Eleven on 11th Murals: Marcus Muse Curates Oklahoma City Public Art Project By Piper Prolago
Sean Vali’s Peace Peace, Miguel Palomino’s Rose, and Marcus Muse’s For Breonna are featured in the Eleven on 11th installation.
The streets of Oklahoma City are home to nationally recognized public art projects. Here, a diverse array of artists are able to express themselves and their experiences by shaping the aesthetics of the city. One of the city’s newest projects, the Eleven on 11th murals, hones in on the individuality of Oklahoma artists; these eleven panels line 11th street near N Walker Ave in Midtown Oklahoma City. A result of collaboration between Chris Fleming and developing company Midtown Renaissance, Marcus Muse, who created one panel and curated the selected murals, as well as 10 additional artists from throughout the state, the Eleven on 11th murals have become a unique opportunity for Oklahoma creators to realize their own unique visions.
abstractions in Forward Refraction to Alexander Tamahn’s playful and exuberant message to “Normalize luxury for Black Women” in Redefine Luxury. Each of the murals are painted on pre-primed, sign-board-grade plywood inserted into a large, connected frame that lines the 11th street sidewalk. Brought together by Muse, each artist was given the space to cultivate their own design within their allotted panel. Muse described his process of assembling a group through the city of Oklahoma City’s Pre-Qualified Artist Pool and by reaching out to individuals he specifically wanted to work with. Seeking artists who could “display their cultural and ethnic heritage through their art,” Muse assembled a group of creators who reflected the diversity of Oklahoma City.
Eleven on 11th features panels designed with everything from Bryan Boone’s vibrant
A spark of an idea for this project came in summer 2019 in a conversation between
Fleming and Sean Cobbs of Funnel Design Group. Originally conceived as Ten on 11th, the two had the idea to transform the street after redoing the sidewalk on the facing street. “You can either fix it or you can feature it,” Fleming laughed, describing that one side of the street had interesting architecture and landscape while the other, where the murals would ultimately be placed, was blank. Public art reaches out to passersby, inviting an interruption to daily life and moments of contemplation. In these moments, art can surprise you. Although funded through Midtown Renaissance, Fleming and Muse collaborated with the Oklahoma City government throughout the process of implementing these murals. Arts & Cultural Affairs Liaison Robbie Kienzle explained that a public art project like this “reflects who WE (continued to page 20)
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