Vhils in Philadelphia

Vhils 8
Photo by Steve Weinik

This summer I’ve been interning at The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. The program is a city-run organization that has installed thousands of murals in Philadelphia over the last 30 years. Most of the artists they work with are traditional muralists, but they have also worked with Kenny Scharf, Steve Powers and others from the street art and graffiti scenes. Last week, Vhils came to town and installed a wheatpasted mural similar to the piece he did outside of the Leake Street Tunnel a few years ago in London. Rather than starting with a layer of old advertisements like he usually does, Vhils began the mural with a layer of collaged historic photographs of Philadelphia and covered that with a layer of white paper. The mural is on Drury Street in Center City, around the corner from the murals by Kenny Scharf, Gaia, and How&Nosm on 13th Street.

An art class from Mural Arts visits Vhils on site
An art class from Mural Arts visits Vhils on site. Photo by Steve Weinik.
The first layer of the mural. Photo by RJ Rushmore.
The first layer of the mural. Photo by RJ Rushmore.
Vhils and his crew projecting on the wall. Photo by Lisa Murch.
Vhils and his crew projecting on the wall. Photo by Lisa Murch.
Photo by Steve Weinik
Photo by Steve Weinik
Click to view large. Photo by Steve Weinik.
Click to view large. Photo by Steve Weinik.

Photos by RJ Rushmore, Lisa Murch and Steve Weinik