ORLANDO | Sam Flax will bring together more than a dozen artists for its one-day mural event to refresh the art on its and surrounding walls for The Sam Flax Wall Project Feb. 26.
This year marks the fifth time for this event, which is held every 2-3 years, and brings 14 local artists together to update the murals on the outdoor walls of Sam Flax while also hosting a block party to watch the artists work.
“These are some of the best muralists in the city, if not the entire southeast,” says Jon KenKnight, Sam Flax’s general manager. “Right now they are whitewashing the existing murals, which is really sad for all of us, but we are going to get some new fresh works which is really exciting.”
This year’s event will see seven returning artists and seven new ones working on the murals. For the returning muralists, KenKnight says he personally invited them back. For the new artists, each were picked by the Sam Flax staff based on submitted past works as well as the intended design for their mural.
“Our staff have all been in Orlando for a long time and we have a lot of working artists, a lot of relationships built up with the artistic community and the store,” KenKnight says, “so I feel that they make really good curators of the walls and I encourage them to express their opinions.”
Among the muralists for this year’s the event, well-known artist Boy Kong will be tasked with painting a 45-foot-long mural during the course of the day. KenKnight also says that they enlisted the assistance of CityArts in selecting one of the muralists.
“Barbara Hartley [of CityArts] worked on their own call to artists for space on our wall,” says KenKnight. “CityArts is such an anchor for the arts community that I wanted to have them involved and Barbara said absolutely. Peterson [Guerrier] happens to be their artist in residence and he is going to be doing a wall.”
The artists joining Kong and Guerrier are Andrew Spear, Chris McAlister, Christian Stanley, Dolla $hort, Iva Pittman, Naomi Haverland, Olivia Stafne, Robbie Lee, Samantha Shumaker, Skip, Sumner Mormeneo and Wie, each of which will have a section to paint their mural on either on the Sam Flax building or on the wall of the building across Altaloma Ave.
“It’s a big wall of Plus Skateshop that faces our front parking lot,” KenKnight says. “We’ll have two murals on it plus Boy Kong’s mural on the far side.”
During the event, you will be able to pick up a copy of Sam Flax’s free, mini ‘zine that will feature each of the participating artists as well as images of their intended mural designs.
“You can walk around and check out each of the walls and look at your ‘zine and see what is going on,” KenKnight says. “It’s a true spectator’s event.”
The free, all-day event will also include food trucks and a beer garden hosted at Shin Jung Restaurant and music by DJ Nigel, as well as a skateboard painting station with Plus Skateshop, custom T-shirts from Hittn’ Skins, raffle prizes, interactive art stations where you can give your own art skills a try on a free mini canvas you can take home, in-store specials and more.
“To have the community come out and support these local artists means a lot to them and it means a lot to us,” KenKnight says. “We feel that art matters. When we say that, we feel that art and art events can stand on their own. Art in of itself is an event. Because of the pandemic, I had to cancel the last one of these and push it back. Now for people to be able to safely come together outside and watch the walls go down is just going to a lot of fun, and it makes people feel good to watch someone create something awesome.”
The Sam Flax Wall Project will be Feb. 26 from 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at Sam Flax, located at 1800 E. Colonial Dr. For more information, go to SamFlaxOrlando.com.
