BLINK, Twice Public art gets a Cincinnati Glow Up

Jeks, Photo by Halopigg

By SHANA NYS DAMBROT December 3, 2024

BLINK Cincinnati is more than a four-day light and projection art festival that happens every other October. It’s also more than a permanent, city-supported program for adding a regular influx of world-class permanent murals to its growing public street art sector. In many ways, it’s an exemplary vision for what the future of public art, urban renewal, and civic activation can be. If there’s one problem it’s that it was too full of amazing experiences, such that even the most intrepid festival-goer risked overstimulation. But too much of a good thing is a great problem to have, and there’s a reason they take four nights for the projections-based part of the event—to give people a chance to visit all the several involved neighborhoods, from historic Over the Rhine, to downtown’s civic core, and even over the river into Kentucky.

In a way the days and nights leading up to the festival itself were some of the most interesting—at least from a street art aficionado point of view—since all the artists flocked to town and spread out, pretty much living at their sites 24/7 until work was completed. It was all extremely impressive both the theatrical quality of big crews getting involved, and maybe even more so when you consider artists like Lauren YS and Bunnie Reiss who rocked their whole works solo and freehand. And if you knew where to go, you’d be likely to find gatherings of artists at area watering holes and drink & draw style event hubs. The energy was palpable in both bustling parts of town as well as some that could use the love, and the range of architectural platforms was just as eclectic.

Wolfdog, Photo by Halopigg

Among the further cohort of new large-scale works were also arresting pieces by figures like Miss Birdy, ASTRO, Hoxxoh, and the extraordinary 3-D optical illusionist Leon Keer. California-based muralist Matt Gondek’s vivacious and ambitious piece held its space for post-Pop’s edgy cartoonish surrealism, while Gee Horton X Chroma Projects presented their photographic, poetic portrait-based works across three consecutive walls in an unfolding narrative of time and growth. Bunnie Reiss channels a deceptively wholesome folk art aesthetic in a monumental, subversively joyful, nostalgic, obsessive ode to the handmade and exploded tradition. Lauren YS and her projection-mapping collaborators mesmerize with a queer update to ancestral tradition and a gentle, witchy magic. GraffMapping projecting onto an existing mural in a way that gives every inner Star Wars kid a scalp-tingling thrill ride.

Champion of new media public art and an elevated digital visionary, UK-based Vince Fraser’s new video work was a cinematic fever dream that unfurled with theatricality as it activated the history of Cincinnati itself, its ambition to be a great American city, its increasing diversity of industry and citizenry, its ups and downs and finally this soaring moment of optimism and vision. A crowning achievement on every level, which further hosted video by a number of other projectionists, each of whom played with and transformed the edifice and its enhancements with their unique personalities. In fact the mind-blowing variety of subject and style across the city and sometimes on shared walls themselves, was another compelling element of the kaleidoscopic energy of what BLINK brought to the city’s walls.

 1972 Mural by Krody, Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot

Two million people came through in 2022 and based on what I saw in October, that’s on track to be a repeat. As Executive Director Justin Brookhart explains, “this year a community like no other turned out to enjoy a massive public art celebration on the streets of Cincinnati." This year, in collaboration with BLINK, the CODAsummit chose Cincinnati as their 2024 meeting site. Its global conference is focused on how creatives are turning to the fusion of art and technology to enhance environmental experiences—and clearly they too see BLINK as a case study.

Lauren YS,  Photo by Halopigg

Among the more than 80 painters and interdisciplinary artists, muralists like Hoxxoh, Birdseedanthony, Miss Birdy, Matt Gondek, Wolfdog, JEKS, Pipsqueak was here!!!, and Javarri Lewis all created new large-scale works for this year’s festival—not covering up the last edition’s which are all still in place—along with organic work that has sprung up in the hot spots they create in several neighborhoods on both sides of the river. Not all of those were activated by projections and lasers this year; some of the extant murals were newly engaged with the light shows this time; many of this year’s new paintings will get the projection mapping treatment during future editions. 

2024’s Projection Artists included: Wendy Yu, Kyle Eli Ebersole, NorthHouse Creative, Spotted Yeti Media, SnellBeast, Miami University Department of Emerging Technology in Business and Design, AV EXTENDED, Makoto Inoue, mammasONica studio, Lightborne, DecideKit, Philipp Frank, Studio Betty Mü, MasonThompson, Brandon Kraemer, Hyojung Seo, Hotaru Visual Guerrilla, Susan Kosti, George Berlin, Mural ReMix, Maxin10sity, Hambone Collective, Anastasia Isachsen, Sean Van Praag, Filip Roca, Tansy Xiao, X Enterprises International, Chaske Haverkos, and Scott Budd.

For more information about BLINK, visit: BLINKcincinnati.com  WM

More images below:

Lauren YS, Photo by Halopigg

Lauren YS with illuminations. Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot

Lauren YS with illuminations. Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot

Vince Fraser, Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot

Lauren YS and Bunnie Reiss in front of Leon Keer's mural, Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot

Vince Fraser, Photo by Shana Nys Dambrot

Chroma Projects X Gee Horton, Photo by Halopigg