(Photo courtesy LoMan Fest)
Do you yearn to catch a street artist mid-mural? Tired of your ears being battered by the ground they’re close to? If only catching street art in the act of creation didn’t need to be a game of chance, mural makers lined the streets, and Instagram likes filled the air. Enter the LoMan Art Festival, New York’s first ever festival dedicated to the art of the spray can.
For the magical week of August 5 to 9, the LoMan Fest (organized by the non-profit L.I.S.A Project) will shower art down upon 21 downtown Manhattan neighborhood walls from 23rd Street to the South Street Seaport. Wondering what that might look like? Of the two-dozen acclaimed muralists participating, click on a couple of these names to whet your appetite: Ron English, Beau Stanton, Tatyana Fazlizadeh, Gemeos (Brazil), Ludo (France) and Solus (Ireland).
Wayne Rada, organizer of LoMan and founder of the L.I.S.A project, hopes the festival will be a “revitalization of the artistic energy of downtown Manhattan,” he says in a press release.
In addition to the murals, the fest will also be hosting artist panels, performances and a screening of a never-before-seen cut of Bansky Does New York, as you can see from the schedule below. Oh, and also a sculpture garden on Mulberry Street featuring Edward Snowden’s head.
Thursday, 8/6
PANEL
7 pm: A panel at Jonathan Levine Gallery, featuring established artists, TBA
Friday 8/7
SCULPTURE GARDEN
The festival’s sculpture garden opens in the “Ron English – Temper Tot Lot” at 114 Mulberry Street.
Starring the bust of Edward Snowden by Andrew Tider and Jeff Greenspan, as well as works by
Ron English, Leon Reid IV, Art is Trash, Nicolas Holiber, The DR¡F!, and Sucklord. Open
through 8/9.
PANEL
7 pm: A panel at Con Artist Collective, discussing illegal vs. legal street art installations
Saturday 8/8
STICKER PARTY
1 pm – 6 pm: Sticker Social Club
An all-ages, family-friendly event where visitors will learn about sticker culture and create their own
signature stickers.
STREET ART ZINES
1 pm – 6 pm: CarnageNYC
CarnageNYC, an indie publisher of Street Art Zines, displays and offers a selection for sale.
LIVE STREET ART BATTLE
5 pm – 7 pm: Secret Walls: Team Crash vs Team BIO
Secret walls, an underground live action illustration battle, comes to LoMan, pitting legendary
streets artists Crash and BIO against each other. The event challenges artists or teams to cover 25
ft high walls with black and white images in 90 minutes. The winner is decided based on the
crowd’s applause.
FILM SCREENING:
8 pm : An outdoor screening of the never-seen-before European cut of Banksy Does New York.
Sunday 8/9
LIVE PODCASTS
12 pm – 5 pm : Live podcast recordings in the sculpture garden including one from the comedy cast
of Legion of Skanks from the Anthony Cumia Network.
CONCERT
6:30 pm: Musical performances by rapper/street artist, TT the Artist, Corey Glover from Living
Colour, and more. Completed murals from the festival will be projected on the walls.