Dedication Ceremony | Kelly Ording, Pastel, Troy Lovegates & Cannon Dill

The City of San Leandro Celebrates Three New Art Murals
Dedication Ceremony is set for Tuesday, February 28th

San Leandro, CA: Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter and the San Leandro City Council invite the community to a dedication ceremony and celebration of the City’s Mural Art Project on Tuesday, February 28, 2017 at 5:30 P.M. at 21st Amendment Brewery located at 2010 Williams Street. The City of San Leandro partnered with art consultant Athen B. Gallery to curate and install vibrant and relevant artwork on three highly impactful locations across the city. The event will feature a discussion with the artists, light refreshments, and a dedication ceremony at 6:00 P.M. Members of the public are invited to attend this exciting event. RSVP here -  Event Page

This project will invigorate three visually significant locations across San Leandro. Highly accomplished and esteemed mural artists Pastel, Kelly Ording, Troy Lovegates and Cannon Dill are installing original artwork at 1605 Abram Court, 14995 Farnsworth Avenue, and 1800 Merced Street, respectively A fourth mural is planned at the Downtown San Leandro BART station building following a public selection process.

“These remarkable murals are indicative of a transformation that is taking place in San Leandro,” said San Leandro Mayor Pauline Russo Cutter. “The murals embrace the City’s industrial heritage and celebrate our culturally rich community.”

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SAN LEANDRO NEWS
Born from the City’s Next Generation Workplace Study in 2013, the Mural Art Project continues
ongoing efforts by the City to energize and beautify San Leandro’s industrial area. It also
follows the installation of the interactive “Chime Way” in Joaquin Plaza, the ongoing application
of art on dozens of utility boxes, the arrival of “Truth is Beauty” at the San Leandro Tech
Campus, and the 2014 installation of the Rigo 23 mural “The Great Migration of the Monarch
Butterfly” on San Leandro Boulevard.

“San Leandro is emerging as a public art destination in the East Bay,” said Athen B Gallery
director Sorell Raino-Tsui, who also consults on the City’s utility box art project. “It’s
encouraging to see that he City has taken such a strong lead in providing opportunities for artists
to bring life to passive surfaces throughout the city, and hopefully inspiring more art to follow.”
For more information, contact Katie Bowman, Economic Development Manager, by email at
kbowman@sanleandro.org or by phone at (510) 577-3327.

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Troy Lovegates & Cannon Dill collaboration concept. Wall starts March 6th.

ABOUT SAN LEANDRO
One of the most diverse cities in the nation located at the center of the dynamic San Francisco
Bay Area, San Leandro is a safe, vibrant community of 89,000 residents with well-maintained
neighborhoods, excellent public libraries, twenty-one public parks, quality local schools, and a
wide range of shopping, dining, and entertainment options. The western border of the city
consists of over eight miles of pristine shoreline and amenities on San Francisco Bay while a
regional park and nature areas fall on the eastern border. San Leandro businesses enjoy multiple
advantages including close proximity to the Oakland International Airport and Port of Oakland,
two major freeways, two BART stations, and access to a large and well-educated workforce.
Through a public-private partnership known as Lit San Leandro (www.LitSanLeandro.com), a
fiber optic network encircles San Leandro’s industrial and commercial core offering businesses
virtually unlimited internet connectivity.

Visit www.sanleandro.org or www.sanleandronext.com to learn more about San Leandro. To
receive City press releases, meeting agendas or other notifications by email, sign up at
www.sanleandro.org/portal.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CITY CONTACT: Katie Bowman,
Date: February 21, 2017 Economic Development Manager
(510) 577-3327

Heather Day x Athen B. Gallery x Flax Oakland

Last week Athen B. artist Heather Day completed a large mural located on the side of Flax newly opened art supplies store in Downtown Oakland!  This is the first time Heather's bright, bold and beautiful abstract work has graced public walls and we couldn't be happier its with us in Oakland.  Stay tuned as Heather Day will be joining us this November for our winter group exhibition! Be sure to check out the all process images by Athen B. Curator Brock Brake below!

To learn more about Heather Day and her available works on paper and canvas contact info@athenbgallery.com

Jet Martinez x Athen B. Gallery Part 2 (Oakland)

Jet Martinez recently completed his largest mural yet on the side of the historic I. Magnin Building in Downtown Oakland. The one time department store is known for its unique green tiled facade. The building was recently renovated and converted into offices. Jet’s mural plays off the historic nature of the building, and works with the existing art deco style to make a valuable addition to the Downtown landmark.

Jet Martinez was born in Mexico, but now lives and works in Oakland. He studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and has been involved in countless projects there especially in the Mission District of the city. The floral patterns he has become increasingly known for are inspired by his Mexican heritage. The motifs come from Mexican folk art, Amante paintings, embroidery, pottery, and weaving. Jets paintings and murals have been shown extensively internationally in addition to his Bay Area presence. The project was completed with the building owners at HP Investors and Lake Merritt / Uptown Association BID. Stay tuned for more details on Jet’s upcoming solo exhibition at Athen B. Gallery in May 2017.  

Revisit Jet Martinez x Athen B. Gallery Part One
The mural is located on 20th and Broadway in Downtown Oakland.
Mural Title:  “There’s More to Green than Money”

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For the last couple years, as my kids have started to become more independent, I have really been trying to focus on expanding my footprint by taking on travel projects and exhibiting with galleries outside of my area.  This has been a fruitful exercise  and I have been fortunate enough to be able to travel and exhibit broadly.  

My background and true passion, however, is working within my community.   As I have started expanding my circles I have also felt a real need to keep connected to the communities that have supported my efforts all along… specifically Oakland and San Francisco.  It’s far more important to me to stay relevant and a participant where I live than to be a globetrotting artist.

With that in mind, I started this year with a self imposed mandate to focus on local projects and specifically to work on more projects in Oakland.   I started voicing this desire and started reaching out to organizations that I thought were really moving the scene in Oakland.  Oakland is a city that has a rather disorganized art scene, yet has some of the more raw, promising and interesting work being made in the Bay Area.  Athen B gallery has poised itself on the line between the raw artistic underground of this city and the desire for a higher quality presentation.  I was instantly attracted to this dynamic and reached out to them.

When this project came up, I was honestly a bit overwhelmed.   

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The I Magnin building for me has always been one of the most beautiful buildings in Oakland.  A green tiled, art deco beauty, this building is a symbol of golden era from yesteryear.  After the devastating effects of the Reagan drug wars and the crack epidemic, downtown Oakland became a shadow of the vibrant space it once was.  Now, as downtown Oakland is experiencing a rebirth of sorts, I really felt a real responsibility to add to rather than subtract from this beautiful building and the downtown skyline.  

This mural also had some technical issues that made it quite complicated.  Primarily, that I couldn’t step back from the wall easily so that I could see what I was doing.   I also couldn’t project the image and had to grid it out on the wall.   This project was a real testament to trusting the process.  It was a happy and unexpected result that everything worked out as it should.

The design I came up with was based on a series of works I’ve been working on for a few years.  The original concept of the series was inspired by floral embroidery patterns from the state of Oaxaca in Mexico.   Originally the series of work was intended to bring attention to the beautiful aspects of Mexican visual culture.  As the series has evolved, I have started to use some of the floral elements to integrate beauty and patterning into architectural forms.

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This piece was designed to integrate, rather than contrast with into existing green facade of the building.  It was great to use an entirely green palette as green is a color that for me is sort of a background color.  The color of leaves behind bright flowers.  I learned a lot about using green on this project.

The roses in this composition symbolize organic natural growth while the lilies symbolize well being and a delicate beauty to be protected.  The composition is meant to have an almost vibrating quality that for me, represents a higher natural state of being.  

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In a city that is experiencing a seismic shift of populations and economies, this piece is meant as a reminder to prioritize natural growth.  As we bring in more construction and building, I hope this mural brings a reminder of the essentiality of Nature in our society.  

It is also a way for me, as a man in society, to be able to contribute beauty  and not just destruction.    I think it’s really important in our time for men to embrace the making of beautiful spaces and I hope this achieves that goal." - Jet Martinez

Jet Martinez x Athen B. Gallery Part One (Oakland)

Jet Martinez has been busy painting a mural on the side of the I. Magnin Building with Athen B. Gallery in Downtown Oakland for the past two weeks. The massive in-progress floral wall is his largest yet. Stop by to see the progress for yourself on 20th St. between Broadway and Telegraph. Stay tuned for a full blog post to learn more about the completed project.  Photographs by Athen B. Curator Brock Brake.

Jet Martinez lives and works in Oakland. The floral patterns he has become increasingly known for are inspired by his Mexican heritage. The motifs come from Mexican folk art, Amante paintings, embroidery, pottery, and weaving. Jets paintings and murals have been shown extensively internationally in addition to his Bay Area presence.