RiNo Art District Welcomes Denver Walls, an International Mural Fest, in September

"Denver is a place that people know as a fun place to paint," says Mile High muralist Ally Grimm, aka A.L. Grime.

And that's what made the city a perfect fit for another international mural festival from World Wide Walls (formerly known as Pow! Wow!). Grimm had installed a mural for the festival's D.C. iteration in 2021, and after speaking with the curator of that event, she arranged for the fest to come to Colorado. She initially intended for Denver Walls to debut in September 2022; while that effort fell through because of a lack of funds, Grimm has found an enthusiastic partner in the RiNo Art District.

From September 22 to October 3, Denver Walls will welcome artists from all over the world to RiNo, where they will paint seventeen walls around the neighborhood. But don't think that Colorado artists will get stiffed on space: Detour, the local legend who's known for his Denver Nuggets murals as well as portraits of activists, is painting the largest wall.

"It was really important to me that we made sure that the biggest space went to a local," Grimm says. "He's painting the entire top deck of the Source Hotel's parking lot. It's a floor mural, which is different. But when you look on Google Maps or you fly a drone on the right-hand side of RiNo, it's very bland, so this will be literally the only pop of color when you look at it from a bird's-eye view. ... It's just such a unique installation, something really unlike what we have existing here. [Detour] absolutely deserves it, and honestly, it was such a challenging space and he just is so intelligent and wise, so I was like, 'If anyone can figure this out, it is this man.'"

Headlining artists include James Bullough, Kimchi Juice and George F. Baker III, aka GFB3. Some artists are traveling thousands of miles to be a part of the experience, such as the artists Faith47 and Keya Tama, a mother-son duo from South Africa. They were on Grimm's "wish list," she says, and the timing worked out perfectly.
Local creatives will be working on the same level as the international artists, Grimm emphasizes. Kimchi Juice, who first painted for World Wide Walls at age fifteen and has work in the White House and the Smithsonian's private collection, will paint alongside Denver graffiti group DF Crew. "It doesn't really matter what walk of life you come from; it doesn't really matter what style of art you pursue," Grimm says. "The museum girl can rough it in the alleyways painting walls in the same way that the guys that come from the street do."

Many artists reached out to Grimm to work with Denver Walls, including Bullough, the Berlin street artist who paints surrealist figures fragmented by space and shapes. "For me, James's style is this beautiful pause, where you almost become detached from time because you're seeing this person in this moment of stillness, but also being torn apart," Grimm explains. "And I think that the way that he paints it helps people have a separation between them in the present moment and, at the same time, a oneness with it. His work is just so ethereal. I was really excited that we were able to have him with us."

Bullough is bringing along his team for his street-art podcast, VantagePoint Radio, and will record some episodes while he's here. VantagePoint is even curating an exhibition at Ryan Joseph Gallery that will open September 29, showcasing the work of the most well-known international street artists.

Street artist DULK from Spain also reached out to be a part of the festival; he once had work on the wall by Denver Central Market that was painted over by Shepard Fairey. "His work depicts really surrealistic animal scenes. His work talks a lot about environmentalism, about conservation, and those are things that just really speak to the Denver crowd," Grimm says of DULK.
She wasn't shocked to see so much interest from artists outside the country, Grimm says; she herself was drawn to Denver from D.C. after checking out its scene and falling in love with the city's unique street art. "So many of these artists, especially the ones that reached out to us, want to come here to paint. They know that we have RiNo and that street art is really prominent here," she notes. "But also, it's in the mountains. It's a beautiful place. Everyone has been really excited to come out and not just connect with the people in the community, but to see our city and the landscape around it."

The festival also gives Denver the opportunity to see something new. "For out-of-town artists, I really wanted to put a lot of intention in curating styles of art that are not super prominent in Denver, but also highlighting voices and narratives that I felt aren't often given this large space," Grimm says. "They come from all over the globe and all over the nation, and they all represent a unique voice. A lot of them tell stories through their work about self-expression, gender-non-conforming expression, environmentalism  — things that I know are so true to the Denver identity but that we don't often see in street art."

Grimm's curation also aims to have visitors engage with the neighborhood as much as possible. "Something that we really focused on in our wall placements was making sure that we didn't just activate the Larimer side, but that we actually went over to the Brighton side of RiNo as well, and spread them out to encourage the community to really walk the entire district and engage with all the businesses in between," she explains.

Denver Walls' first big kick-off event will be at RedLine Contemporary Art Center on September 23 with an artist meet-and-greet at the exhibition Making Our Mark: An Exploration of Vandal Futurism. Curated by Denver veteran artist Anthony Garcia Sr., the show examines the history of graffiti. "We felt like supporting that as our first event to be able to reflect on the history that brought us to be able to even make street art was really important," Grimm says.

More community events include a panel at Green Spaces on September 27, with guest speakers from the Colorado Business Committee for the Arts and Canvas Credit Union, who will educate on copyright laws and how artists can protect their work.

But Grimm is most excited for the "secret paint battle" at Yardbird on September 28, a tradition that stems from RiNo's old mural event, Crush Walls. "It is definitely a community favorite that we're really excited to bring back," Grimm says. "The live paint battle is just using black paint, and it will be a three-on-three artists' battle. We're super stoked for that one."

The biggest draw will happen on September 30 with an art fair on the 2900 block of Larimer Street, which will include mural tours, family-friendly activations and stations, live music, live painters and more. The day-long event will begin around noon, and "we'll wrap that up at night with music and drinks and food on the 2900 block with the bars and restaurants that exist there already," Grimm says.

Denver Walls is also partnering with School of Motion, a youth-focused skill-share organization that holds monthly meet-ups at Ratio. "They're offering us five seats in their classes that we're gonna give out to five high school students," she says, noting that this will give low-income students the ability to use technology that they otherwise wouldn't have access to.
And given Grimm's own affinity for augmented and virtual reality, there will be another techy focus to Denver Walls.

"We are partnering with a company called COZ, a blockchain company that looks for solutions to help everyday folks interact with web-three technology and blockchain," she says. "They've made bronze plaques for all of our walls, and within those bronze plaques, we have an RFID chip. So folks that come to visit our walls will be able to tap their phone on these plaques and earn rewards. They'll rack up points that they can then exchange for merchandise with us. We're hoping to expand that to be able to activate it throughout the year, so that local businesses can activate it. It kind of game-ified the whole mural experience and encourages people to walk around the district from end to end."

The murals created during this inaugural festival will be up indefinitely, Grimm says, an ongoing art display and lesson for the city. She wants Denver Walls to open up the community to accepting more artistic styles and contemplating how that reflects the city's own diversity.

"My hope with Denver Walls is that it becomes a community event where we're able to call in different types of creatives and different people from different backgrounds to just celebrate the universal message that is art," Grimm says. "Denver has so many beautiful cultures that make the city great, and art is such a beautiful equalizer that we can all kind of find common ground in it.

"So my goal is kind of twofold: to create a space where the community can come together, but also a space where we can elevate art within the city. I think that it's really important to celebrate local art and creatives, but there's nothing wrong with introducing outside ideas. When you're able to curate intentionally and bring ideas from outside...we're actually creating a mental expansion for people; we're helping them learn things they maybe never would have learned about, or see styles, see ideas that they wouldn't have seen just living within the city. And so my goal is just to elevate our understanding of the world as a community, and understand how Denver plays a role in that, to hopefully inspire people to do greater things within the city."