After recent bummer news posts about Austin street art, it’s nice to hear about SprATX, a positive collective of artists and muralists, as reported by Austin blogger Kit O’Connell. SprATX (pronounced “spray tex”) describes itself as “individual artists who unite as a whole to perform live street art exhibitions, pop up galleries, and custom mural painting.” A couple of weeks ago, SprATX officially opened a gallery/store/office in East Austin.
Find the location. Find the art. It’s yours!
It also oversees a community art project known as #atxfreeartfriday, which connects artists with art lovers, via Instagram and, in the process, gets everybody out of the house. Every Friday, local artists create and hide art out in the community for people to discover; clues are posted on Instagram (@SpraTX). All artwork found is free for the taking with one request:
Leave an “I found it” comment on the artist’s Instagram post, and upload a photo of the art to your own Instagram with the hashtag #atxfreeartfriday. Please thank the artist in your post by tagging them!
“Once you find a piece, you’ll know that artist forever,” SprATX collective member Mouf told O’Connell. “And you’ll talk about it with your friends.” It sounds like brilliant marketing for SprATX and its artists, but Mouf was quick to stress that #ATXFreeArtFriday is open to any artist at any skill level (instructions here).
