SOLVE lives at the Overture Center

Well this is nice/unexpected:

[Brendan] Scanlon, a Madison native, was a Chicago-based muralist who went by the alias "SOLVE." He was killed last summer, stabbed in an alley at age 24. Now, a tribute to his street art lines the Playhouse Gallery hallways in the basement of Overture.

It sounds like a great show, representing both SOLVE and many of the artists who respected and were touched by his art in some way.

And I admit to being a little pleasantly surprised that this is being housed by the Overture, which tends to lean more heavily toward gallery art and artists (which, contrary to certain other local bloggers' beliefs, I also enjoy). It's good to see them branching out and offering space to the kind of art you'd usually only see under a freeway or some other outdoor surface.

You can check it out until Sept. 16th at the Overture Center in downtown Madison.

A bear wall

Spotted and shot by the intrepid beinshitty.

I really dig this piece. It almost looks vintage, but the colors are still bright. Also delightfully weird. I'm not entirely sure of the medium.

Who is that masked man?

The sign was pretty dirty, so maybe the mask makes sense. Found along Jenifer St.

Africana

Found painted on the side of Africana Restaurant, 2701 Atwood Ave. I hear the fufu is quite good.

Atwood is the hottest

J sends us this snap of a mural on Atwood, where one of the youth community centers used to be located. And though the center has moved, the mural lives on! And, as of right now, it's true that Atwood is the hottest. As well as pretty much every other street around here. Someone get me a fan....

Bury "America"

Intrepid on-the-ground reporter DW sends in this snapshot of a particularly feisty sticker/paste-up on the corner of Gorham St. and Fordem Ave. on the city's northeast-ish side. Is that angry man someone in particular? I don't recognize him. But I like how "America" is in quotes.

The transitory nature of street art

One of our city's most vibrant and visible pieces of street art (and the masthead for this blog) has officially been slated for demolition. The mural on the side of Tranquil Tattoos (1900 E. Washington Ave., on the corner with First St.) will turn to dust once the "Emerson East" project goes in. The project, to include housing, retail, and underground parking space, was just approved by the city's Plan Commission.

I know perfectly well that art, like most things, is transitory in nature. We can't expect to hold onto it forever. Good Buddhist monks would shake their heads at us to think otherwise. But it's still sad to see one of the few great examples of mural work in Madison relegated to the rubble heap.

We have so few places open to letting artists do their work on their walls, so the loss of even one is felt all the more acutely.

And for that, I shake my head.