DC alleyway welcomes graffiti

 Tucked between Alice’s Tailor and Logan Hardware in Washington, D.C., Irvine Contemporary has transformed the brick walls of a P Street alley into a public extension of the gallery’s indoor exhibitions. 

The murals, which were commissioned by Irvine Contemporary during the summer of 2009 as a part of an exhibit titled “Street/Studio,” were meant to function as an ongoing project that will last as long as street art lasts, said Martin Irvine, owner and director of Irvine Contemporary.

“In the upcoming months, we are going to be adding other works, going up to the second level and continuing down the alley,” he said.

The alley now features art by Shepard Fairey, famous for his iconic blue and red portrait of the "Hope" Barack Obama slogan that became popular during the 2008 presidential election.

Fairey paints black and tan characters that seem to stare intently at passers-by. Bursts of red in his work draw the eye in to the seductive lips of a young girl or the flower in the beret of a child soldier. His characters carry guns and wear combat boots, but also carry roses and wear peace signs. 

Boy with gun mural: (Photo by Lauren Marie Pritchard)

Smaller images that appear over and over again, side by side, seem hypnotic in repetition. They feature provocative political captions such as “War for sale, No thank you,” and “What is the cost of oil?" below an American leaning against his Hummer. 

Next to Fairey’s work, stand black and gray symmetrical high rises tagged by Berlin-based graffiti artist Evol, who used spray paint to create “gridlike facades of workaday German apartment buildings.”

Police brutality mural: (Photo by Lauren Marie Pritchard)The buildings serve as a dreary companion to the black and white depictions of an oppressive police state done by fellow Berlin-based artist and sometimes collaborator, Pisa 73.

New York native Gaia is behind the bright yellow double-headed rooster, separated by a triangle and outlined in cherry red. Human hands, holding up three fingers, extend on either side of the mural and symbolize what Irvine said is “a lost connection to the environment and reversal of natural order." 

 Brooklyn-based artist Oliver Vernon contributed colorful geometric shapes framing the alley entrance to Logan’s Hardware using free hand paint on the wall. 

Double-headed rooster mural: (Photo by Lauren Marie Pritchard)

“It’s all combination mediums,” Irvine said. "Prints that are posted, multiple layers of stencils spray painted through decollage, linocut prints and creating directly on the wall with paint.”

Although Irvine Contemporary is the only gallery in Washington, D.C., to sponsor this kind of work in outdoor public places, the P Street murals are a graffiti/street art hybrid that can be found in major cities all over the world, Irvine said.

“It’s everywhere," he said. "You can see this in New York, Los Angeles, Berlin and London. It’s a global movement.”