West Philly
West Philadelphia's murals carry the intellectual energy of a neighborhood shaped by two major universities alongside one of the most politically active Black communities in the country. From the corridors near Penn and Drexel to the rowhouse blocks of Cobbs Creek and Kingsessing, the art ranges from academic commissions to grassroots memorials — and the tension between those worlds is part of what makes the neighborhood's visual culture so alive.
Featured Artists
All artists →Karyn Olivier
Philadelphia-based artist and professor whose public art practice addresses memory, race, and public space. "Minds on Fire" at Baltimore and 52nd is a 50-foot portrait wall of West Philly educators — teachers, community librarians, and tutors — rendered in the monumental style usually reserved for politicians and generals, re-centering who gets to be remembered as historically significant.
Wanda Ewing
Cobbs Creek native and longtime Mural Arts collaborator whose work focuses on neighborhood nature — gardens, green corridors, and the small urban ecosystems that make dense city blocks livable. "60th Street Garden" documents the community gardens that emerged on vacant lots after the 2008 foreclosure crisis emptied dozens of West Philly blocks.
Shira Walinsky
Philadelphia artist and filmmaker who created "MOVE" in collaboration with survivors of the May 13, 1985 MOVE bombing, in which police dropped an explosive on a residential West Philadelphia block, killing eleven people including five children and destroying 61 homes. The mural is a memorial, a historical document, and an ongoing community reckoning with one of the most violent acts ever committed by an American city against its own residents.