‘Meeting of Styles’ brought muralists together en masse on the Southeast Side

One of the stretches of street art created in September by artists gathering for the “Meeting of Styles” event on the Southeast Side. | Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

Graffiti on railroad viaducts is nothing new in Chicago. But it’s no every-day occurrence when dozens of graffiti artists get together to all work on train underpasses.

That’s what happened on Ewing Avenue north of Indianapolis Avenue and nearby on the Southeast Side this past fall for the latest installment of a street art event dubbed “Meeting of Styles.”

The 37-year-old South Chicago artist who goes by dTel organized the get-together of artists, which brought together locals as well as people from out of state.

“Everybody kind of does their own thing,” he says. “It was three viaducts total.”

The result: numerous murals and graffiti art creations brightening normally dank concrete.

“It’s a yearly thing,” says Tusk, 30, a Southeast Side artist who painted at the site. “I believe the first event was somewhere in Europe, the origins. Since I’ve been painting, I’ve only missed one or two.

“It’s a culmination right before it gets cold, the big last hurrah before it gets too cold for us to really paint murals.”

Among those taking part, according to dTel, were the artists who go by King157, komf, Lurk, Chucho, KuazeOne, GAPE ONE, MATR, Knockenofame, EKTA and Uprizn.

Here’s a sampling of the art they created.

Click on the map below for a selection of Chicago-area murals