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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Ace Graham, left, and Shane B stand in front of the Alchemy mural, created by Shane B, in Five Points.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
H2 Real Estate and Dobbins Group commissioned this temporary mural in 2018 at an empty warehouse at 2247 First Ave. S. near The Rotary Trail after hosting a design contest. Using four of the submissions, Lewis Communications created theBirmingham-centric design. Local muralist Andy Jordan helped the four artists — Jon Osborne, Ahmad Austin, Jessica Chanel and Catriona Hegarty — complete the piece. Making space for street art is a way for property owners to “embracethe creative culture of the community,” Carter Hughes, H2 owner, said in 2018.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
H2 Real Estate and Dobbins Group commissioned this temporary mural in 2018 at an empty warehouse at 2247 First Ave. S. near The Rotary Trail after hosting a design contest. Using four of the submissions, Lewis Communications created theBirmingham-centric design. Local muralist Andy Jordan helped the four artists — Jon Osborne, Ahmad Austin, Jessica Chanel and Catriona Hegarty — complete the piece. Making space for street art is a way for property owners to “embracethe creative culture of the community,” Carter Hughes, H2 owner, said in 2018.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
H2 Real Estate and Dobbins Group commissioned this temporary mural in 2018 at an empty warehouse at 2247 First Ave. S. near The Rotary Trail after hosting a design contest. Using four of the submissions, Lewis Communications created theBirmingham-centric design. Local muralist Andy Jordan helped the four artists — Jon Osborne, Ahmad Austin, Jessica Chanel and Catriona Hegarty — complete the piece. Making space for street art is a way for property owners to “embracethe creative culture of the community,” Carter Hughes, H2 owner, said in 2018.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Marcus Fetch of RedPath Creative created this mural, located at First Avenue North and 39th Street in North Avondale, as part of the Blank Space Mural Project. Fetch said that the face is in black and white because Birmingham’s reputation for racial tensions, but that the colorful pupils reflect our need to see a variety of colors.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
Another work from the Blank Space Mural Project, this big, colorful work on the side of an apartment building in Woodlawn was created by Marcus Fetch, who was assisted by Thurston Hamby and Moses Pressnell. The imagery is hopeful and optimistic. “I like pulling people out of the mundane, and I like things that lift us up and excite us and give us joy,”Fetch told Iron City Ink. He said the hot air balloon is about “a child’s imagination” and about “forgetting about being adults for a second and going back to chasing butterflies."
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
This large, colorful North Birmingham Ecoscape Rooster mural is located at 2619 30th Ave. N. inNorth Birmingham and was created by artist Shane B.
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Photo by Erin Nelson.
The “Ensley Alive” mural, located at 321 19th St. in the historic neighborhood, was created by Birmingham native Ukuu Tafari, a painter and mixed media artist. It is part of The Color Project, which ismeant to help improve perceptions of Ensley and help make life better for residents. “The public art aspect helps people to take stake in their own community,” Brian Hawkins of The Color Project toldIron City Ink in 2017. “When you live in a community that doesn’t look so great, you don’t treat it so great, but if you live in a space and your space looks great, then you treat it great.”
Murals, along with other street art, have become increasingly popular around the world in recent years, due in part to omnipresent cell-phone cameras and the use of social media to share the images. Birmingham is no exception.
A list at bhamwiki.com includes about 50 local murals, many of them large and impressive.
Artist Marcus Fetch, who’s worked on more than 40 murals in the area, told Iron City Ink recently there’s been “a major ramp up” in the number of murals in Birmingham the last three years.
The murals “add a lot of vibrancy and character to the city,” Fetch said.
He also believes murals can change the perception of a run-down neighborhood and draw new people and activity.
Fetch, who founded Redemptive Cycle, said that painting the walls in the alley behind the shop in the 1300 block of Second Avenue North helped change the feel of that area.
“I fell in love with the power that murals have to activate any area and bring people to it,” Fetch said.
Shane B., who recently created a mural called “Freezing Time” in an alley in Five Points South, agrees that murals have a transformative power.
“I like to find dead spaces that people kind of forgot about, spaces that people don’t find appealing at all,” he said. “It gives the entire area a whole new life.”
The trend toward street art and murals in the Magic City is similar to what is happening in other cities, Fetch said.
New people moving into the City Center have also had an impact on the popularity of murals.
“People moving into downtown want color and expression and art, and it’s really exciting,” Fetch said.
Meghan McCollum is the executive director of Blank Space Bham, a nonprofit that has done about 15 murals so far with several more in the planning and design phase.
She likes murals because of their ability to “leave an impact,” McCollum said.
“Whether it be visually or socioeconomically, murals have reach,” she said.
“Murals not only physically intervene into or enhance spaces as a pieces of art, but they also have the ability to send messages,” McCollum said.
Fetch said that he feels “impressed” every time he sees a mural. “It’s big and bold and it's out there for the public to see,” he said.
The number of murals in the city will likely increase, Fetch said.
“The next two to three years, we will double the number of murals in town for sure — maybe triple,” he said.
McCollum agrees that the number of murals in Birmingham will continue to grow.
“Birmingham has too much left to say,” she said.
“We’re defining our city by painting it,” Fetch said.
