Buffalo historian, social advocate and businessman Mark Goldman is planning to create a series of murals in Allentown, while dedicating the effort to his late brother and public art visionary Tony Goldman. In an email sent out to local press, Mark made clear that the initiative would be guided by a professional acumen that would greatly enhance the spectrum of art in the city. Allentown is already known for its artistic nature (see work above), and this effort should dovetail perfectly with Tony’s lifelong efforts. A few BRO readers always thought that Tony’s spearheading nature to produce mind-blowing works of arts by marrying acclaimed artists with blank walls, would have been an excellent addition to Buffalo’s own built landscape. It looks as if that time has finally come.
From Mark:
“What my brother Tony demonstrated by his visionary curatorial skills is that street art, done at its best and most sophisticated level, has the power to transform and empower communities. At his internationally known wall at Houston and Bowery and on his fantastic, dream-like productions at the walls of Wynwood in Miami, Tony, by sponsoring and supporting the world’s leading street artists, gave voice to a new generation of artists while at the same time bringing unbelievable energy and art to the streets of long-forsaken parts of two major American cities. His work, though cut-short by his untimely death on September 11th, 2012, will live on, however, not only in Soho and in Miami but on the streets of Buffalo New York where I, by creating the Allen Street Street Artists Collective, will attempt to do for the streets of Allentown what Tony’s work did for New York and Miami. It is as a tribute to him and to the people of Buffalo that I have undertaken this most challenging and important project. As Tony himself said: “The work that we do us not for the faint of heart.”
“Our first curatorial explosion will be launched on Friday evening September 6th when the work of six artists, who will have been working on the street since Sunday August 25th, will unveil their work. By then, over twenty thousand square feet of wall space will have been painted by artists from New York, Los Angeles and Buffalo all of whom have been invited to paint the walls of Allentown. Included among them are David Chino, from New York (trained at UB); Septerhead, a leading street artist from Los Angeles, Patrick Gallo, Brooklyn-based, Buffalo-bred; Johnny Chow, Max Collins and Meg Corcoran, Buffalo artists who have turned many walls into powerful canvases. In addition, as a special tribute to the late, great Buffalo-born street artist Spain Rodriguez, Ian De Beer has been commissioned to paint a 2000+sq ft mural in honor of our home-grown street art pioneer (see image above). While the public can view these artists as they work beginning on Sunday the 25th, the event itself, this unprecedented eruption of powerful wall art, will be held on the evening of Friday September 6th.
“For background on my brother’s inspirational work and the kind of results that we hope to realize in Buffalo, visit www.thewynwoodwalls.com.”