Sketch for weego, 2018, by Matt Grote and Chuck Tingley
Kolar Design’s Matt Grote along with Chuck Tingley have completed yet ANOTHER fantastic mural in Buffalo, New York – take a look at two of the many articles written about this exciting project below.
THE BUFFALO NEWS
Trio of Murals to Kick Off Buffalo’s Summer of Public Art
“It’s not just magnolias and cherry trees that are finally blossoming in this delayed-onset Buffalo spring.
Public art is blooming, too, and the first bright buds of a summerlong profusion of art are set to emerge this month with the commencement of three high-profile mural projects on Hertel Avenue and the East Side.
As part of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery’s busiest season of public art yet, a team of artists from the local design firm White Bicycle will begin transforming a building at 1260 Hertel Ave. into a community-centric mural. At the same time, longtime friends and artistic collaborators Chuck Tingley and Matthew Grote will fuse their styles on a large wall at 1503 Hertel.
The Polish artist Otecki, known for his graphic pieces melding abstract shapes and traditional figures, will soon arrive in Buffalo to begin a large-scale mural on a building at 617 Fillmore Ave., near Torn Space Theater.
These three murals are teasers to a broader effort by the Albright-Knox public art team and its lead leader, curator Aaron Ott, to pepper Erie County with so many works of painting, sculpture and installation that art becomes an expected part of everyday life.”
“As for the new piece by Tingley and Grote, whose collaboration can be traced back to an important 2010 mural on the side of 515 Main St., the collaboration is more about fusing two completely different artistic approaches to create a unified style.
“What we really tried to do is blend our styles seamlessly together in a way that we’ve never done before,” said Grote, a former Buffalo resident now based in Cincinnati. “We worked back and forth sending sketches and drawing over each other’s work, trying to create something that has an identity of its own that’s hopefully greater than just his work or just my work.”
The scheme they came up with, Grote said, involves a surreal balloon festival and a Rubik’s Cube with three visible sides, replete with symbols and tied up with notions of cultural identity.
“What our mural really speaks to is about how our identities also come from culture,” Grote said.
Originally Published on The Buffalo News
https://buffalonews.com/2018/05/11/trio-of-bold-murals-to-kick-off-buffalos-summer-of-public-art/
BUFFALO RISING
AK, Grote and Tingley Tackle Hertel Mural
“Two of my favorite Buffalo artists have been given some prime time wall space on Hertel Avenue. Once again, Hertel is being given a colorful injection of live, thanks to this new mural project by the Albright-Knox, featuring artists Chuck Tingley and Matt Grote (Ogre). The mural, titled “weego”, is being painted at 1503 Hertel Avenue, on the side of Purrfect Café and Gallery.
While Grote does no currently live in Buffalo (he’s in Cincinnati), the two previously formed a dynamic tag-team painting bond, creating a number of epic murals throughout the city. To this day, they still collaborate on pieces, which are masterful in the way that they come together. Rarely do two artists have such distinct styles, yet meld so seamlessly. They barely need to talk to each other to figure out what’s going on in each other’s heads. The result is always phenomenal.
This particular work is perfect for Hertel, in that it is not only vibrant and whimsical, it’s also very playful, with lots of youthful imagery. Residents living in this family-oriented neighborhood will certainly gravitate towards the imaginative characters that come to life in this marvelous creation.
This project is supported in part by Buffalo City Council Member Joel Feroleto. Additional support for this mural has been provided by Hyatt’s Graphic Supply Company.”
Originally Published on the Buffalo Rising Blog.
