40 New Murals Color Detroit's Eastern Market

The best works of Murals in the Market were built on Detroit's rich history.

by Beckett Mufson

October 13, 2016, 1:45pm

Mr. Jago x Xenz.

Photo by 1xRun

Murals in the Market is a yearly festival in Detroit that peppers the city center with international street art. This year, 1010, Marka27, Felipe Pantone, Dabls, Paula Schubatis, Dessislava Terzieva, Sydney James, Ben Saginaw, Kevin Lyons, and more added splashes of color to the city's Eastern Market. Throughout 10 days in September, they opened up a trippy tunnel, introduced Native American icons, erected a textile chain-link fence intervention, and wrote "Detroit" many ways all over the urban cityscape.

There were tons of standouts, but some of our favorites included Pat Perry's heavily symbolic auto industry-themed marching band, Dabls' smash-up of mosaics and cave paintings, and a stunning collaboration by Mr. Jago and Xenz that looks like misty mountain lanscape attacked by Fauvists and inhabited by Surrealist monsters.

1xRun, the group that puts on Murals in the Market, reports that thousands of local artists and art appreciators saw the murals being created and participated in an original art exhibition curated by Inner State Gallery (prints available here) throughout the festival. While 1xRun worked with Eastern Market Corporation and Knight Foundation to produce the event, they also support their artists through a mural adoption system, which you can learn more about here. Check out the fruits of their labor in the images below.