Hyde Park Village is working on answering St. Pete’s mural challenge (well, technically this is an unofficial competition, but I like starting stoking the fire). Working closely with CASS Contemporary Art Gallery in south Tampa, they have curated two new murals by local maestros of the spray can: Ales “Bask” Hostomsky and Chad “Chizzy” Mize.
Bask stays true to his trademark multi-layered applications and textural imagery with his “Thank You Tampa Bay” mural on West Swann Avenue next to Timpanos. Re-appropriating those iconic plastic bags you might get while grabbing take-out Chinese, it’s a fun, bold piece for visitors to snap a picture with.
Chizzy created the “Hyde Park” mural located on South Dakota Avenue between Buddy Brew Coffee and bartaco. Inspired by MC Escher, his tessellating design of interlocking letters “HP” (no, not for HP printers… but I didn’t realize people call Hyde Park that for short) mimics the topography of the city, and is the perfect counterbalance for the brick wall around it.
“When WS Development bought Hyde Park Village in 2013, incorporating art was initiated immediately, mainly through pole banner art from national talents like Deborah Kass and Jessica Craig Martin. Then, in 2015, we decided we wanted to make a bigger impact with art in the Village so we approached CASS to help us discover renowned local and national artists to give the historic Hyde Park Village a modern twist,” WS Development Marketing Director Gabby Soriano says.
Who wouldn’t be all for this idea? Anything that sparks an inspired, “Ooooh!” is better than just staring at dreary walls. Especially when local talents are involved in this project.
“It was very important that we had a good mix of incredibly talented local and national artists that would incorporate world-class art into Hyde Park Village. Initially, we partnered with Tes One and BASK to paint our loading dock doors on Swann Avenue. Then we brought in nationally known Mateu Valesco based out of Brazil to paint our three-story stairwell on S. Dakota Avenue. When we were ready for our third and final loading dock door to be painted, we felt that project belonged to a new local talent, Chad Mize.
“Our desire was to push the boundaries of the retail experience in a beautiful and interesting way that brings the community together, and gives people a place to discover and explore. There is no better way to meet this goal than by giving our visitors the joy of discovering such fantastic, yet very different, artists. Our goal is to continue working with CASS to bring us fresh, new art into the Village,” Soriano says.
The murals are already a hit with visitors, as Soriano has seen many guests posing in front of them. Haven’t been to Hyde Park Village lately? Here’s your new excuse to grab a drink nearby and check out these murals.
