If you do head downtown this weekend check out the large murals created by the urban art group The Avenue Concept.
Working as a Creative Partner in the Providence International Arts Festival, it will bring the Washington Street Cultural Corridor to life with murals, art installations, interactive expressions of creativity, and a pop-up skate and art park. Internationally noted street artists Etam Cru and Natalia Rak will also be exhibiting their unique and flamboyant visual styles. Rak’s large-scale works depict femininity and nature in bold, colorful juxtapositions. Polish duo Etam Cru (street artists Sainer and Bezt) creates giant murals, often several stories tall, that are steeped in folklore and mysticism. Throughout the festival, The Avenue Concept’s art work and programming will foster a conversation about the role of art in the public space, and the way creative expression is instrumental in making a city vibrant and inclusive.
Seen here is the Etam Cru piece, executed by Bezt, in which a pet rat seems to be helping his person with an important decision. I love the cartoony crown floating above the rat’s head. It makes no sense.
Across the parking lot is a work by another Polish artist Natalia Rak who works in far more vivid colors. For this she was inspired by “Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.” Answer? Shrooms.
The Avenue Concept work can be found in and around Washington Street. This parking lot, complete with grouchy old man in a booth — he may also be from Poland, I don’t know — is tucked behind the Arnold Building, between Clemence and Mathewson Streets. There’s a map. More from Bill Van Siclen at ProJo.
