Smithe Battle for the Big Apple

Two Cities and Cultures, Linked on a Brooklyn Wall / NY TIMES
By MICHAELLE BOND
Published: August 2, 2013

On one side, an eagle reaches its claws out toward a big red apple. On the other side, a creature wearing multiple masks moves toward the apple. These are images in a mural meant to depict the struggles of people of different backgrounds to make it to New York City.

The mural is coming to life on a wall in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn, that runs much of the length of a road that hardly counts as a road. Area street artists know the wall, stretching about 200 feet on Vandervoort Place, as a prized space to show off their talents. The latest painting is being created by a Mexican artist whose work is meant to connect New York to his hometown, Mexico City.

"It's a kind of tribute to the people who came," said the artist, who prefers to go by his professional name, Smithe. The artist, whose work has been displayed in Belgium, Britain, Germany and Spain, is also a graphic illustrator with his own fashion brand.

The mural is the 25-year-old artist's first project in the United States, and he said he was nervous from the pressure of painting a wall that has been such a prominent canvas for street artists. "I need to do it well for all the people who live here," he said.

Smithe was diligently working this week to finish the mural in time for the official unveiling ceremony on Saturday.

He was brought to New York to do the work by All City Canvas, an art collective based in Mexico City that promotes public art in urban landscapes. For its first project in the United States, the group is combining the tradition of murals in Mexico with street art culture in Brooklyn.

The project, members of the collective said, is about making connections — within a city, between two cities and among members of the global art community. The collective formed last year when it held a festival that brought together artists from various countries to paint eight murals on major buildings in Mexico City, including some along Paseo de la Reforma, one of the city's main thoroughfares.

Mex and the City, an online community based in New York that focuses on contemporary Mexican culture, worked with All City Canvas to secure the wall. "At Mex and the City, we want to share Mexican creativity globally, so we're not typecast or stereotyped," said Marina Garcia-Vasquez, a founder of Mex and the City.

Emily Amey, a jewelry designer, can see the mural from her window as she works in a building across the street. She said she enjoyed seeing Smithe's progress over the past two weeks. "I can't get any work done, because I'm watching him work," she said.

On a recent afternoon, Smithe, who said he started scrawling graffiti on walls as a teenager, painted freehand, with help from one of the founders of All City Canvas, who had helped apply a base coat of paint.

Smithe said the mixture of cultures found in New York City inspired his design. A creature opposite the eagle representing the United States has a human head, and its hands symbolize a work force that comes from many different places, he said. The first hand represents strength, the second stands for technology, and the third signifies labor.

All City Canvas had an easier time getting permission to paint walls in Mexico City than in New York City, where many of the large walls in Manhattan are privately owned.

Instead, All City Canvas turned to a street on the border of East Williamsburg and Bushwick, neighborhoods brimming with a rainbow of designs painted on walls, doors, sidewalks and even on trucks. Not long after work had begun on the mural, someone tagged one corner of Smithe's mural with black spray paint. Gonzalo Alvarez, another founder of All City Canvas, said he considered it a kind of neighborhood greeting.

Some people stole glances as they hurried past the wall. Some slowed or stopped for a few minutes to watch and take photos. Some hopped off bicycles or skateboards for a closer look.

Smithe — wearing a T-shirt, jeans, a black baseball cap and a pink gas mask that protected him from the spray paint fumes — gave a paint-covered thumbs-up to spectators who waved.

Kelly Harman, 25, and her boyfriend, Joe Roselli, 27, spotted the mural as they walked through the neighborhood, admiring its artwork. "It's one of the few places you can see real art anymore," said Ms. Harman, an artist from Connecticut. She also embraced the meaning behind Smithe's work. "I like that it's deep," she said.