Near West Side alley was transformed into a drive-thru gallery with 15 new murals

This mural, by Uptown artist Rodney “Hotrod” Duran, is one of 15 murals painted on garage doors in a single block on the Near West Side. Duran says he’s “really into astronomy and space and time” and was trying to get across that, if everyone looked toward Jupiter’s moon Callisto, we could all be “feeling the same beauty.” | Robert Herguth / Sun-Times

When new garages went up in the 2500 block of West Polk Street, it wasn’t long till they were covered with painted words and images.

But not by taggers defacing them with graffiti. Instead, this was the work of artists hired by the developers of 15 new homes to cover the garage doors with an array of colorful and intricate murals.

They were installed this past fall and feature everything from cartoonish figures and giant grasshoppers to a cosmic scene of planets and streaky “energy.”

And with another 15 homes planned for the 2500 block of West Lexington Avenue — which will share the same east-west alley — another 15 murals are slated to go up.

“To the best of my knowledge, it’s a first-of-a-kind” project, says Sara Dulkin, owner of the Chicago Truborn gallery that was hired by the developers, Home&, to curate the effort.

Sara Dulkin of the Chicago Truborn gallery, which oversaw the alley mural project.

“There will be 30 homes, so there will be 30 murals,” Dulkin says. “Alleys are a very Chicago thing. New York doesn’t have them. We have power lines and water towers and alleys. So, to beautify that” the developers were looking for “fun and a colorful part of a home that’d attract people.”

A view down the alley of the 2500 block of West Polk Street, where murals were painted on all of the garage doors of new homes.

It’s touted as “Chicago’s most Instagrammable alley.”

The development is on the former site of William H. King Elementary School, which was shut down during Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s tenure — part of his controversial policy that saw the permanent closing of dozens of Chicago Public Schools buildings that were deemed “underutilized.”

“Normally, you come into an alley, and all the garages are the same, all the doors,” says developer Alex Nakonechny, who says his company plans to donate $5,000 to CPS for each home sold. “This way, people have something different. The idea is to dress up the alley.”

“We’re supposed to give more love to ourselves and our community,” says Uptown artist Bojana Illic, who painted this garage mural and goes professionally by the moniker BOJITT. “This year, we need to make sure we are good and that the community is good so we can push forward.”

Brookfield artist Natalie Shugailo, who goes professionally by the name (sub)urban warrior, says this mural “is about finding your pack, your tribe. It’s about community and family, the ones we’re born into and the ones we choose, both being important and meaningful. The moon is not yet full, but the pack is strong and together, waiting to all sing in harmony to the next full moon. I’ve always identified with both the lone and pack mentality of wolves and use them often in my art.”

Albany Park artist Anthony Lewellen says this mural was “kind of a color study for me” with “not too much meaning” behind the imagery. “Just a cool opportunity to paint these garage doors, I just had fun with it, I guess you could call it a freestyle.”

This mural was done by Chicago artist Lisa Gray.

Logan Square artist Jarema Khrushch, whose professional name is Novorozhkin, says this mural features “a lucky cat. My message is: Just make these gray times a little bit more happy — more happiness, more peaceful, more love.”

Artist Kevin Demski, who lives near Midway Airport and has a studio in the Pilsen area, says the female character with a spray can is “spreading the heart, so spreading the love. She seemed like a good fit for this year to show some positivity.”

Rogers Park artist Nicolas Fonte says the images in this mural are a “reference to the clouds in the city, with the classic city structures kind of embedded in them. It’s kind of a mixture of clouds you’d see in the sky with water towers and phone poles and electric lines.”

Humboldt Park artist Antonio Beniquez, who goes by AntBen, did this mural in a style that blends graffiti and calligraphy. The words in the painting include lyrics from a Pearl Jam song — “I know some day you’ll have a beautiful life” — and from Johnny Cash.

This mural was done by the Avondale artist who goes by Stuk.One, who says it’s “somewhat improvised, but the general idea was kind of love trumping the regular mundane patterns of life. The technicolor flowy stuff is kind of the love vibes shooting out from the heart.”

Bucktown artist Lauren Asta says of her imagery: “I wanted it to be some friendly faces welcoming you home, just something fun.”

North Center artist Brian Keller, who goes by Brain Killer, says he was aiming for “a positive approach and something that appealed to a lot of different people, also that it was homeowner-friendly because a lot of the stuff I typically do leans toward the more cartoony side or horror-driven or sci-fi-driven. So I wanted to make it a little more contemporary and fun.”

This mural was done by artist Blake Jones.

The Beverly artist who goes by Revise CMW says: “I just kind of base all my work on being at the moment. I just kind of show up to a wall or a mural and kind of attack it that way.”

Roscoe Village artist Mitch Reardon says of this mural: “I’ve always been interested in creating things that don’t exist in the world.”

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