Jacksonville, FL
The largest city by area in the contiguous United States has a mural scene that matches its ambition. Riverside's bungalow corridors and Five Points intersection are the traditional center of outdoor art, while Springfield — one of Florida's first historic districts — has seen an explosion of mural commissions as the neighborhood revives. San Marco's Mediterranean-revival storefronts complete the picture of a city using public art to reclaim its identity.
Featured Artists
All artists →Wyland
Wyland's "Whaling Wall" series spans the globe, and his Jacksonville commission is one of the most significant. "St. Johns River" on Riverside's Acosta Bridge approach documents the St. Johns River's remarkable ecology — manatees, Atlantic sturgeon, and wood storks — in luminous underwater hues that glow against the bridge's concrete. The St. Johns is one of the few North American rivers that flows north, a fact Wyland acknowledges by orienting the composition against the current.
Kenny Scharf
New York artist Kenny Scharf, a contemporary of Basquiat and Haring in the East Village scene, paints his signature cast of cartoon-inflected cosmic creatures across building surfaces worldwide. "Five Points Rising" at Jacksonville's Five Points intersection fills a three-story corner building with Scharf's alien characters in conversation with each other — a joyful, cartoon-bright work that has become the unofficial logo of Riverside's arts district.
ROA
ROA's "Springfield Heritage" on Walnut Street takes the Belgian artist's characteristic cross-section format and applies it to the urban wildlife that was here before Jacksonville's Victorian-era development — the gopher tortoise, the bald eagle, the Florida black bear — each rendered in ROA's monochrome anatomical style as if reclaiming the neighborhood's ecological history alongside its architectural preservation.