The Miami-based muralist works to prevent crime and gun violence by getting young people involved in street art.
Muralist Kyle Holbrook got into street art by accident. While attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh, he fathered a child at just 19 years old and found himself in need of a reliable income. While painting caricatures at parties to make ends meet, Holbrook was commissioned to create a mural by a gentleman who went by the name ‘wolf’ in Little Italy, who happened to be under house arrest at the time. ‘Wolf’ requested a mural that looked like the beach, and Holbrook obliged. Soon, Holbrook had been commissioned by a myriad of Wolf’s social circle and built up a reputation for himself in his local community. He soon found himself collaborating with the likes of George Gist, whom he had long admired, and Chris Savido on the ‘Martin Luther King Mural.’ One day, he looked up and saw a sea of teenagers painting with him, and came to terms with kind of impact art could have on a community, particularly one rife with crime and gun violence.
Fast forward to today, and Holbrook is a renowned street artist based out of Miami who has painted murals on the walls of 40 countries internationally, immortalized the likes of George Flloyd through his painting, and started the Moving Lives of Kids Community Mural Project, which encourages young people from disenfranchised communities to embrace the arts. Holbrook’s latest project was a mural in Miami 50 foot high, 25 foot wide mural in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood, featuring trailblazers Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou, and the late fashion prodigy Virgil Abloh.
Below, Holbrook opens up about his creative process, how his murals differ from traditional artworks, and how he adopts the Broken Window Theory to better neighborhoods worldwide.
LZ: What’s your creative process when creating murals?
KH: My creative process is organic; it depends on the circumstances and the participants. I like the design to evolve and incorporate input from the local community. I always try to have a community paint day that involves public participation. My process changes depending on the project—if it’s very publicly visible, or if it’s on a side street, or if it’s inside a private building….all those factors come into it.
LZ: How do you feel your murals differ from traditional artworks?
KH: The real difference to painting on traditional canvases is the audience. Public art Murals are not like TV or social media or the Internet, where you can turn it off and change the channel— you’re going to see it whether you like it or not. The opportunity for it to be impactful and richer and reach a large audience is bigger than with traditional canvases.
LZ: What inspired you to add Virgil Abloh to your mural?
KH: Initially, it was the timing, with Art Basel coming up a week after his tragic death. At the time, I was prepping the wall and putting the final sketch together. Over the past few years, I’ve seen how Virgil’s work has influenced culture. His work transcended fashion to music, sports, film. In my lifetime, I see him as the only visual artist to affect society in such a way. I thought it was fitting to paint him with other visionaries that similarly influenced the world, like Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King Jr, James Baldwin, and August Wilson. I’ve always been a fan of Virgil’s work; his spacing, use of arrow patterns, and generally just inspired by his work, life, and success–not only as an artist but also as a Black artist. My initial intent in pursuing art in college was to further my fashion line. It was my dream to be a fashion designer at the time. In some ways, my murals’ success has created complacency. Now that my daughter has graduated from Columbia University and is in her gap year of medical school, I’m inspired by Virgil’s life and his death, as the realization of the fragility of life.
LZ: What trailblazing figures do you resonate with most, and who do you hope to commemorate in the future?
KH: Many trailblazing figures resonate with me, from Huey Newton to Howard Hughes and Steve Jobs. I’ve been a fan of John Biggers murals since high school. I’d like to do something commemorating his style one day. I think the younger generation doesn’t realize how many of 2Pac’s lyrics were intellectual and relevant today—I’d like to commemorate those as well.
LZ: Why do you write, and have others write, messages under your murals?
KH: I think it’s important to write messages layered in the underpainting of my murals because, like in life, issues are more complicated than just one answer for one image. I like when people see the mural from far away and then come up close and see some of the messages in the underpainting, many of them written by fellow community members. It makes it more powerful to have several voices in one mural.
LZ: What made you want to start your Moving Lives of Kids Community Mural Project?
KH: I saw a way to impact, inspire, educate, and beautify communities as a whole—especially regarding young people who are our future.
LZ: How has MLK Mural helped your local Miami community and other cities alike?
KH: MLK Mural creates destinations in underserved communities that instill pride in the neighborhood and, for passersby, a positive view of the community. Many of the murals painted in blighted areas following the broken window theory have led to areas less conducive to criminal activity. I have seen cities add more lighting, clean up garbage, and plant flowers and trees because my mural drew attention to the need for beautification. I like to think that the project has enhanced the quality of life in inspiring many young people to pursue careers in different genres of art, especially as I’ve employed thousands of youth over the last 20 years.
LZ: How does the creative process of MLK projects differ from your personal murals?
KH: It’s much more in-depth. We have a patented curriculum made up of a 25 day, five-week process that relates future careers in the arts to each step of creating a mural. It’s different, as the MLK murals are everyone’s mural. We often have sections where people do their own “mural within the mural,” which encompasses several different viewpoints on the same issue.
Images courtesy of Kyle Holbrook
