Once again, John and Jessica Winters and their PRHBTN organization has brought some amazing art into Lexington. October and the first part of November saw four more unique artists into the city to colorize more walls in the city.
This year we got visits from Venezuelan artist Koz Dos, New Yorker Elle, SNUB23 from Great Britain and Alexandrea Pangburn from the Denver area. Each of them brought their own unique styles to add to the beauty of the city.
The first one to get started was Koz Dos. Born in 1986 in Caracas, Venezuela, he is a graffiti artist who made his first steps in the Caracas hood. Since then, he has become famous for his photorealistic and colorful portraits of people and frames, art, using geometric patterns.
The Koz Dos mural was painted on the side of the large LexPark garage in downtown Lexington off of Short Street. Originally, it was the home of a large HOW & NOSM mural (see my post about the 2014 PRHBTN murals to see the HOW & NOSM mural) that had lots of weather damage. These artists come into this knowing that there is always the possibility that their art may disappear due to weather, new ownership of buildings, etc. Such was this case. But, it opened the wall for the massive and colorful work that Koz Dos laid upon it. He used the nearly sixty foot wall to create a unique and crafty piece of art with a number of colorful characters on it. Following are a few shots from beginning to complete. Note, this is a difficult piece to get a complete photo of without wires getting in the way. You can see more about Koz Doz on his Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/koz.dos/
I am a big fan of herons, cranes and flamingos. In this instance, I am not exactly sure what kind of bird he used, but it looks like some sort of heron. I love his use of the birds.
While Koz Dos was hard at work, a couple of miles away Alexandrea Pangburn was getting started on her piece near 8th Street and Jefferson. Based in Golden, CO, Alexandrea specializes in animal portraits using acrylic paint, ink, watercolors and gouache on a variety of surfaces – from canvas to wood and bricks.
When I visited her work on her first day, I saw what looked like a paint by number painting and really couldn’t see what was going to come from it. After seeing the completed piece, I can see everything. I did get to meet her and she is extremely friendly and personable. Unfortunately, I never got by to see her actually working on it. Visit and follow Alexandrea Pangburn on her Instagram page at https://www.instagram.com/alexandrea_pang/
Just a few days later she had finished. You can see the completed mural above. I was so delighted to see this foxy photo. Ironically, just a few days earlier I was fortunate enough to capture some shots of a fox who had visited our neighborhood after being displaced from its nearby den due to home/apartment construction. So, this mural had special meaning to me and I absolutely love it!
Next to roll into Lexington is Brooklyn, New York artist ELLE. (See her website at http://ellestreetart.com/). Over the years I have met many street artists through PRHBTN and others. Most of them are rough cut, though personable, souls. They all have that gypsy-like nature about them. But not ELLE. For lack of a better way to describe her after meeting and talking with her is that she is an exotically beautiful bad-ass artist. She actually looks more like she belongs on a TV commercial. According to her Website BIO:
ELLE considers her paintings to be poetry. She creates stories by collaging disparate images: powerful females, flora and fauna, classical paintings juxtaposed with pop-culture and high fashion imagery, revealing purposefully designed messages to the world.
ELLE’s giant mural is located on the side of a building off of Church Street near Mill Street in downtown Lexington. This work is just as exotic and colorful as she is. I got there after she had already knocked out some of the first part of the work, which features three women’s faces collaged into each other.
The element of surprise was the key to this beautiful mural. And, this one was not without controversy as she added some “hidden” political commentary onto the mural, which, was painted over on the day after she completed it. Though I do have a photo of the controversial content, I am choosing not to post it here. But, I do want to note, that this is not unusual for graffiti artists. In your face controversy follows them… thus the name PRHBTN for Lexington’s now world famous art organization. Following are more shots of her amazing work.
The final mural in Lexington was done by Brighton, UK artist SNUB23. Like the others above, he has become a world-renown street artist and graphic artist for smaller projects. His PRHBTN project is probably one of the more unique pieces and certainly very detailed on many levels. On his website BIO, the definition of his work style is as colorful as he is:
Coming into being in the 1990s, SNUB is the alter ego of a graphic designer, inspired by the fictional robot Hammerstein.
I got to speak to him a few times during his big project and he is as friendly as can be. Many graffiti artists prefer to not be photographed, and I totally adhere to their requests. Not so with SNUB, who was delighted to have his photo taken along with his female friend with her striking orange hair.
Though, as you can see on his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/snub23/, much of his work looks more like it comes from the comic book world. However, the work he did in Lexington is quite complex and was absolutely time consuming. I watched as he used various size templates to create a visual illusion of 3D blocks of different sizes. Quite the amazing work.
You can visit SNUB23 at his website at https://www.snub23.com/
Have you checked out my books?
I write about back roads travel and quirky, unique sites along the way. I have published three books so far, and am working on Book 4 now, which will be all about murals, graffiti art and wall art from all over the U.S. and Canada. I have photos of nearly 2500 different works. And, yes, I will have a unique chapter just on PRHBTN in Lexington!!! You can see PRHBTN founder John Winters on the left with HIS copies of my books.
ORDER YOUR BOOKS TODAY!
As the 2019 Holidays are upon us, its a good time to think about that unique gift. My books are great fun for travelers. Every place in my books was personally visited by me and these are my unique stories of these places. All photography is also mine. You can grab your copies of any of my books at Amazon in print or Kindle versions at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0784XVGSW
My newest book is also available at the fun gift shops at Carhenge in Nebraska, Paradise Point Marketplace in Scottsville, Kentucky, Bowlin’s The Thing in Arizona and the famed Uranus Fudge Factory on Route 66 in Missouri.
(32)
