Global street artists make splash in downtown Holyoke

HOLYOKE — As trees cast shadows on a teal shipping container at Armour Yard in downtown, mural artist Maxx Bagnasco worked to the sounds of cars whirring past, curious spectators and a drone flying above.

Bagnasco has painted all over the world: he’s worked in his native Buenos Aires, New York, Albania, Italy, Puerto Rico, Miami and more. He’s shared art on normal-sized canvases on his social media, as well as the murals he’s painted on massive multistory buildings. But on this summer morning earlier this week, he was on the corner of Race and Main streets in Holyoke painting a mural of Puerto Rican music icons Héctor Lavoe and Bad Bunny. 

Bagnasco and three other street artists — Cristhian Saravia, known as Golden 305, of Venezuela, Ruben Ubiera of the Dominican Republic and Octavio Fragueiro of Argentina — have been working on art pieces for Beyond Walls, a nonprofit supporting community art, education and local economies in 14 “gateway cities” in Massachusetts. Their recent work celebrates Holyoke’s heritage as the city with the largest per capita population of Puerto Ricans outside of the island. 

“The site hugs what is to be shortly … only the second Puerto Rican art and culture district in the country,” Al Wilson, founder and executive director at Beyond Walls, said while sitting at The Bend, a sculpture that doubles as seating, a blue tumbler with coffee in hand. 

Working with Holyoke’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, Beyond Walls has turned an area filled with broken asphalt into a public park in downtown Holyoke. The mural painting kicked off with a community celebration on Sunday at Armour Yard, and this year’s art installations are on shipping containers ranging from 10 to 40 feet in length.

This marks the fourth straight year that Beyond Walls has partnered with Holyoke to bring large-scale public art to the community, and the nonprofit pays for the murals, artists’ time and materials.

The new murals join the existing collection of art, and Wilson says Beyond Walls hopes to curate more artwork and host more events for the community, such as the ones previously held with food trucks, music and live painting. 

“The power of public art and street art is that there’s no barrier of entry. You don’t need to pay to see or experience the art; you get to meet the art where you are,” Wilson said, adding that unlike at a museum, there are no expectations to stay quiet or stand in front of an art piece for a certain amount of time. 

He describes the use of the space as “activation,” or bringing diverse groups of people together to experience something. As a part of a three-year plan for transforming Armour Yard into a community space, Beyond Walls will seek community feedback in the next year to inform the amenities on-site for future music events, plays, movie nights, celebrations of art and more.

“This is a site for everyone,” Wilson said. “It’s ideally so active and so loved that it can become a permanent feature of the city.”

Next to the mural he was painting, Bagnasco set down his materials for a brief interview. 

The Argentinian has been drawing all of his life and is happy to have been invited to paint in Holyoke. Creating portraits in black and white, he plans to add splashes of color with the Puerto Rican flag in the background of his mural. This is his second project with Beyond Walls, the first one being in Lynn. 

“That’s my life. Here’s my passion,” he said, glancing at his art. When he works, music plays on a speaker next to him and he zeroes in on his work, stepping back every once in a while to appraise the larger picture. 

Bagnasco has had to adapt to the demands of the site, especially the trees casting shadows on his portraits, which he’s painting in black and white. 

According to Cristhian Saravia, a fellow street artist who helps Beyond Walls with production and events, adaptation is the hallmark of a great street artist. 

“It’s not easy,” he said. “You’re fighting the elements … you’re fighting the situation that you are in. So for those that do it, like me and my colleagues, you really, really need to be committed. To do a mural, you need to work so hard, and you have to pass so many problems in order for the art to be there.” 

As someone who has loved and created art since he was a kid, Saravia has supported Beyond Walls for the last nine years. 

“[Holyoke is] becoming known as this kind of in its own right, mecca of street art. It has got some of the world’s best street artists who traveled to put up pieces in, condensed in 20 blocks, which is extremely rare,” said Saravia, who says that street art is special because of its impermanence. 

“It’s meant to be seen during the period that it was made,” he said. “So it keeps it relevant, it keeps it modern, but also has a very powerful effect on communities.” 

Currently, 37 cities have applied for Beyond Walls to do work in their communities next year. Holyoke remains near and dear to both Saravia and Wilson and will be on the lineup for next year. 

What makes street art special is the “automatic impact” one has on the community, according to Saravia. 

“It makes you feel very special, you know, and that you always want to do something positive. So your message reaches thousands of people instantly. It’s pretty special for an artist,” he said.