Vancouver Mural Festival Highlights 2016

Alison Woodward and Graeme McCormack at Maker Labs

What has been long overdue for this city is an injection of energy with public art!  Lots of new murals have gone up this summer for the Vancouver Mural Festival. These murals are really exceptional and they can be enjoyed by everyone, everyday. I really like the range of artists that were chosen and I hope that this the start of something more to come. You can also check out some of the art by the participating artists at a Vancouver Mural Festival: Year One group exhibit at Burrard Arts Foundation on until August 27th.

I am a little biased but there is fantastic cluster of murals on and around my studio building. Though the area where I work in is within an industrial area, these murals really change the atmosphere and it feels pretty special to have them nearby. Whenever I see them, I keep dreaming that maybe one day long into the future that it might be possible for me to paint a massive mural. Well, maybe at least a small one to start.

You can also check out some of the art by the participating artists at a group exhibit at Burrard Arts Foundation on until August 27th. The video above is with artist Drew Young who talks about the vision for the Vancouver Mural Festival

Usually I’m out of town on the weekends so I was excited that I could check out the festival. These were some of my highlights from the weekend. On the Saturday, I started my mural tour at my own studio building at the Arts Factory which you can see in the photos below.

Artists from top to bottom:

Nevercrew, Paige Bowman, Cody Lecoy, Ola Volo, Peter Ricq,  Peter Taylor, Shannon Elliott, Tim Mack, Julia Iredale, Kyle Scott, Katie Maasik, Katie So and Ben Knight

I continued on by bike southbound on Main Street to hit the following murals by Scott Sueme, Nomi Chi, Jay Senetchko and Drew Young, Ali Bruce, iheartstencils, Ben Tour and Andrea Wan.

The next day, I ventured to Maker Labs to check out the murals of what looked like covered every inch of the building!  Artists include Mandy Tsung and Choplogik, Mark Illing, Dedo, Bicicleta Sem Freio, Colin Moore and Tierney Milne, Alison Woodward and Graeme McCormack.

Still lots more to see and they will be up for a while to be enjoyed. Thanks to all those who helped plan and run the Vancouver Mural Festival. A bit shout out to all the hard working artists who poured their sweat (literally in all this heat) and tears into these murals so that we can have more art take over the city!  Thank you, thank you!