boston
114-120 Munroe Street - Cedric “Vise” Douglas was born in 1977 in Boston, Massachusetts. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. He is also the Founder and Creative Director of The Up Truck, a mobile art lab designed to engage underserved Boston communities through art and creativity. Julez Roth is an art therapist and artist working out of Boston.
Don Rimx
@donrimx
129 Munroe Street/515 Washington Street (back Side) Don Rimx’s artwork focuses on making the connection between the city, nature, and the being. In order to accomplish this he utilize wood to represent nature, bricks to represent the city, and the combination of the two to comprise the form of a human or animal.Thru the combination of these two elements, Don Rimx tries to stimulate creativity and open thought so every spectator has their own personal experience while looking at his artwork; thereby constructing their own personal interpretation of the piece.
Sneha Shrestha
@IMAGINE876
519 Washington Street (Building Door Grate on corner) - IMAGINE (aka Sneha Shrestha) is a Nepali artist who paints mindful mantras in her native language and meshes the aesthetics of Sanskrit scriptures with graffiti influences. Being the first to mesh Nepali Alphabets with American graffiti, she has shown her work in several exhibitions, commissioned works and public walls around the world including Boston, San Francisco, Bali, Istanbul, Geneva and Copenhagen. She has created work for clients such as Harvard University, Reebok, Trip Advisor, Neiman Marcus,Red Bull and Montana Cans.
Celso Gonzalez & the Cero crew
@celsoart
22 Franklin St, Lynn, MA 01902 will be collaborating with the community on a tile piece to be installed for the 2019 Mural Festival. Celso and his group Cero are from Puerto Rico and are known for their elaborate, hand cut tile pieces. They facilitate workshops and teach the community how to create their own tile pieces very often. We are in talks with RAW Art Works to potentially align Celso with the RAW Good to Go all-male public art team. The past two years we have partnered this group with one of our artists (Bruce Orr in 2017, Eltono in 2018) and see Celso being a great fit. eness.
Andrew Hem
@andrewhem
305-311 Union Street . -Andrew Hem was born during his parents’ flight from Cambodia in the wake of the Khmer Rouge genocide and his upbringing was influenced by the rural heritage of his ancestors and the urban sensibility of Los Angeles, where his family came to reside. Being positioned within these cultural dichotomies fostered an aesthetic inspired by graffiti, as well as tribal and supernatural imagery. Describing his compositions as dreamlike memories inspired by personal experiences, Hem’s ethereal paintings function as a window overlooking the invisible realm of the human spirit.
Kilia Llano
@kiliallano
41 Buffum St. (April’s Pub & Grill) - Fine Artist, illustrator and art teacher Kilia was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1972. Kilia studied Fine Arts and Illustration at Altos De Chavón School Of Design (1992) and also received a bachelor degree in Fine Arts and Illustration at Parsons School Of Design (1994), NY among others minor studies at Universitat De Barcelona (Art History) and Unibe University (Art Education) at Santo Domingo. Kilia was the head illustrator at the national newspaper Listín Diario in Santo Domingo for eleven years she has also done illustrations for other newspapers and magazines like El Financiero Times, Global Magazine, Santo Domingo Times magazine, El Leoncito Magazine, Philip Morris Magazine and others publications in which he provided multiple illustrations.
Urban Ruben
@UrbanRuben
95 Munroe Street (Beden Hardware Store) - "I paint in a style I like to call Postgraffism - an evolution of graffiti. I was classically trained, in private school, in my country of origin, the Dominican Republic. Moved to the South Bronx in my teens, saw graffiti in its rawest form. It’s evolution. And my life, and style, changed. I have always been an artist, all my life, but I became a full time an artist after my mother passed away. I was a Creative director already, but she would always tell me I was going to be an artist. When cancer took her, I realized I never painted anything for her, so I started immediately. Her death gave birth to my art. I believe in two forces that drive the world: love and fear. I try to Paint Love. Love conquers all. I usually pick a palette that I like and freestyle in the location, depending on the wall given to me. Creating installations instead than just a mural. My work ends up being unique to the location where it ends at. In this stage, I’m creating a colorful new body of work that is open to all, from the child to the old, showing all the colors in the rainbow. I illustrate part figurative realism, part colorful child-like energy, with a lot of freestyle painting involved. Creating from what i see in my immediate surroundings or what the area stands for. I try seeing one image from many angles at the same time. Breaking/disecting the subject and re-constructing it to create something new, ambiguous and open to interpretation. Contrast in concept and execution.”Ruben Ubiera Ruben Gerardo Ubiera Gonzalez (born in Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic) is a neo-figurative artist, known for his strong use of the line, graffiti inspired technique/esthetic, urban murals, mixed-media pieces and installations, all created with reclaimed-objects and found artifacts. He paints and draws in a style considered as Postgraffism.
Hiero Viega
@HieroViega
52 Central Square “Hiero” Veiga is a graffiti writer, muralist, and fine artist. The middle child of 5, Hiero and his family were raised in the project buildings of Brockton, Massachusetts. It was there where Hiero found graffiti. He began writing graffiti in back alleys and trains throughout New England. By his late teens, Hiero had garnered a reputation from both the streets and law enforcement for his work. After many failed attempts at a traditional education Hiero decided to take charge of his own art education and experience. He began approaching local businesses with wall space and painted free murals that could be seen in high traffic areas. From there came the start of his career. His work now is seen all over the United States; both on the streets and in the galleries.
Michael Aghahowa
@_aghahowa 1 Andrew St, Lynn, MA 01901 Michael Aghahowa is from Lynn, Massachusetts. Growing up, he spent time with Lynn organizations Raw Art Works and the Gregg House, who he attributes much of his growth to- both as a person and an artist. “Those relationships have gotten me further in life than a lot of people, so I want to go home and make a difference.” And go home he did, returning to be employed separately at both organizations with the hope of contributing to today's youth.