Artists paint the city for Halifax Mural Festival
Artists took to the streets – and walls – of Halifax this week to paint murals for the second Halifax Mural Festival.
Hailing from the United States and Canada, the municipality commissioned artists to transform skate parks, electrical boxes and company walls into works of art. Literal.
Most of the new murals are on Quinpool Road, with 15 new paintings and designs adding color to the street.
One of the larger designs on Quinpool comes from Dominic Laporte of Ottawa. In collaboration with fellow spray painter Anaïs Labrèque, the pair have created a surreal image of a harbor with moored fishing boats. The mural is over seven meters high.
“It’s my ode to Halifax,” Laporte said in an interview.
“Being from Ottawa, we don’t really have the same kind of culture. . . the boats, the harbour, the nautical atmosphere. A mural should celebrate where it is.”
Artists used paintbrushes, rollers, spray cans and scrapers to bring a wide variety of styles to life around Halifax. Murals popped up on the streets of Gottingen, Grafton and Cambridge, with many others scattered around the city.
According to festival organizer Michael Burt, it was a hectic week, with rain early in the event causing delays. Despite the complications, Burt said he’s happy with the feedback he’s heard in town.
“Every time I go to check in artists or drop off some stuff, there’s always people talking to them or taking pictures, so there’s already been a great response,” Burt said in an interview.
One such artist is Nessy (Vanessa Thomas), a painter from Halifax who returns from last year’s festival. She started her artistic journey during the COVID-19 pandemic and was invited in 2022 to design an electrical box. This year she’s upgrading to part of the wall in Maxwell’s Plum Beer Garden on Grafton Street.
She said delays caused by rain meant she was scrambling to put her piece together for the big reveal on Saturday.
“I’m in focus mode. I just go, go, go, and when I’m done I take it all in,” Nessy said in an interview.
Burt is hopeful that he can continue the festival next year with extra money and manpower.
The Halifax Mural Festival will host a reveal day on Quinpool Road at 11 a.m. Saturday, with art-related family activities until 3 p.m.
For more details and a map of the murals, visit the event website.
