Public Art - Table of Contents

Queen City mural
  1412 Main Street
, Buffalo, NY

By Adeyemi Adegbesan  aka Yung Yemi

Sponsored by Albright Knox Public Art Initiative



October 9, 2022 Photos

























  building




Buffalo AKG Museum:  October 2022 Highlights

Queen City by Adeyemi Adegbesan

You may remember the digital collage of Adeyemi Adegbesan (Canadian, born 1982), aka Yung Yemi, that graced the brick walls of Albright-KnoxNorthland during the run of the special exhibition In These Truths. Made from the temporary material wheatpaste, a medium common among muralists and graffiti artists, the work was never meant to last. Fortunately for us, Adegbesan returned to Buffalo to create a more permanent work of art for the public, Queen City, 2022. In early June, Adegbesan visited Buffalo to interview and photograph a diverse array oflocal creators in the fields of poetry, literature, music, and visual arts.

From these meetings, he selected  Annette Daniels Taylor, Jillian Hanesworth, and Curtis Lovell  as subjects for the mural, providing a new twist on Buffalo’s historic nickname. Adeyemi composed collages of these figures with objects of symbolic weight for people of the Black diaspora, such as cowrie shells and traditional masks, along with imagery inspired by the subjects’ dress, homes, and personas, to create an Afro-Futuristic vision for Buffalo.

The Three Women in the Mural


Annette Daniels Taylor
Photo source: Annette Daniels (online October 9, 2022)




Jillian Hanesworth
Photo source: NPR, May 17, 2022 (online October 9, 2022)



Curtis Lovell
Photo source: Buffalo Spree, April 27, 2022 (online October 9, 2022)



Reprint: Luminato (online October 2022)

Adeyemi Adegbesan

Adeyemi Adegbesan is a Toronto-based multi-disciplinary artist whose practice aims to examine the intersectionality of Black identity. Reflecting on Blackness through pre-colonial, colonial, present day and future timelines; across regions, religions, varying levels of income and political lines, Adegbesan examines the dichotomy of the richness of Black experiences with the imposed societal homogeneity of ‘Blackness’. Through his work Adegbesan pulls from these varying elements to create Afro-futuristic portraits that embody the history and future of Black culture.  

Adeyemi is a self-taught artist whose practice incorporates photography, mixed media collage, murals and assemblage. He works out of his studio in Toronto’s Kensington Market neighborhood and has shown work in Canada and the United States. He has also worked with brands such as HBO, Instagram, and the Toronto Raptors on commercial collaborations

Polytab / Parachute cloth


Photo source:  Facebook (online October 8, 2022)

#AKGPublicArt update: Yung Yemi is back in #Buffalo! The artist is working on a new #Polytab mural with the Public Art team, which is being installed at 1412 Main Street. Yung Yemi (Adeyemi Adegbesan)'s work was on view as part of #InTheseTruths at #AKNorthland earlier in 2022. [📷Amanda Smith]


  • 100% polyester non-woven fabric that is being used by muralists. The material can be used primed or unprimed.

  • QST's Polytab product is a non-woven fabric that is lighter than traditional canvas and can take on the form of the surface it is being applied to. It can be worked on with almost any paint or media and adhered to a wall using acrylic gel.

  • Polytab is a non-woven fabric and is also known as Parachute Cloth. The material is very light, lighter than canvas, and can take on the form of the substrate it is being applied to. This fabric that is traditionally used in the garment industry is now widely part of large public mural art projects.

  • Mural Cloth is non-woven fabric that is primed with 2 coats of the highest quality interior / exterior primer. It can be worked on with almost any paint and media. Your mural can be painted on cloth inside and adhered to a wall using acrylic gel medium.

  • The recommendations on this website assume that a mural that is painted with careful planning and consideration to technique and materials and that receives regular maintenance could have a lifespan of 20-30 years.






Mural photos and their arrangement © 2022 Chuck LaChiusa
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