TELEGRAPH Public Art
Telegraph Avenue has long been a hub for artistic expression. Buildings, trashcans, and even the sidewalk are adorned with permanent and temporary artworks, some dating back to 1976! Mosey around the avenue and see what artworks you can find
Historical Walking Tour Markers of Telegraph Avenue
Erika from incommon ( http://www.incommon.in/ ) was really captivated by the civic storytelling aspect of this project: how to connect younger generations to past stories, social movements, and moments in time? So it is through this lens that she continue to appreciate this project and use the following narrative in her materials:
"Berkeley's iconic Telegraph Avenue embodies a rich legacy of political activism that shaped the counterculture of the 1960's. From People's Park to civil rights, free speech and the technological revolution, young people imagined the radical social change that gave way to a more inclusive society. These stories of collective action are increasingly relevant today. A series of street markers and unique icons have been created to support the Telegraph Tour and bring forward Berkeley's intangible cultural heritage.”
Name: Marvelous Miss Mars
Location: Channing at Telegraph
Artist: Forest Wolf Kell
Forest Wolf Kell is multi-disciplinary artist working in Portland, Oregon. Kell graduated Portland State University in 2017 with a Bachelors Degree in Fine Art. Most of his works are paintings and illustrations with aesthetics influenced by graffiti and tattoo culture. Kell is the owner, head artist and co-curator of the Portland arts collective and clothing company, Last Bus Club. Visit their website...
Name: Marvelous Miss Mars
Location: Channing at Telegraph
Artist: Forest Wolf Kell
Most of Forest Wolf Kell's works are paintings and illustrations with aesthetics influenced by graffiti and tattoo culture. Kell is the owner, head artist and co-curator of the Portland arts collective and clothing company, Last Bus Club. Visit their website...
Name: Ode to Keith Haring
Location: Blake and Telegraph
Artist: Josh Katz
Josh Katz is a painter and mural artist based out of Oakland, California. His artwork incorporates geometric patterning and floral imagery which he renders using vibrant spray painted color palettes. As a member of the LGBTQ community, his most recent works have begun to explore themes of queerness, activism, and the resilience of the queer community. Currently, he is working on incorporating these themes into his mural productions to bring his queer imagery into the streets and onto city walls. Visit their website...
Name: Ode to Keith Haring
Location: Blake and Telegraph
Artist: Josh Katz
Josh Katz is a painter and mural artist based out of Oakland, California. His artwork incorporates geometric patterning and floral imagery which he renders using vibrant spray painted color palettes. As a member of the LGBTQ community, his most recent works have begun to explore themes of queerness, activism, and the resilience of the queer community. Currently, he is working on incorporating these themes into his mural productions to bring his queer imagery into the streets and onto city walls. Visit their website...
The Obata Mural
Location: PG&E substation, 2540 Telegraph
Artist: Rich Black
Chiura Obata is a nationally recognized artist with paintings in the Smithsonian. He was most remembered for the works he created at a Japanese internment camp during WWII. His studio was across the street from this mural.
Rich Black, he’s a big guy with a rough voice. When he paints, he wears a black jumper that is so paint-splattered it could pass for a Pollock. He is the creative force behind all the marketing material, programs and literature produced by Berkeley’s Shotgun Players who are based at Ashby Stage. (Watch a Berkeleyside video about Black made in 2011.) He paints the entire wall of the theater every time it puts on a new production — adapting a design he has devised to promote the play to fit the large expanse of the building’s façade. Visit their website...
The Obata Mural
Location: PG&E substation, 2540 Telegraph
Artist: Rich Black
Chiura Obata is a nationally recognized artist with paintings in the Smithsonian. He was most remembered for the works he created at a Japanese internment camp during WWII. His studio was across the street from this mural.
Rich Black, he’s a big guy with a rough voice. When he paints, he wears a black jumper that is so paint-splattered it could pass for a Pollock. He is the creative force behind all the marketing material, programs and literature produced by Berkeley’s Shotgun Players who are based at Ashby Stage. (Watch a Berkeleyside video about Black made in 2011.) He paints the entire wall of the theater every time it puts on a new production — adapting a design he has devised to promote the play to fit the large expanse of the building’s façade. Visit their website...
Location: Various walls
Artist: Nigel Sussman
From the popular Welcome to Telegraph mural at Dwight and Telegraph, the the back wall of Mezzo, to Sather Lane, to the base of the Telegraph Channing Garage, Nigel has done a lot for the district. His construction mural at Mezzo was so popular, the owner incorporated it into the back wall of the restaurant.
Location: Various walls
Artist: Nigel Sussman
From the popular Welcome to Telegraph mural at Dwight and Telegraph, the the back wall of Mezzo, to Sather Lane, to the base of the Telegraph Channing Garage, Nigel has done a lot for the district. His construction mural at Mezzo was so popular, the owner incorporated it into the back wall of the restaurant.
Location: All over Telegraph
Artist: David Martin
While you don't often consider a bike rack to be art, these ones have a special story. We worked with a local firm bikeparking.com on the design. They took the designs to the fabricator David Martin, who grew up with hippy parents. When he saw the design he fell in love and insisted on making them using the slower and more expensive TIG welding method. If you look at the racks closely you will see how perfect the welds are. Industrial art!
Location: All over Telegraph
Artist: David Martin
While you don't often consider a bike rack to be art, these ones have a special story. We worked with a local firm bikeparking.com on the design. They took the designs to the fabricator David Martin, who grew up with hippy parents. When he saw the design he fell in love and insisted on making them using the slower and more expensive TIG welding method. If you look at the racks closely you will see how perfect the welds are. Industrial art!
Mosaic cans
Location: Various Locations
Artist: Juan Lopez
Juan Lopez is of Cuban heritage from Miami. He spent most of his adult life in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a tile and stone independent contractor installing stone, glass and ceramic tiles in high-end residential construction. He honed his skills tiling bathrooms, kitchens and floors. After 25 years he was ready for a change and moved to the SF Bay Area five years ago at the suggestion of his son who had already living here. He did not know what his next step was when he arrived but he found his new career by happenstance shortly after his arrival: One day while exploring Lake Merritt he came upon a group of people grouting and tiling several city trash cans with simple mosaic patterns. Now he has scores of cans up and down Telegraph. Visit their website...
Mosaic cans
Location: Various Locations
Artist: Juan Lopez
Juan Lopez is of Cuban heritage from Miami. He spent most of his adult life in Santa Fe, New Mexico as a tile and stone independent contractor installing stone, glass and ceramic tiles in high-end residential construction. He honed his skills tiling bathrooms, kitchens and floors. After 25 years he was ready for a change and moved to the SF Bay Area five years ago at the suggestion of his son who had already living here. He did not know what his next step was when he arrived but he found his new career by happenstance shortly after his arrival: One day while exploring Lake Merritt he came upon a group of people grouting and tiling several city trash cans with simple mosaic patterns. Now he has scores of cans up and down Telegraph. Visit their website...
Double Stack Cat
Location: Dwight Triangle
Artist: Atema7
The artist Sven Atema lived on the Southside of Berkeley for many years raising two kids there. One day when the kids were little they asked him to draw a cat. He obliged. Then asked to draw another. It was stacked on top. Then another until there was a many headed stack. Eventually over the years this character refined itself down to the Double Stack Cat. And since, has expanded to encompass many meanings and associations. Right brain left brain. Seeing the same thing two ways. The existence or non-existence of duality. The view your children get on your shoulders. The bronze Double Stack Cat on Telegraph is an often humorous and always peaceful steady presence holding it down day and night for those that pause for a moment, or just passing by.
Double Stack Cat
Location: Dwight Triangle
Artist: Atema7
The artist Sven Atema lived on the Southside of Berkeley for many years raising two kids there. One day when the kids were little they asked him to draw a cat. He obliged. Then asked to draw another. It was stacked on top. Then another until there was a many headed stack. Eventually over the years this character refined itself down to the Double Stack Cat. And since, has expanded to encompass many meanings and associations. Right brain left brain. Seeing the same thing two ways. The existence or non-existence of duality. The view your children get on your shoulders. The bronze Double Stack Cat on Telegraph is an often humorous and always peaceful steady presence holding it down day and night for those that pause for a moment, or just passing by.
A People’s History of Telegraph Avenue
Location: Haste at Telegraph
Artist: Osha Neumann and Brian Thiele
Osha Neumann is a well-known Bay Area activist and artist who has participated in every major tactical shift in radicalism and art over the last fifty years. He was a member of the infamous Up Against the Wall Motherfucker anarchist street gang in New York City. During the ‘60s, the Motherfuckers battled churches, public figures, art and corporate institutions, the press, and the police while providing community services for many people on the Lower East Side. . He became a civil rights lawyer and activist, providing legal services to homeless and working against discriminatory legislation. While still practicing law, Neumann took up art again and started painting murals in the Berkeley area, including “A People’s History of Telegraph Avenue.”
A People’s History of Telegraph Avenue
Location: Haste at Telegraph
Artist: Osha Neumann and Brian Thiele
Osha Neumann is a well-known Bay Area activist and artist who has participated in every major tactical shift in radicalism and art over the last fifty years. He was a member of the infamous Up Against the Wall Motherfucker anarchist street gang in New York City. During the ‘60s, the Motherfuckers battled churches, public figures, art and corporate institutions, the press, and the police while providing community services for many people on the Lower East Side. . He became a civil rights lawyer and activist, providing legal services to homeless and working against discriminatory legislation. While still practicing law, Neumann took up art again and started painting murals in the Berkeley area, including “A People’s History of Telegraph Avenue.”
Location: Various walls and businesses
Artist: Connie Bleul
Location: Various walls and businesses
Artist: Connie Bleul
Love Not War mural
Location: 2565 Telegraph
Artist: Dan Fontes
Muralist Dan Fontes has been creating fine art works since 1981. This includes both art in public places as well as privately commissioned works for interior and exterior walls throughout the Western U.S. Since opening his first studio in Oakland he has created site specific pieces as well as custom works in the studio for a wide range of clients, businesses and individuals.
Dan has also collaborated on many murals for specific architectural endeavors. Always hand painted with a unique attention to detail.
Love Not War mural
Location: 2565 Telegraph
Artist: Dan Fontes
Muralist Dan Fontes has been creating fine art works since 1981. This includes both art in public places as well as privately commissioned works for interior and exterior walls throughout the Western U.S. Since opening his first studio in Oakland he has created site specific pieces as well as custom works in the studio for a wide range of clients, businesses and individuals.
Dan has also collaborated on many murals for specific architectural endeavors. Always handpainted with a unique attention to detail. Visit their website...