We were fortunate to welcome back former muralists Nico Cathcart and Maxx242 over Labor Day Weekend 2021! It was great to get together with old friends and get back to making large scale murals!
Nico Cathcart – Cosmos
Nico Cathcart’s finished mural is named “Cosmos,” and is part of her Symbiotic series, focusing on the interconnected relationship between humans and the earth. We share a symbiotic relationship, and our day to day actions have an effect on the environment, whether it be the disappearance of pollinators, greenspace in urban neighborhoods or the temperature rise affecting our sea ice. Nico uses a contemporary take on the traditional memento mori genre, the focus on human skulls, surrounded by flora and fauna begs the viewer to consider their own mortality, while highlighting the fragile connection between ourselves and the environment. She asks the viewer to empathize with the earth and realize that survival depends on actions taken to address climate change.
This mural can be viewed at 40 Greenleaf St., Rochester, NY 14609. As it is on a business roll-door, the optimal viewing hours are after 5pm during the week and anytime on the weekends.
Maxx242 – Mother
Maxx242’s mural is named “Mother.” Maxx had this to say . . .
“A tribute to all women and their ability to create and support life. I grew up in a Hispanic household. My mother was the foundation and the backbone of the family and the home. My father was never around and left completely my first year of high school. My mother just kept going. Working and taking care of the house. It wasn’t easy for her. When she passed away, I realized that if the shoe was on the other foot, my father would never, and could never do what my mother did. Women have this fierce strength inside of them, as a mother, a daughter, as family, and in our community. Thank you for everything you do, for having the strength to keep it together when the world around you was falling apart. For fighting and winning when you were told you couldn’t. It is your time, today, and tomorrow. Even if today is cloudy, the future is bright. Thank you mom, for making me the man I am today.”
This mural can be viewed at the corner of 40 Greenleaf St., Rochester, NY 14609 and Atlantic Avenue.
You can now view ALL of our artist recap videos! Thank you to our awesome video crew who worked day and night to bring you a taste of WALL\THERAPY 2015
After 10 days of frenzied activity, logistical maneuvering, creative expression, and many laughs, group dinners, and companionable conversation at our home base at The Yards, WALL\THERAPY 2015 has come to an end. In its fifth year, the project continued to evolve, most significantly this year through its new partnership with URBAN NATION, which co-curated roughly half of the project’s artists and contributed to the continued realization of our primary goals: transforming Rochester’s urban landscape, providing healing inspiration, and building community.
WALL\THERAPY 2015 was punctuated by three open-to-the-public events. It kicked off with its first ever art exhibition in support of IMPACT! – IMProving Access to Care by Teleradiology, featuring studio work from all of the participating artists. A portion of all sales from the show will go directly to The Synthesis Collaborative to support the IMPACT! project. You can view available work here: http://shop.1975ish.com/category/impact-wt15
IMPACT! seeks to provide easier access to better care in underdeveloped and underserved regions through cloud-based x-ray services and a network of volunteer radiologists supporting IMPACT! sites. Both WALL\THERAPY and IMPACT! are projects of The Synthesis Collaborative. The Synthesis Collaborative is a non-profit organization dedicated to improving the health status of communities in the developing world using the tools of teleradiology and cloud computing.
Photo by Jason Wilder
Photo by @markdeffphoto
On Thursday, partners, artists, staff, volunteers and visitors enjoyed the FLOOR\THERAPY dance party hosted by The Lobbyist at Rochester’s Bug Jar to celebrate the week’s work.
Finally, on Friday, media partners Brooklyn Street Art hosted their popular BSA Film Friday—Live from WALL\THERAPY at the Memorial Art Gallery in Rochester.
Photo by Jason Wilder
Photo by Jason Wilder
You can view a short trailer of our upcoming artist spotlight videos that we’ll be releasing every Monday in August below:
Focused on a theme of surrealism and the fantastic, the artists’ work did not disappoint, with subjects ranging from a whale of melting ice, a young girl with a blooming mind to a retaliating beaver and a battle royale between monsters and robots.
Click on any of the images to open a larger version in a new window.
Prior to the official start of WALL\THERAPY 2015, Dutch artist Handiedan completed a wheatpaste mural in Rochester’s South Wedge/Swillburg neighborhood entitled “Bollywood Sugar.”
820 South Clinton Avenue – Photo by @markdeffphoto
New York City-based artist Daze completed three murals during his time in Rochester, “Rochester Dream” on Rochester’s north side, a collaboration with the city’s local FUA Krew and a final wall on Atlantic Avenue.
646 Joseph Ave – Photo by @markdeffphoto
646 Joseph Ave – Photo by @markdeffphoto
FUA KREW production wall with DAZE – Photo by @markdeffphoto
From L – R: Daze, Range FUA, Zoner FUA, Snoe FUA, Mas, Bones FUA
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Jason Wilder
Daze’s third mural merged into clouds emanating from Nate Hodge’s mural just around the corner on the same building.
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Tomas Flint
Continuing to round the building, visitors will encounter Brazilian artist Eder Muniz’s mural of vibrant animals and mythological creatures dancing across a saturated blue background.
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Erich Lehman
The final mural located on the building belongs to Vexta, a Brooklyn-based artist, whose mural of fluorescent cosmic shards is anchored by the face of a masked woman.
430 Atlantic Ave – Photo by Tomas Flint
Just down Atlantic Avenue, artist Li-Hill completed a large, three-story mural in just over three days.
Prior to tackling his giant wall, Li-Hill first created an installation piece in an undisclosed location in the Northwest side of the city.
Detail Shot Photo by Lisa Barker
Nearby on Greenleaf Street, Swedish artist Andreas Englund wrapped up his second ever mural of a resting superhero entitled “Pebbles.”
40 Greenleaf Street – Photo by Jason Wilder
Just around the corner on an eastern wall at Fedder Industrial Park, which is also populated with work from 2014 WALL\THERAPY artists Addison Karl, Omen, Jarus and Troy Lovegates, local artists Joe Guy Allard and Matthew Roberts created a giant blockbuster mural of a battle between monsters and robots.
1237 East Main Street – Photo by Jason Wilder
Early in the week, California-based artists Jeff Soto and Maxx242 quickly completed a massive mural in Rochester’s Public Market and then promptly headed to another on which Maxx completed a scripted mural with the words “Love and Sacrifice.”
43 Public Market – Photo by @markdeffphoto
912 Hudson Ave – Photo by @markdeffphoto
Near Daze’s first mural on Joseph Avenue, Rochester artist Brittany Williams lay down a striking portrait of a young woman in profile, whose mind splits open to reveal flower petals flowing from her mind.
488 Joseph Avenue – Photo by Jason Wilder
Swiss artists NEVERCREW created a stunning wall downtown, already popular among WALL\THERAPY followers, that shows a small whale inside a larger whale made of melting ice with the city skyline reflecting back, intersected by a burning ombré ray of sunlight.
14 Capron Street – Photo by Jason Wilder
Also hailing from Switzerland, artists Onur and Wes21 created a masterpiece of the natural world’s retaliation against human incursion on Main Street.
880 East Main StreetV-VPhoto by Jason Wilder
Year after year, it becomes more evident that WALL\THERAPY’s mission of inspiration has caught on among its supporters—artists, staff, volunteers, sponsors and community partners alike—and has created an undercurrent of passion in action that makes a project such as this possible. With just 15 artists, our event was an intimate one that allowed the artists time to appreciate the city they are helping to heal, and gave volunteers and staff time to meet those artists whose work will grace 14 of its walls.
THANK YOU!
The WALL\THERAPY team is sincerely grateful for the support we receive, without which it would be impossible to deliver inspirational mural art throughout Rochester.
To the Rochester community, your support is integral to our continued work. You’ve helped us to raise more than $35,000 on our Indiegogo campaign, without which we would not have gotten the project off the ground. Community sponsors provided meals and beverages that fueled artists, staff and volunteers throughout a busy week. And the donation of time and sharing of links and photos help us to reach more and more community members.
To our major partners — URBAN NATION, Brooklyn Street Art and Montana Cans — your involvement helped us to raise our 2015 event to even greater heights through increased outreach and support.
To business owners who donated walls now graced with WALL\THERAPY murals, thank you for the opportunity and trust you have granted us. You have helped us to continue the work of positive change and healing throughout Rochester.
To our contributing artists, who have honored us with their incredible creations and helped us to continue to heal our city, and whose appreciation for our city is reflected in their dedication to the work, and kind regard for our community members and volunteers, we thank you.
To our volunteers and staff, many of whom took time from their jobs to work long hours in support of our project, managing the complicated logistics of artists and volunteers spread throughout the city, providing hospitality to our artists, ensuring they had the cans of paint and supplies they needed when they needed them, and delivering much needed refreshment and shade during the long hot days of the past week, you are the heart and soul of WALL\THERAPY.
To our photographers and videographers, who often worked long into the night alongside artists to ensure we documented the images of the work, and but also captured the sense of community and enjoyment that surrounds the work, we are enormously grateful.
Our new site is jam-packed with bios and photos from the last five years, a searchable map of the murals, and tons of easier ways to find our murals or be a part of the project. We’ve integrated our Google Cultural Institute exhibitions so that you can view the murals in high resolution year by year. Best of all, the entire site is now searchable!
We want to thank our team member Katie Verrant for the seemingly countless hours she’s put in to both this site, our Google Cultural Institute presence, and a few other projects about to come out! We couldn’t have done this without all her hard work!
Let the 2015 show begin!
WALLTHERAPY and URBAN NATION are excited to launch the International exchange program between Rochester and Berlin. Artists curated by the UN Director Yasha Young have been invited to participate and contribute to the program of WALLTHERAPY 2015 curated by Ian Wilson (founder, co-curator) and Erich Lehman (co-curator, lead organizer). WALLTHERAPY 2015 will kick off on July 17, 2015, and our theme for this year is surrealism and the fantastic.
Brooklyn Street Art founders Jaime Rojo and Steve Harrington will be contributing with a very exciting special BSA FILM FRIDAY at the Memorial Art Gallery.
To start things off right, we will be holding our first proper exhibition kickoff titled IMPACT! This exhibition will take place at 1975 Gallery (89 Charlotte St.) and will showcase artwork from all the 2015 participating WALLTHERAPY artists in support of IMPACT! – IMProving Access to Care by Teleradiology – www.impactrad.org. IMPACT seeks to provide easier access to better care in underdeveloped and underserved regions through cloud-based x-ray services and a network of volunteer radiologists supporting IMPACT sites. Both WALLTHERAPY and IMPACT! are projects of The Synthesis Collaborative.
FRIDAY – JULY 17 – IMPACT! art show and kickoff featuring work from this year’s participating artists!
Portions of ALL sales will go directly to The Synthesis Collaborative to support the IMPACT project!
THURSDAY – JULY 23 – FLOOR THERAPY at the Bug Jar!
$5 at the door.
WALL\THERAPY & The Lobby present the third annual FLOOR/THERAPY with Thievin’ Stephen, DJ Tim Tones, Stay Gold, Lord Krow, and more TBA. Come boogie as the 2015 roster of visiting WALL\THERAPY artists take a mid-week party break at Bug Jar. 10pm-2am Thursday, July 23.
FRIDAY – JULY 24 – Brooklyn Street Art hosts BSA FILM FRIDAYS at the MAG!
Free and open to the public (limited to capacity of the auditorium)
BSA FILM FRIDAY LIVE
with hosts
Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo
Founders of Brooklyn Street Art (BSA)
Friday July 24, 2015 – 5:00 pm
MAG Auditorium
Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester
Take an entertaining trip with Steve and Jaime through many of their favorite short video pieces selected from the last 10 months of the popular BrooklynStreetArt.com section: BSA Film Friday. Experimenters, explorers, anti-heroes and dreamers all, you’ll see how WALL\THERAPY 2015 is on-point with this year’s theme of surrealism and the fantastic
