Seven artists, seven ways of reading a city built on brick and fog. Follow the links through to see where each of them paints when the gallery lights are off.
Erica Hagler
Erica Hagler has spent the past decade putting her blend of street and pop art on the walls of Boston's busiest bars and restaurants, from Lolita to Mariel, while taking on clients as varied as CRISPR, General Electric, and Reebok. Her work has landed in the Boston Globe, Boston Magazine, and Times Square.
blindfoxart.com ↗
Boston, MA
Sophy Tuttle paints nature into the city at mural scale. Her work keeps returning to one question: what changes if people stop sitting at the top of the hierarchy? Each piece works as an opening line for a bigger conversation about ecology, extinction, and what we owe the species around us.
sophytuttle.com ↗
Abington, MA
A former Navy engineer turned full-time painter, Adam O'Day renders Boston in a modern mix of expressionism and impressionism with a street-art edge. His cityscape "Transit" won the city's Portrait of a City competition, and his work has hung everywhere from TD Garden to Provincetown.
adamjoday.com ↗
East Boston, MA
Born in Cali, Colombia and based in East Boston, Felipe Ortiz fuses the memory of his native country with the city he's adopted, in a style he calls "Explosive Nature." His murals, migratory birds, fish, wet-on-wet color, cover walls from Northeastern to the Seaport itself.
felipeortiz.com ↗
Lawrence, MA
Markus Sebastiano layers spray paint, acrylic, resin, and digital print into dense, textured mixed-media work, and runs his own gallery, Blochaus, out of Newburyport. His pieces have gone into homes, hotels, and brand collaborations with the likes of Coca-Cola and Lululemon.
markussebastiano.com ↗
Dave O'Connor — Milton, MA
Dave "Croc" O'Connor found graffiti in 2013 and never really put the can down. His murals, built on straight-up spray technique, range from portraiture to pop culture, including "Rock City," his Steven Tyler piece a block from where Aerosmith used to live in Allston.
crocpaints.com ↗
Cambridge, MA
Percy Fortini-Wright started writing graffiti in the late '90s and carried that hand into a fine art practice built on cityscapes, portraits, and his signature "nightscapes,” wet streets and dramatic reflections that put the viewer in the driver's seat. His murals anchor Kendall Square and the Underground at Ink Block.
percyfortiniwright.com ↗