The 4th annual Vancouver Mural Festival in Mount Pleasant (a neighbourhood nicknamed Mount Pixel due to its concentration of animation and visual effects studios) features vibrant murals by 25 artists with disciplines ranging from fine art to street art, adding to the more than 120 murals in the neighbourhood. This year's list, selected from 800 applications, includes six international artists to augment the local talent, such as the German abstract muralist SatOne and the Argentinian duo Vanesa Galdeano and Analí Chanquía of Medianeras. Highlights includes work by several indigenous artists such as the Squamish artist, Siobhan Joseph. And on 8 August, a 20-storey mural dealing with environmental issues by the American artist artist Shepard Fairey is due to be unveiled. Fairey's work is the first mural in the Burrard Arts Foundation's Surface Series, a rotating public art programme.
Free Yourself by Medianeras, which is currently in progress in an alley on East 2nd Avenue, is an optically complex work that plays with light and dimensions. The mural invites viewers to reflect on distances between indoors and outdoors and dreams and reality. Photo: Medianeras
Vancouver-based artist Olivia DiLiberto’s mural Cosmic Breeze occupies the massive front wall of Titmouse Animation Studios. The work references nature and the cosmos—typical of the artist’s counterculture and psychedelic work, which aims to infuse new life into idioms of the 1960s-70s. Gabriel Martins
At the corner of 5th Avenue and Manitoba, the Canadian artist Kathy Ager is working on a mural called Homecoming. The work reflects the cultural influences of her travels between Vancouver, Lisbon and Amsterdam. Ager's painterly style—influenced in part by Dutch Masters, fashion and pop culture—provides intrigue on a quiet commercial street. Gabriel Martins
Outside A&B Party Rentals at 4th Avenue and Manitoba, the muralist Sony Green is painting an Aboriginal symbol for 'meeting ground'. The dotting represents variegated landscapes such as desert, flat lands, coastal areas and mountainous terrain. Gabriel martins
In a parking lot at 35 East 3rd Avenue, the Japanese artist Oneq has completed this comic and pin-up inspired work called Isome. The muralist, painter, illustrator and graffiti artist is known for her distinct rendering of hair, as in this work of vibrant purples, pinks and blues. Gabriel Hall
Vancouver Mural Festival splashes colour on the streets
The festival will realise 25 new murals, including a 20-storey work by Shepard Fairey
Oneq's Isome Gabriel Martins