- PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL
- "Mother," installed at Atlantic Ave. and Greenleaf St. over the Labor Day weekend by California-based artist Maxx242, was a 2021 commission by Wall\Therapy.
For many families, taking a post-feast digestion walk is as much a part of the Thanksgiving tradition as the feast itself. And it can provide a blessed little buffer, should you need some space from a sibling’s political goading or a nebby aunt prying into your personal life.
If you’ve got relatives or friends visiting from out of town, you can use the walk to impress them with the scores of vibrant murals in Rochester, most of which have been installed in the past 10 years by artists associated with Wall\Therapy and ROC Paint Division, and individual artists such as Shawn Dunwoody and Dellarious.
Murals are everywhere in Rochester, from the Charlotte neighborhood to Pittsford, and from the Susan B. neighborhood to North Winton Village. And that’s just the concentration of murals — public art is certainly present in more of the ‘burbs, too.
Here, we spotlight four different street art strolls, each composed of clusters of murals in walkable distance with one another. So dress in comfortable layers and walking shoes, get out, and take in some fresh air and art. The murals can be the perfect backdrops for your holiday selfies and groupies, but remember to tag the artists!
GREENLEAF, OFF ATLANTIC AVENUE
A one-block street in the industrial stretch between the Neighborhood of the Arts and North Winton Village became a street art hub when Wall\Therapy brought a handful of local, national, and international artists to town in 2013. The organization added more murals by different artists in 2014, 2015, and 2017. And this year, Wall\Therapy quietly put up two new murals on Greenleaf over the Labor Day holiday.
- PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL
- Murals installed by Wall\Therapy over the past decade cover the walls of a warehouse complex at Greenleaf Street and Atlantic Avenue.
About midway down the long warehouse on Greenleaf is the other new mural, “Cosmos,” by Richmond, Virginia-based artist Nico Cathcart, depicting a human skull crowned by a burst of flora with various pollinators winging around the blossoms. It’s part of an ongoing “Symbiotic Series” she’s been painting across the nation, using memento mori imagery to allude to the human hand in climate change and its impact on the natural environment.
- PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL
- Richmond, Virginia-based artist Nico Cathcart painted "Cosmos," part of a series of murals about the human impact on the natural environment, in 2021 for Wall\Therapy.
And around the corner, on the same building: a gorgeous, gruesomely-lettered piece by the late Rochester artist BONES and another by NYC-based artist Faust, whose giant, stark calligraphic phrase, “All That Matters,” is a personal piece about loss in his own life. But the phrase encapsulates just about everything we’re thinking about over the holiday.
Walking westward on Atlantic, there are more impressive murals on Crouch Street and two more on the building closest to the railroad overpass. For a map, see Wall\Theapy’s site.
WALK THE EL CAMINO TRAIL
The El Camino Trail is a nature-and-art walkway that runs parallel to North Clinton Avenue and crosses the 104 expressway. While you’re traversing that overpass, you won’t notice the roadway below. Instead you’ll be staring at the ground underfoot, which is painted to resemble a highly Instagrammable, extremely long and colorful woven rug, which Baltimore-based artists Jessie & Katey painted for Wall\Therapy in 2013.
- FILE PHOTO
- Baltimore-based artists Jessie and Katey's 2013 painted rug on the El Camino Trail.
Included in this set are old school NYC graffiti artists SMITH (with a dragon piece), Lady Pink (with the mythic-looking “Lady of the Leaf”), as well as a piece by Nairobi, Kenya-based artist WiseTwo. Visible from the trail, on Hollenbeck Street, you’ll find Irish artist Conor Harrington’s painted fight scene. Further north, a celebration of Mexican culture in “La Lucha Siempre” by Rochester artist Range FUA, and a goldfish by Brazilian artist Binho, among others.
THE WEST MAIN STREET TREK
Another street art cluster is in the historic district that was home to suffragist Susan B. Anthony and one of many Rochester homes of abolitionist Frederick Douglass, which were located off West Main Street on Madison and King Streets, respectively. In walking distance to that stretch of West Main are several murals put up over the years by Wall\Therapy and Roc Paint Division.
- PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL
- The “Black Lives Matter” mural was painted on the side of The Flying Squirrel Community Space on Clarissa Street by youth artists Nzinga Muhammad, Kaori-Mei Stephens, and Etana Browne in 2017 in collaboration with ROC Paint Division and Wall\Threrapy.
- PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL
- Detail of the "Black Lives Matter" mural.
At the eastern most end of West Main Street, travel south on Exchange Street for a couple of blocks and, you'll find Rochester artist Sarach C. Rutherford's "Stories of Strength," completed in Oct. 2020 in honor of domestic violence survivors in partnership with Willow Domestic Violence Center and Truth Collective.
The huge mural is located on a wall of the Times Square Building, and depicts a figure holding a sapling, framed by one arched window, while another window frames a natural scene, with birds taking wing and flying free. Words of encouragement are painted in the window frames, and the whole work is a surreal trompe l'oeil.
- PHOTO BY QUAJAY DONNELL
- Sarah C. Rutherford's "Stories of Strength" was painted in Oct. 2020 to honor victims of domestic violence.
Further west along West Main Street, you can spot murals: a cycling suffragist by Rochester artist Manta across from 1872 Cafe, an eagle and ship at sea by Chinese artist DALeast at West Main and King Streets, and another work by Sarah C. Rutherford: a monumental portrait of adoptive, foster, and biological mother Trelawney McCoy for Rutherford’s “Her Voice Carries” series of murals that she installed all over Rochester and beyond in the past several years.
A few blocks north of West Main, at King and Silver Streets, you can find Baltimore Ernest Shaw Jr’s “Jimi” Hendrix portrait as well as Brooklyn-based artist Alice Mizrachi’s colorful group of figures titled “Together We Stand in Peace.” And a bit further west is California-born artist Faring Purth’s “Etty,” a giant mural under a train overpass of a girl with a pocket full of starlings.
THE ROCHESTER PUBLIC MARKET
Just about every nook and cranny of the Rochester Public Market and surrounding area are chock full of murals. On the main stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue that runs directly behind the north border of the market (behind Cure and Flour City Bread Co.), you’ll find murals installed by Wall\Therapy including Spanish artist Liquen’s detained American eagle, German artist Case’s mermaid and swimmer, and Rochester artist Thievin’ Stephen’s intricately rendered, be-shirted bull, titled “Stock Lives.”
- FILE PHOTO
- A Wall\Therapy mural on Pennsylvania Avenue by German artist Andreas von Chrzanowski, who paints as "Case," is titled "Am mut hangt der Erfolg (Success depends on courage)."
In the vicinity are works by Shawn Dunwoody as well as the partially-deteriorated remnants of murals installed in 2011 by Wall\Therapy artists Freddy Sam, Faith47, DALeast, and others.
- FILE PHOTO
- Canadian artist Jarus painted "Avery" on a tower at the Fedder Complex for Wall\Therapy in 2014.
And this weekend, if you visit the market to pick up your produce or seasonal wreaths, be sure to check out the new studio and retail space of artist Mike Dellaria, AKA Dellarious, who is known for his cheerful and cheerleading wheatpastes of heroes past and present on walls, expressways underpasses, and utility boxes around town. His new spot’s debut to the public will take place this weekend, Saturday, November 27, as well as Sunday, November 28, during the first Holidays at the Market event.
Rebecca Rafferty is CITY’s life editor and can be reached at [email protected].