Molly Crabapple shaped the visuals of Occupy Wall Street, her illustrations of places like present-day Syria and Guantánamo Bay have landed her in VICE, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times, and she’s about to open a solo show at Postmasters Gallery. If she wanted to, I’m sure there are plenty of walls that she could paint in New York, where she lives. If Crabapple wanted to paint a mural for the sake of getting some buzz for her upcoming gallery show, that would be the way to go. That would be the norm in this city. Nobody would mind. But that’s not Molly Crabapple. She turned down a chance to work with Lena Dunham because she disagrees with Dunham’s stance on the best approach to decriminalize sex work. So, for what I’m pretty sure is her first exterior mural, Crabapple traveled to Antakya, Turkey where she painted a youth center for Syrian refugees.
This was the third time that Crabapple has painted at a Syrian youth center in Turkey. In 2014 and 2015, she painted interior murals with the Karam Foundation. This year, she worked with Save the Children (here’s a bit more about their work in Turkey).
Continuing along the same themes as those first two projects, Crabapple painted dozens of whimsical and animals all over the building. It’s a side of Crabapple’s works that I didn’t realize existed, but it seems a great fit for the space. What’s more universally cheerful than a bunch of slightly mischievous cats?
Let’s hope this is just the first of many exterior murals from Crabapple.
More photos below…
Photos courtesy of Save the Children