The Hardest-Working Paper in America | 
Tuesday, April 23, 2024

Alec Karam

David Najib Kasir’s four-panel mural in Uptown is part of the Clifton Avenue Street Art Gallery.
Murals and Mosaics
Despite its floral pastels, David Najib Kasir’s Uptown mural is about the horrors of war
The lightness in the mural near the Wilson Avenue L station is meant to draw people to its image of a father holding the lifeless body of his daughter — a comment on the lives lost in the Syrian and Afghan wars.
By Alec Karam
 
“Sowing Seeds,” the mural Byron Taylor, the artist known as B’Rael Thunder, painted for the Westside Justice Center legal aid clinic, 601 S. California Ave. in East Garfield Park.
Murals and Mosaics
In West Side mural, a dancing garden aims to show we all should have a chance to ‘bloom’
Byron Taylor, a Chicago artist known as B’Rael Thunder, painted ‘Sowing Seeds’ at a legal aid clinic. He says all of us need a chance to become ‘a greater version of ourselves.’
By Alec Karam
 
Louise Jones, who also goes by Ouizi, paints flowers with each of her murals, including her latest in Chicago in West Town, which she calls “West Town in Bloom.” She painted it on a wall outside West Town Bakery, 1916 W. Chicago Ave.
Murals and Mosaics
Plant-friendly muralist: ‘If someone says they don’t like flowers, I think they’re lying’
As a child, Louise ‘Ouizi’ Jones learned to paint flowers using watercolors. Now, she paints murals filled with her signature giant bouquets around Chicago.
By Alec Karam
 
This mural at 49th Street and Oakley Avenue in Back of the Yards can be seen from the CTA Orange Line’s Western Avenue L stop. A collaboration of 19 artists, it pits characters from the video fighting games Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat against each other.
Murals and Mosaics
Back of the Yards mural spotlights Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter video game characters
It pays homage to the classic fighting games that many of the 19 artists involved grew up playing, pitting characters from them against each other.
By Alec Karam
 
Artist Caroline Liu’s mural titled “Resilience” on Argyle Street in Uptown.
Murals and Mosaics
Caroline Liu’s Argyle Street mural serves up a carp, a dragon and a little soup, too
She took her inspiration from a Chinese myth that tells the story of a persistent carp’s journey to becoming a dragon.
By Alec Karam
 
The mural “Essence of Growth,” done last fall in Hyde Park by Humboldt Park artist Izze Ortiz.
Murals and Mosaics
In Izze Ortiz’s Hyde Park mural, the people are either plants or a seed. Here’s why.
The Humboldt Park artist says the message in the mural on a Metra viaduct on 55th Street near South Lake Park Avenue is that kids, like plants, need to be nurtured to grow.
By Alec Karam
 
Artist Dredske’s mural in North Lawndale was inspired by architect and philosopher R. Buckminster Fuller’s book “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.”
Murals and Mosaics
Protect the planet, Dredske urges with his ‘Spaceship Earth’ mural in North Lawndale
The artist — real name Terence Byas — says the mural also is meant to honor author R. Buckminster Fuller and Mae Jemison, the first Black woman in space.
By Alec Karam
 
A mural in the Fulton Market district by the Pilsen artist who goes by the name Sentrock depicts a cardinal as a symbol of freedom and hope for Chicago.
Murals and Mosaics
Pilsen artist Sentrock’s Fulton Market mural offers a chance to escape
‘I had a lot of family members . . . in and out of prison. So, for me, that was my mental escape, signified through the idea of a bird being free.’
By Alec Karam