Artists Brighten City With Murals As They Dream Of Creating An Outdoor Art Gallery

Texas Public Radio | By Jack Morgan

Published May 17, 2019 at 5:41 PM CDT

Shek Vega and Nik Soupe stand in front of their Nick Long mural.

Two artists share a dream: to create the largest outdoor art gallery in Texas. They've already taken huge strides towards making that dream come true.

Shek Vega is one of those artists. His company, "Los Otros Murals," is successful. Their work is wildly popular. It's often underwritten by huge corporations. And he's made his mark all over town. Last year, he created the non-profit San Antonio Street Art Initiative.

"It was a real grassroots kind of thing. We went knocking on doors. We went trying to raise money,” Vega said. “We hit the streets and hit the pavement and got enough capital to get the ball moving."

That money paid 16 San Antonio artists to paint freeway supports under I-35 near the Pearl. This place was a no-man's land, forbidding and artless. But, Vega said, not anymore.

"I can pass by any time of day at any day of the week and watch people taking wedding photos or graduation photos or shooting music videos, and it's just wonderful. They're taking their friends there," he said.

Southtown resident Mark Horvatitch was there recently with his wife and mother-in-law. He said this wasn’t his first visit to this atypical art installation.

Mark Horvatitch with his wife Laura (center) and Jo, his mother-in-law.

"We were driving by when my parents visited a couple of months ago, and we stopped. And now my wife's mom is here, so we took her down as well," he said.

The art on those freeway supports was Phase I.

"With Phase 2 we added 17 new murals to the St. Mary's area," Vega explained. "We try to focus on local talent, of course."

He also worked with artists from Austin, Houston, Dallas, L.A. and Mexico City. Those new murals were completed on March 30 and were concentrated on 13 blocks of St. Mary's and a few side streets.

Vivian Holder owns a building on St. Mary's and French Place, which has half a dozen of those murals. She recalls it all began with a phone call from someone with a name she's never forgotten.

"He definitely had a different kind of name. It was a guy named Nik Soupe," she said.

"Vivian was great help," Soupe said. "She was really happy to work with us."

"And he said, 'would you be willing to give up some of your building exterior on the French side for a mural?'" Holder recalled. "And I said, 'yeah, as long as it's not too controversial, I'm into it. And I might even be into it even if it is controversial. You know, let's look at it.'"

"I'd been eyeing that wall for about 15 years," Soupe said.

Most people see big blank walls, but muralists...they see possibilities. Google Fiber underwrote the mural with only these instructions: convey connectivity. Soupe and Vega thought music conveyed connectivity, and when they found a picture of guitarist Nick Long, they knew he was the one.

"He's actually in a jam," Soupe said, recalling the design. "So he's got his head kind of thrown back a little bit. He's holding his guitar and you could just picture his hand ... just like strummed through a chord."

The mural too seemed to strike a chord.