Albright Knox Public Art Initiative ...................... Public Art - Table of Contents
Metamorphosis #5 mural
Mid-City Apartments, 1665 Main Street, Buffalo,
NY
October 2019 photos
Note arrows pointed upward ... NFTA Bus Garage parking lot
Side and back of building
Reprint
Tavar Zawacki
American, born 1981
Metamorphosis #5 , 2019
Acrylic paint
Commissioned by the Albright-Knox Art Gallery Public Art Initiative, 2019
Location: 1665 Main Street
At the time of its completion, Metamorphosis #5 was the largest mural of Tavar Zawacki’s career and in the whole of Western New York. The vibrant pattern of vividly colored overlapping and interweaving forms—visible for blocks on this stretch of Main Street—is based on Zawacki’s signature artistic motif: the upward arrow.
At the age of 19, Zawacki—who had been casually interested in graffiti since his early teen years—bought a one-way plane ticket to Paris, driven to “rise above” his fears and dedicate himself completely to becoming a street artist. While he initially channeled this spirit into the tag ABOVE, Zawacki soon gravitated toward the upward arrow as a more universal expression, as he as explained, “of the powerful mentality to rise above fears, challenges, and anything holding you back from your goals. . . . everything is possible!” In the context of 1665 Main Street, this imagery and the idea of metamorphosis, or dynamic transformation, resonates with the resurgence of the greater Buffalo region and ongoing positive economic and cultural developments in the East Side neighborhoods nearby.
Partial reprint
Rise ABOVE at Mid-City Apartments | Featured artist – Tavar Zawacki
By Queenseyes
Buffalo Rising, September 13, 2019
A budding section of Main Street is in the process of getting a significant mural. The work by Tavar Zawacki (American born, living in Berlin), will grace a giant wall at 1661 Main Street known as the Mid-City Apartments project (by Sinatra Real Estate). The work is already underway – the wall has been painted white, and video crews have been at the site at night, in order to tactically lay out the work with projectors :
Seeing that Zawacki’s street artist name is ‘ABOVE’, many of his works feature arrows that point towards the sky, representing positiveness. The mural should take about 10 days to complete.
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The largest mural in Buffalo, located at 1665 Main Street, is set to finish on Friday.
The project, which is part of the Albright Knox Public Art Initiative, stands at 120-feet tall and features a series of arrows done in 27 different colors. 80 gallons of paint were used for the mural which was done by artist Tavar Zawacki. Albright Knox hopes this becomes an artist beacon for the city.
"Art and culture are the glue that holds the community together," Abright Knox artists director Janne Siren said, "they beautify our county and our city. They make this a liveable place for the people of Buffalo and Erie County."
The mural will be officially completed on Friday, September 27th.
Color photos and their arrangement © 2019 Chuck LaChiusa
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