Search

nashville public art

Nashville murals, street art, graffiti, signs, sculptures and more

Open Search

Crying Wolf, Part 1

Crying Wolf Full

I’ve been trying to get away from these multi-part posts as they are a pain, but there is just too much going on at Crying Wolf to cram into one post. I had long despaired of featuring this mural, as there are so often cars in that parking lot, but I got lucky recently. This mural went up in April 2017, as part of the “Do the Road” project – “A Traveling Artist Residency Program in an RV” – sponsored by Pabst Blue Ribbon. Hence all the outlines of the PBR symbol scattered on the mural. This one is the product of four artists, Kit Mizeres, Lauren Asta, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, and Denton Burrows. There’s a fence in the back that was done by Ratchi NYC that was part of the same project that I’ll feature in another post. All are from out of town, which helps to bring diversity to the outdoor art scene in Nashville.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Located at 825 Woodland Sreet. The mural faces South 9th Street. Obviously, there’s parking at Crying Wolf, as well as some limited street parking. You may have to walk a bit. Try early in the morning if you want to take in the whole mural.

2

Grimm Rudloff

Grimm Rudloff Full Right

UPDATE: This mural was destroyed by the March 3, 2020 tornado.

This colorful mural is a product of a Sister Cities of Nashville project, which brought artists from some of Nashville’s many sister cities to collaborate with each other and with Nashville artists back in late October and early November last year. One of those artists was Max Grimm from Magdeburg, Germany. (Here’s a profile in English.) He partnered with Andee Rudloff to create this colorful mural behind Smith & Lentz Brewing on Main Street. Rudloff, of course, has done many murals in Nashville, including one more-or-less across the street (and the first of her murals featured on this blog). The fence belongs to Urban Ecovillage – East Nashville, which describes itself as a “pop up community.” Rudloff and Grimm also partnered with another artist, Gabi Bianchi from Mendoza, Argentina to create another mural on Natchez Trace that I hope to feature on the blog soon.

Located at 900 Ramsey Street. The mural faces an alley that lies between Ramsey and Main Street, at the corner of North 9th Sreet. There is some street parking along 9th.

2

Marathon Gas Mural

Marathon Gas mural street art Nashville

The new mural by Michael Cooper of Murals and More is an interesting addition to Nashville’s outdoor art scene. Unlike most outdoor art murals in town, tourists won’t be getting their portraits taken in front of it, pretending perhaps to be run over by the large truck in the center.  The Marathon Gas terminal on 51st is decidedly industrial and off-limits to outsiders. That fence is as close as you’ll get without an invitation. But the Marathon terminal is also in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, on the north end of The Nations. Just down the street are places like Nicky’s Coal Fired Pizza, an outpost of Frothy Monkey, and a Frutta Bowls. Fancy apartments have opened a couple blocks north, and more are coming. And murals are popping up all over as part of this gentrification, such as the one for Village Realty and of course the giant silo mural. Marathon may simply be trying to stay in tune with the changing neighborhood, or it may be playing a little defense. The Nations used to be the kind of low and middle-income neighborhood that an industrial site holding hazardous material is often found in, but now Marathon has wealthier neighbors not always accustomed to living near such a site. Some art might make the relationship a little easier. In the slideshow below, take a look at how Cooper cleverly incorporated the Marathon sign that was already on the building.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Located at 1472 51st Avenue North. There is some street parking south of the railroad and at local businesses. A path has recently been installed along the fence, and there’s a picnic table as well. Grab a cup at Frothy and enjoy the art!

0

Music City Modified

Auto modifier murals street art Nashville

I have to thank whoever runs Music City Modified’s Facebook page for actually crediting the artist who made these murals. It’s not unusual for a business to post something celebrating their new mural or other art without so much as a peep as to who the artist is. And in this case, the signature of Folek Kelof was hard for me to decipher. Besides a large rendering of the Music City Modified logo, Kelof has also produced a mural obviously inspired by the art on Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” album. Here, the empty hand from the album holds a wrench, the blank t-shirt gets an MCM logo, and the belt gets MCM’s black-and-red colors, but there’s no mistaking the iconic image.

Boss mural street art Nashville

Logo mural street art Nashville

Located at 105 Rains Avenue at the corner with Zimerlee Street. The murals face Zimerlee. As you can see, there’s parking.

0

Nolensville Pike edition – NLGOY

Street art mural black white and grey Nashville

In the battle of the selfies (see my previous post), an up-and-comer is the “nashville looks good on you.TN” mural found behind Frothy Monkey’s 12 South outpost. There’s also one on the Anderson Group Real Estate building on 21st South. This one, on the side of the BW Gallery, seems to be the newest one. The artist, who bills himself online as NASH.TN, posted on his Instagram account last October 28 that he had just started working on this one, so it’s just a few months old. This is also much larger than the others, which allowed the artist to suggest the shape of the state of Tennessee, and to fade out the mural into a barely visible graffiti tag. And while this version is seen by thousands of Nashville commuters every day, I doubt you’ll find much of a line here for your portrait. Perusing the #nashvillelooksgoodonyou tag on Instagram, I found only one portrait with the Nolensville Pike edition.

UPDATE: Here’s a blog post about the 12 South Edition.
UPDATE: And here’s another one Anderson Group on 21st Ave South.
UPDATE: And here’s one at Marathon Village.

Street art mural black white and grey NashvilleStreet art mural black white and grey Nashville graffiti

Located at 1911 Nolensville Pike, just south of the Fairgrounds entrance. The mural is on the south side of the building. This is a very easy place to park – at least until developers get ahold of it!

3

A resolution!

No selfies street art mural by Adrien Saporiti East Nashville

Which pretty much no one will keep. This is a fairly new mural, having gone up in late September. As it lies on the back side of The Basement East, the “no selfie” rule is going to get violated a lot (as long as there isn’t a car parked in front of it, which would be often). It is perhaps commentary on the relationship between selfies/portraits and murals. Businesses like it when people check in on social media at their place, and a mural makes that more likely. Murals and tourism go together, for better or for ill. The #JVNLSCCS tag leads to the Juvenile Success Instagram page, which is Adrien Saporiti’s page, the man behind DCXV and the I Believe in Nashville murals (one of which is on the west side of Basement East near the entrance). There is at least one more No Selfies mural – I’ll blog about it if I ever find it. Whether or not you decide on a No Selfies New Year’s resolution, I wish everyone a happy, safe, and bountiful 2019!

UPDATE: Sadly this has been defaced. I did find the other one though. It’s blue.

Located at 917 Woodland Street. The mural is on the northeast corner of the building, facing the alley that runs between McFerrin Avenue and Ninth Street South, parallel to Woodland Avenu and Main Street. There is parking in the area – good luck! And perhaps try early in the morning, as there is a parking space right in front of the mural, likely to have a car in it.

1

In my beautiful balloon

Street art mural of balloon with basket East Nashville

Some outdoor art is explicitly designed to be portrait and selfie-friendly, and that’s certainly the case with much of Kelsey Montague’s work. You can see that clearly on her Instagram page. Certainly that’s true with the wings down in The Gulch, also her work, and like this tagged #WhatLiftsYou. The wings are probably are most famous Nashville mural out of town – locals may be a little more familiar with the multiple I Believe in Nashville murals, particularly the one on 12 South. This Montague work, found on the east side of The Cleo apartments is not likely to attract as many lines as any of those murals, as it’s not in a highly touristed area, though it’s only a few blocks from Five Points. It’s also a bit problematical for portraits because it’s in a narrow alley/driveway, and because even though there are no designated parking spots, it’s not all that unusual to find someone parked in front of. Best bet for getting a nice pic in the gondola is probably early morning. Notably, there is another mural visible from Gallatin if you are south of The Cleo, up on the roof level of the garage. What can be seen looks nice, but it’s not really public art since only the ground floor of the garage is open to the public.

KMBaloonDetail

Located at 1034 West Eastland Ave, near the corner with Gallatin Road, across from the Rite Aid. It’s very visible if you are on Gallatin coming from the north. There is some guest parking at the Cleo, and it’s usually possible to park across the street.

1

Powered by WordPress.com.

Up ↑