WALL\THERAPY 2015
opened on Friday night, July 17, with a reception for “IMPACT!,”
an exhibition of work by each of this year’s featured artists at 1975 Gallery
(89 Charlotte Street). And though the heat has been pretty oppressive during
the early portion of the nine-day festival, a few of the artists have banged
out one mural and are onto the next.

Check out this slideshow for
examples of the studio work by this set of painters as well as
progress shots of some of the completed or in-progress outdoor work. Many more
images — as well as interviews, artist bios, and related event coverage — can be
found on our site by clicking on the WALL\THERAPY page. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram
(@roccitynews) throughout the week.

Switzerland-based
artists Onur and Wes21 are
working on a collaborative piece that wraps the back walls of the artist studio
building at the Artist Apartments at Corpus Christi (880 East Main Street). The
artists typically create murals with an object as the subject, but for this
piece they are experimenting with more emphasis on the environment, setting the
place for a mythic scene of nature striking back against a dominant species.

Though the two have been working on walls together for about seven years, each
maintains his own studio practice and solo projects. But when they create
together, the styles meld so seamlessly that it seems like the work of a third
artist entirely.

Switzerland-based
duo NEVERCREW create
dreamy, fantastical scenes with hyper-real and seemingly weightless whales,
often calmly caught between natural and mechanical elements. The two artists,
Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni,
are painting one of their iconic whales at 14 Capron Street.

Brooklyn-based Canadian artist Li Hill collaborated on an early mural featuring egrets with Rochester-based
artist Mr. Prvrt last week before the festival
officially kicked off. Mr. Prvrt’s skillfully painted
birds blend with Li-Hill’s kinetic fowl in a swooping battle of beak and
wing.

Li-Hill went on to construct an easter-egg
installation in an undisclosed location, in which two deer made of stretcher
bars, cardboard, and paint face off in front of a Quonset hut, surrounded by
urban overgrowth. The artist is currently working on a mural at 400 Atlantic
Avenue.

New York City-based
graffiti artist Daze (a returning
artist from 2013) finished his first mural at 646 Joseph Avenue, which depicts
a young woman that the artist says is based on a photograph, but modified
through sketches.

He says that he wanted to represent people in the
neighborhood, but not depict any one person specifically. Local artists Ephraim
Gebre and Kokenas
Singletary, who have helped Shawn Dunwoody in his uplifting street art projects
around town, had the opportunity to assist Daze in laying down some of the
color. Daze will begin a second mural with members of FUA Krew
today.

Rochester-based
artist Brittany Williams — who exhibits incredible illustration and portraiture skills, but is working
on her first mural ever — is painting a large profile of a young woman whose head
opens to reveal a blooming mind at 488 Joseph Avenue.

This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2015.