Four New Murals Added to Wabash Arts Corridor Including Piece from World Renowned Street Artist Shepard Fairey

Obey mural - 916 S. Wabash

A reader writes:

Just a heads-up that paper has been put up on the storefront windows if 9th and Wabash. It has long been vacant with only Halloween stores using the space. Adjacent to that property is a huge banner for Obey Records. It faces north on the building just south of the 9th and Wabash. Perhaps they are connected?

While that would be great if Obey was doing something inside the building at 9th and Wabash, we highly doubt that's the case.

Obey is the product of world renowned street artist and creative guru Shepard Fairey - probably most famous for his iconic "Obama Hope" poster.

Upon doing some more investigation we found that in fact the huge "banner" is actually a mural that Fairey was creating in conjunction with various other artists as part of the Wabash Arts Cooridor (from his blog):

The crew and I arrived in Chicago three days ago to begin the setup for The Provocateurs art show and to start painting my mural. My mural wall is a killer spot at Wabash and 9th on one of Columbia University’s buildings. There will be several other murals going up in the same corridor by artists from The Provocateurs show including POSE, RETNA, and Cleon Peterson. The majority of the fine art is now in our gallery space safely and we are arranging the display for your viewing pleasure. Thanks to Jon Furlong for the awesome photos, and to my crew of Nic Bowers, Dan Flores, and Rob Zagula for assistance on the mural. Stay tuned for wall art updates from both indoors and outdoors.

If you're into these types of things we HIGHLY suggest you head on over to his blog to take a look at some amazing pictures (post 1, post 2 and post 3) - both highlighting how this was created as well as various other shots around the neighborhood.

As Fairey stated in his post, there were some other artists that were contributing and we found the following press release from Columbia College:

Columbia College Chicago has teamed up with Shepard Fairey (OBEY series, Obama HOPE) and three other Art Alliance: The Provocateurs artists to showcase their work in the Wabash Arts Corridor as part of the exhibition with Lollapalooza. Four of the top names in subversive street art—Shepard Fairey, Cleon Peterson, POSE, and RETNA—will use the corridor as their “living urban canvas,” injecting provocative, large-scale artworks into one of Chicago’s major emerging art scenes.

• Shepard Fairey: Latest in his OBEY series “We Own the Future,” 44’ x 44’, 916 S. Wabash, north wall 

• Chicago-based POSE: Bold-colored, pop-art inspired narrative graphics, 120’(w) x 25’(h), 72 E. 11th on the west and north walls 

• Cleon Peterson: Dystopian brutality in black and white, 40’(w) x 14’(h), 634 S. Wabash (Warehouse Liquors), south wall 

• RETNA: Free-hand graffiti/glyphs, 43’(w) x 62’(h), 33 E. Congress, south wall

This is some pretty amazing stuff and some great additions to the Sloop.  We loved the idea of the Wabash Arts Cooridor and these current installations take it up a notch in our book.  Here are some other shots of the other artists:

Cleon Peterson: Dystopian brutality in black and white
40’(w) x 14’(h), 634 S. Wabash (Warehouse Liquors), south wall

RETNA: Free-hand graffiti/glyphs
43’(w) x 62’(h), 33 E. Congress, south wall

Chicago-based POSE: Bold-colored, pop-art inspired narrative graphics
120’(w) x 25’(h), 72 E. 11th on the west and north walls 

I don't know about you but this is pretty Rad!  Walking down the street on Wabash is like walking down a hallway in a museum - except much more interesting than most museums.

For some of our older coverage on the this topic click - Wabash Arts Corridor Sounds Promising or Some New Art for Wabash Arts Corridor.

Oh and in regard to Fairey, you may be saying "his mural looks like another one I've seen in the Sloop?" Well you're right, because back in 2011 he did another installation next to Code of Conduct at 11E 14th Street (underneath the El):

Now that we've gone off on an arts tangent (hopefully an interesting one), that brings us back to the original question - what's going on in the storefront at the corner of 9th and Wabash?  Anyone got the scoop on that?

(Hat tip:  RH!)