Murals in New York, Michigan and Ohio by Bunnie Reiss (photos courtesy the artist)
This week, artist Bunnie Reiss begins transforming the outside of the San Luis Obispo Museum of Art building in downtown San Luis Obispo.
The American muralist has designed a work of art inspired by the native landscape of California’s Central Coast, weaving together local birds and wildflowers in the bold, fluid visual language for which the Colorado native is known.
“It’s a BIG project, including five walls that wrap completely around the museum,” Reiss recently posted on her Instagram account.
Spanning the museum’s exterior, the piece will celebrate “the natural world through pattern, symbolism, and shared joy” and “bring an exuberant sense of place to SLOMA’s exterior ahead of the museum’s forthcoming expansion,” according to a SLOMA news release announcing the project.
“Bunnie Reiss brings such a generous and joyful spirit to everything she makes, and we couldn’t be more excited to welcome her work onto our building,” according to SLOMA director Leann Standish. “This mural is the latest in SLOMA’s commitment to activating our exterior as a living canvas for the community—a rotating showcase for artists whose work sparks connection and invites people in.”
The mural will be completed on SLOMA’s current building at 1010 Broad Street, and will continue to be visible when the space transitions to an Education Center centered on community partnerships and programs for kids and families.
“It feels especially meaningful as we look ahead to the next chapter for this museum and this building,” Standish added.
The as-yet-unnamed work will feature species such as the western bluebird, California scrub jay, hooded oriole, Anna’s hummingbird, house finch, and orange-crowned warbler alongside native blooms—California poppy, lupine, baby blue eyes, coyote mint, purple owl’s clover, solidago, and California goldfields. The artist does not title her work until its completion.
Reiss has shown extensively in both the United States and around the world, in galleries, alternative spaces, bookstores, abandoned buildings, fields and forests. Her brightly colored folk murals can be found in Los Angeles, Mexico, Italy, Paris, India, Philippines, Detroit, Milwaukee, New York, and San Francisco. She earned an MFA from San Francisco Arts Institute and now lives on a five-acre farm in the Mojave desert.
The new mural, expected to be finished by August 1, replaces “Meter & Time” by world-renowned muralist and street artist MOMO, which for the past two years has been a backdrop for museum openings, community gatherings, wedding portraits and family photos.