This West Town alley has been transformed into a gallery of murals

Share All sharing options for: This West Town alley has been transformed into a gallery of murals

A West Town alley has become an unlikely showcase for large-scale art, with more than a dozen murals completed in recent years on garages and at the rear side of residences spanning a single block, many of them done by well-known international artists.

Chicago’s murals & mosaics This is part of an ongoing series of stories on public art in the city and suburbs. More murals are being added every week.

One of the murals features giant eyes above what appears to be a beak clamping down on a lit match. It was done by the Thai street artist who goes by Mue Bon.

Another mural — a piece by the Colombian artist whose professional name is Stinkfish — explodes into a kaleidoscope of colors around the face of a child.

Another — done by the Dutch duo called Pipsqueak Was Here!!! — depicts a penguin, a little girl and a giant bear against the backdrop of a skyline.

Other murals in the alley between Noble Street and Bishop Street, serving homes and apartments on Ohio Street and Erie Street, were done by Chicago artists and muralists from Spain, Brazil and Britain, and elsewhere.

The first of the garage doors was painted about five years ago after a homeowner admired a nearby mural by a Los Angeles artist known as Sand One and tracked her down to create something.

The resident later planted a seed with Patrick Hull, owner of the Vertical Gallery, 1016 N. Western Ave., telling him that neighbors liked the idea of beautifying the alley and some were willing to give up garage doors “if you ever have any artists” looking for space.

Hull says the international street artists his gallery features like to hit the streets when they’re in Chicago to paint something new. “I’m always looking for a spot for them to paint,” he says.

So this one alley became a go-to canvas.

“None of them take any money for doing it,” Hull says. “I provide the spray paint. They usually knock it out in a day. It’s been a really fun project. The artists have loved it. It feels like a very European thing.”

The man who initiated the entire effort — who didn’t want to be identified — says the murals “just started piecemeal. There was no grand plan, it just kept growing.”

The buildings’ owners “didn’t tell the artists what to do,” he says, but there was a desire that there be “no politics, nothing scary.”

He also recruited Chicago artist Juan De La Mora, who painted two large cardinals on a brick building on the alley. The birds, one on each side of the corner of a building, face each other as if kissing. They’re set against violets — Illinois’ state flower with the state bird.

De La Mora also painted butterflies that, when the ivy on the building is green and thick, are tough to see.

“I think there should be more of these types of alleys,” whether they’re used “to paint, to gather, to walk, to do yoga,” De La Mora says. “Alleys shouldn’t be scary spaces.”

The same resident also connected with a Chicago artist who goes by Lie to paint in the alley. The result is a blue-lipped, helmeted child, with several birds seeming to explode outward.

The man who started this says it “was an attempt at making the alley interesting” and to give people on the block a greater sense of community.