STREET ART IN ARUBA: THE SAN NICOLAS MURALS
BY TONY GENGARELLY Mural of Prikichi by Garrick Marchena.
ruba, a small island nestled near However, over the past fi ve years, on the streets of Bogota. Bolivar asked the northern coast of Argentina Aruba has experienced an art revival himself: “Why not here, on Aruba?” in the southern Caribbean, has that is beginning to nourish the creative The following year Bolivar established A a diverse population of 116,000 roots of its people. The epicenter of this the art gallery ArtisA (“Art is Aruba”) in people from many different backgrounds, development is the southeastern city San Nicolas and, with the help of his mostly European and of San Nicolas, a once mother Diana Croes, organized the fi rst Latin American. Part prosperous industrial Aruban Art Fair in the city, featuring 100 of the Kingdom of center that fell on hard international and local artists. the Netherlands, the times beginning in 1985 The keystone of that art fair in San “happy island” is host with the closing of a Nicolas involved an ambitious plan to thousands of tourists major oil refi nery. Another to economically revitalize the former who enjoy year-round closing in 2009 left the city industrial center with street art. With sunshine, beautiful without an income base the support of the Ministries of Culture beaches and outdoor and with deserted streets and Tourism and the island’s banking playgrounds. Buried and dilapidated buildings. community, Bolivar commissioned street Tom di Maria with Aboriginal artist painting. under chic resorts, malls, In 2015 a local murals from a number of renowned casinos and high-rise art entrepreneur, international artists, whose amazing hotels, much of the Tito Bolivar, visited work infused a visual boost into the city’s local art expression Aruba Art Fair organiser neighboring Colombia depressed landscape. He commandeered has been confi ned to Tito Bolivar and his mother where he encountered vacant buildings to house temporary entertainment. and co-organiser Diana Croes some mind-bending art galleries for local, international,
22 Folk Art Messenger SUMMER | FALL 2020 beginning and established artists who In a recent article describing the art into a magnificent butterfly. Here, the displayed a variety of art work and crafts renaissance in San Nicolas, one visitor metaphorical connection to the natural at the fair. noted: “As you walk around, the streets world coincides with Lopez’s murals What began as an effort to lift the are silent, but the walls are loud, filled in Puento Alto that depict the living appearance of a destitute urban space with bright colored murals.” Many landscape overflowing with native flora inspired an art revival that has now extraordinary examples of street art and fauna. spread well beyond San Nicolas to fuel created by contemporary mural masters, an emerging local culture, both to the such as Guache, Isadora Paz Lopez, WD, EACH YEAR THE MURALS MULTIPLY AND LEAVE north and south. Garrick Marchena, and Bond TruLuv, can The Portuguese muralist Bordalo be seen today. THEIR LASTING MARK ON WHAT HAS BECOME II exemplifies much of the tone and Among the many new ventures is the THE ART CAPITAL OF ARUBA. VIBRANT STREET commitment that has attended the San gift shop Cosecha (meaning “harvest”), ART, MUSEUMS, ART EMPORIUMS, HEALTH Nicolas art revival. An avid naturalist, and its shelves are stocked with a harvest Bordalo II began as a daring graffiti artist of local art and crafts from all over the FOOD RESTAURANTSMANY WITH AN in his youth and has combined the skills island. Several of the high-quality craft ECOLOGICAL TRAJECTORY THAT EMBRACES he learned then with an environmental, items (e.g., necklaces, earrings) are preservationist theme. His assemblages fashioned from recycled materials, such as THE PRESERVATION OF LAND AND LOCAL of “Big Trash Animals” have become bottle caps and discarded jewelry. The San CULTURESTAND IN MARKED CONTRAST TO famous worldwide. In a recent interview Nicolas shop has a companion Cosecha in he said: “Big Trash Animals is a series the northern city of Orangestad. The two THE MONUMENTAL TOURISM AND GLITTER THAT of artworks that aims to draw attention outlets, supported by the Aruba C.R.A.F.T. CROWDS THE COASTAL BEACHES. to a current problem that . . . involves Foundation, have helped promote and dis- tribute the creative artistry of the island In a covered courtyard, a New Age café to a broader and featuring Aruban specialties employs increasingly appre- benches decorated with beautifully ciative audience. articulated mosaics that punctuate the The Cosecha sidewalks and traffic islands throughout doorway is framed the city. Created by various organizations with the head (schools and culturally conscious groups and beak of a red on the island), the benches picture birds, Flamingo whose flowers, insects and animals from the painted body indigenous landscape. wraps around the Nearby are formerly abandoned front and side of buildings that now display a number the store. Across of exceptional murals that embrace the the street the walls architecture — incorporating into their Photographs courtesy of Tony Gengarelly. Tony courtesy of Photographs boast colorfully design the open doors and protruding A Big Trash Animal by Bordalo II. adorned, larger-than-life carnival figures window frames, pipes and drain spouts created by the Colombian artist Guache and even an occasional air conditioning waste production, materials that are not (“warrior” in the native Muisca) and by unit hanging on the wall. reused, pollution and its effect on the Isadora Paz Lopez from Chile. One of the most ingenious and planet. The idea is to depict nature itself, The stunning figure of a carnival startling achievements is a multi-story in this case animals, out of materials dancer by Isadora Paz Lopez flanks depiction of a turquoise iguana by the that are responsible for its destruction.” Guache’s monumental representations muralist known as WD (“Wild Drawing”). For the 2016 Art Fair, Bordalo II with brilliant contrasting colors achieved The mural covers two sides of a building sculpted a mural of the Aruban iguana by her extraordinary mosaic technique while incorporating window frames (“yuwana”) from scrap metal and recycled acclaimed worldwide. Lopez, a ceramic and other architectural features for the objects gathered from all over the island artist and educator, developed her mosaic giant reptile to sit and lean on. Born and “to stress the critical conditions of a local skills as the Artist Director of several raised on Bali, Indonesia, WD has painted species. . . still hunted today.” urban beautification and edification murals in Asia, Europe and America. Now Each year the murals multiply and projects in her native Chile. Working based in Athens, Greece, WD has aided leave their lasting mark on what has with teams of artists and craftsmen she the restoration of an ordinary building on become the art capital of Aruba. Vibrant accomplished miles of mosaic patterned a San Nicolas side street by giving it depth street art, museums, art emporiums, walls featuring beautiful landscapes and dimension as well as providing yet health food restaurants – many with for the metro stations of Puento Alto, a another celebration for a native species. an ecological trajectory that embraces contiguous suburb of Santiago. On the corner opposite WD’s iguana, the preservation of land and local In San Nicolas, Lopez’s team shows Garrick Marchena, from the neighboring culture — stand in marked contrast to off their skillful applications of tesserae island of Curacao, has also worked the monumental tourism and glitter to celebrate a local carnival event with an image into a building’s façade. His that crowds the coastal beaches. the metamorphosis of a lovely woman rendition of a Prikichi — the Aruba
Folk Art Messenger SUMMER | FALL 2020 23 National Bird – hugs the wall while A turquoise iguana by the muralist Bond TruLuv from Germany captures negotiating several intruding pipes and known as WD (“Wild Drawing”). a Dolphin leaping through the waves. vents. The Prikichi is shown perched on a painted tree as though it has just landed there. Known for his trompe l’oeil (fool the eye) depictions, Marchena incorporates an open veranda balcony into the mural thus reinforcing his illusion. The artist completes the work with an admonition by photographer Damilice Mansur inscribed with elaborate script to the left of the mural: “He who plants a tree plants life, plants faith, plants shelter, plants peace, plants hope for future generations.” Finally, we note a mural by Bond TruLuv who captures a dolphin at the apex of its leap from the waters that surround the island. Here is a representation of the wilderness side of Aruba, where the ocean’s surf meets a desert landscape. It is also where Arikok National Park greets the visitor eager to explore its aboriginal cave drawings – the country’s first murals. With his aesthetic
24 Folk Art Messenger SUMMER | FALL 2020 sophistication and extraordinary skill, the German artist has captured a perfect moment in nature that represents an expanding mural project and the concurrent emergence of indigenous subject matter in the arts. WHAT BEGAN AS AN EFFORT TO LIFT THE APPEARANCE OF A DESTITUTE URBAN SPACE INSPIRED AN ART REVIVAL THAT HAS NOW SPREAD WELL BEYOND SAN NICOLAS TO FUEL AN EMERGING LOCAL CULTURE, BOTH TO THE NORTH AND SOUTH.
Along with the murals and other street art in San Nicolas, Tito Bolivar’s larger vision for Aruban art and culture is still unfolding. Historian Lindsay Bates (in his Master’s thesis: “Bombing, Tagging, Writing: An Analysis of the Significance of Grafitti and Street Art,” Street Art in San Nicholas, Aruba, by Guache from Colombia 2014) identifies such evolution as “creative place-making” — “an initiative that utilizes art-based activities as a means of urban revitalization,” which uncovers the “heritage of place” and inspires “the collaboration of diversified people working toward a creative end goal.”
TONY GENGARELLY is Professor Emeritus of Fine Arts at Massachusetts College of Aruban Welcome Liberal Arts and director of the Jessica in San Nicolas Park Project at MCLA. For comments and questions, please contact him at: [email protected]
Sources: —Bates, Lindsay. Bombing, Tagging, Writing: An Analysis of the Significance of Graffiti and Street Art. Masters Thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2014. — Begue, Michelle. “Colombian graffiti artist ‘Guahce’ tells story of Latin America.” — Blocal, Guillia. “Street Art in Aruba.” King’s Spray, 2019. — ”Bordalo II: The Man Behind the Trash Animals” — Britell, Alexander. “Exploring San Nicolas, Aruba’s Next Cultural Capital.” — Cowper, Heather. “Street Art in Aruba: The Unexpected Caribbean,” Reporter, 2017 — Erasmus, Liliana. “Cosecha: Aruba’s Finest Art and Craft Gallery,” 2017. — Kester, Jennifer. “See the Street Art Capital of the Caribbean.” — Pipgras, Nancie Mills. “The Art of Community Transformation: Monumental Mosaic Murals in Chile,” Andamento, 2014.
Street Art in San Nicholas, Aruba
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