One of our greatest rapper art moments of 2012 was the announcement of José Parlá painting a 70-foot mural at the entrance of Barclay's Center in Brooklyn, New York. The mural, titled Diary of Brooklyn, was unveiled last night, revealing an abstract yet intriguing design to welcome visitors in the future.
Of the meaning behind this massive commission, Parlá told the New York Post,
“The painting, Diary of Brooklyn, is a personal document of my experiences living in Brooklyn for almost 20 years...The writing of the diary, however, is written expressionistically illegible in hopes that the painting itself is transformed and received as the personal diary of individual viewers from Brooklyn, or visiting and experiencing the city...The painting is also in homage to the borough's history and includes quotes from the book, Brooklyn Is: Southeast of the Island by classic American writer James Agee.”
In addition to Parlá's mural, there will be artworks at Barclays by Mickalene Thomas (a mural combining photo collage and painting of the Brooklyn cityscape) and OpenEndedGroup (Marc Downie, Shelley Eshkar, and Paul Kaiser). We look forward to these developments in the coming months.