Kansas City, MO
Kansas City's Crossroads Arts District made First Fridays famous and put the city on the national public art map. From jazz heritage murals at 18th & Vine to the gallery-studded walls of Westport, Kansas City paints with the confidence of a city that knows it has been underestimated. The Crossroads is one of the most photographed outdoor art districts between Chicago and Denver.
Featured Artists
All artists →Mikael Floyd
Kansas City native and jazz history obsessive whose 18th & Vine murals have become the visual anchor of the jazz district's revival. Floyd's Charlie Parker portrait — eight feet of bebop face and saxophone silhouette — was painted in a single weekend on the anniversary of Parker's KC debut. It has since been reproduced on merchandise, posters, and city tourism materials.
Shawna Grothaus
Crossroads mainstay whose large-scale geometric compositions have defined the visual character of the district's most-trafficked walls. Grothaus was among the first generation of artists to set up studios in the Crossroads warehouses; her Baltimore Avenue mural, now in its second decade, remains the backdrop of choice for First Fridays photography.
Deja Brooks
Young Kansas City muralist whose Westport work has quickly earned her a reputation as one of the city's most distinctive new voices. Brooks' night-scene paintings — neon-lit storefronts, late-bus riders, the particular social texture of a KC evening out — carry the observational authority of someone who has spent years watching her city from the outside in.