Title: Le Grand Oiseau de Feu sur l’Arche
Location: 420 S. Tryon Street
Artist: Niki de Saint Phalle
Date: Installed in 2009, Fabricated in 1991
Media: Mirrored glass, stainless steel
Artist Info: www.
Story: Fabricated in 1991, this over life-size freestanding sculpture was installed as an entryway piece for the opening of the new Bechtler Museum of Art in 2009. Niki de Saint Phalle was an American French public artist known for her playful and iconic, environmental sculptures and she is one of the artists collected by the Bechtler Museum.
Key Formal Elements:
· Negative space of the arch creates an interactive sculpture
· Scale and Texture are important here
Disco Chicken. The Firebird. This lovable sculpture goes by several different names, but the idea is the same. An iconic art for this corner of the Levine Avenue of the Arts that is instagrammable and inviting. Touch it. Walk under it. The sculpture is meant to be engaged with as you mark your time in the center of this arts plaza area. Fun fact: The Bechtler Museum staff individually clean the mirror pieces once a year to keep the sculpture shiny and clean.
Title: Life is an Open Book
Location: 425 Tryon Street
Artist: Brad Spencer
Date: 2002
Media: Brick
Artist Info:
Story: Commissioned by the North Carolina Brick Association, artist Brad Spencer created this brick, relief sculpture to celebrate and introduce the theme of reading and literary arts of The Green. The Green is a public park developed by the former Wachovia Bank connecting Tryon Street and College Street.
Key Formal Elements:
· High Relief sculpture
· Texture
A relief sculpture means that the main design of the sculpture sticks out into space. You can rub your hands over the forms and figure out that the children are climbing on an oversized open book. This theme fits nicely with the literary connection of all the public art in The Green. The sculpture introduces an element of play into our serious, business minded Uptown Center City.
Title: Fish Fountain at the Green
Location: 425 S. Tryon Street
Artist: Carolyn Braaksma
Date: 2002
Media: Brick, stone and concrete
Artist Info: www.braaksmadesign.com
Story: Noted public artist Carolyn Braaksma created several narrative pieces for The Green to reflect the theme of literacy and lifelong learning. In the centerpiece of The Green, three concrete cast ten-foot-tall fish spout water to create a fountain. Braaksma uses common construction materials like concrete, steel and brick to create public art that reflects a sense of place and invites the viewer to look deeper. The public art plan commissioned by Wachovia Bank was by Jennifer Murphy of CitiArts.
Key Formal Elements:
· Over-life-size scale of the fish
· Texture
Look down at the floor design of the fountain and notice that there are quotes in the pavement. The quotes are about water and by authors James Joyce and Adam Lindsey. Also look at the bench surrounding the fountain and notice that it appears to be a wavelike form that starts low and gets higher to an average seat height. Then take a walk and notice some of the other floor designs like the hopscotch board and various inserted sidewalk elements that create a lively walk for the visitor to the park.
Title: Grand Entry Book Columns
Location: 425 College Street
Artist: Jim Gallucci
Date: 2002
Media: Bronze
Artist Info: www.jimgallucci.com
Story: When Wachovia Bank, the precursor of today's Wells Fargo programmed the public art for this public space, they chose a theme of reading. Many of their employees were active in a reading in the classroom program and each of the artists was instructed to use the idea of reading and literacy to inspire them. Jim Gallucci is a North Carolina based artist with work all over the Southeast. He has other public art in Charlotte including a public library entrance sculpture in South Charlotte and the “Hstory Bench” in First Ward Uptown.
Key Formal Elements:
· Texture
· Scale
Over life-size stacked books create a marvelous entryway feature for this park. Let your eye wander all the way to the top and see that the book is now open with the suggestion of pages fluttering out into the wind. When you walk back through the park look for those bronze book pages installed in areas around the park. Gallucci chose some classic titles for the sculpture and maybe you can pick one that was your favorite also.
Title: Wells Fargo Fountain
Location: 301 S. Tryon Street
Artist: Dennis Smith
Date: c. 1990s
Media: Bronze
Artist Info: www.smithsculpture.com
Story: A cascading water fountain at the edge of the Wells Fargo Plaza comes alive with several life-size sculptures of children playing scattered around the edge of the fountain and in the water. Artist Dennis Smith maintains an active sculpture studio based in Utah and is known for his realistic sculptural figures with an impressionistic style.
Key Formal Elements:
· Texture
· Implied Motion
Consider the two children holding hands and balancing each other as they play in the fountain. Smith is known for his wholesome portrayals of figures and in fact often highlights the innocence and play of children. Just perhaps this sculpture with its element of trust between the two children so that neither fall connects to the trust one places in a financial institution. Either way the sculptures invite us to remember our sense of play right smack in the middle of our serious Center City Charlotte.
Title: Mural at Entry to Luminous Lane
Location: 3rdStreet
Artist: Treazy Treaz
Date: 2023
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info: @treazytreaz
Story: Luminous Lane was created as part of Charlotte Shout in 2023. Curated by artists Sydney Duarte and Treazy Treaz, this once dark and uninviting alley connecting 3rd and 4th Streets now has over 50 murals painted on both sides and serves as a colorful connection in Uptown. For this entryway mural, the artist portrays a young woman bringing color and life to a blank wall. Duarte and partner Treazy are well known in Charlotte for this project and their partnership with other artists in creating the TAOH Outdoor Gallery in NoDa. They are true artistic forces in Charlotte.
Key Formal Elements:
· Scale
· Polychromatic color scheme
An almost three-story tall young woman holds a spray can and a whole world of color lights up this blank wall of the parking deck. Flowers and colorful vegetation show us what is possible when you simply take art and use it to make space more beautiful and inviting. It is almost if the figure is daring us and asking the city “what if” we let artists spread color and joy in our cold, concrete downtown. Just a thought.
Title: “Rebuilding Blocks”
Location: 4th Street between Tryon and College
Artist: Darion Fleming
Date: 2024
Media: Spray Paint
Artist Info:@daflemingo
Story: The Charlotte Shout festival comes every year and lately the festival brings more murals to our uptown walls! This wall is partnership with Charlotte Shout and the Piece for Peace Movement and Fleming painted it during the two-week festival run. Fleming is a local artist known for his larger and larger scale murals, with ever increasing levels of detail. Fun fact: His COVID era mural “Liquid Gold” of a bottle of hand sanitizer received arts coverage in the NY Times.
Key Formal Elements:
Fleming asks the viewer to stop and take a moment and be still. In the quietness of this child intentionally placing the final block in the tower spelling PEACE, we see the innocence and belief in this small, individual action. Each artist was asked to explore the idea of PEACE with this commission from the Piece for Peace Movement, a movement to unify human consciousness through art and creativity and founded by two local artists.
Title: Spiral Odyssey
Location: Romare Bearden Park
Artist: Richard Hunt
Date: 2017
Media: Stainless steel
Artist Info: www.richardhuntsculptor.com
Story: Installed in Romare Bearden Park in 2017, this abstract, metal sculpture pays homage to Charlotte-born Romare Bearden and was created by his friend sculptor Richard Hunt. Both Bearden and Hunt were the first contemporary African American artists to have solo exhibits at MOMA and were leaders in abstract art during the 1970s. Bearden was born in Charlotte not far from this park. This project was a commission of the Arts & Science Council Public Art Program and is over 30 feet tall and weighs over 8000 pounds.
Key Formal Elements:
· Free-standing sculpture with lots of texture
· Organic and flowing forms
The spiral refers to the art gallery founded by Bearden to support African-American artists that was active during the Civil Rights Movement. Odyssey refers to an important series of works produced by Bearden based on the classic poem by Homer The Odyssey. The Mint Museum has several of these works of art in their collection. Taken together the two ideas honor a Charlotte native in the abstract language tied to work by both artists.
Location: 400 block of S. Church Street on back side of Knight Theatre
Title: “Where the Magic Happens”
Artist: Duarte Designs
Date: 2021
Media: Spray paint and brushwork
Artist Info: @duarte_designs
Story: Commissioned by Blumenthal Performing Arts, this mural by Duarte Designs celebrates all those involved with the performing arts that you never see on stage. Duarte Designs, a mother and daughter artist team of Sydney and Ann Duarte, gives the viewer a behind the scenes look at back stage life from the stage looking out into soon-to-be-filled audience seats.
Key Formal Elements:
** The mural is painted on a loading dock door so if the door is up, come back at a later time.
See if you can find all of the connections to being a part of the performing arts. Look at the incredibly detailed rack of costumes. During interviews with the long-time wardrobe supervisor, the artist asked about her favorite costumes over the years and each one in the mural comes from her favorites. There’s a costume from the Nutcracker and one from The Band’s Visit, a 2019 Grammy Award winner. Find the theatre union #322 mark on one of the trunks. Then imagine yourself ready to grab your seat in the theatre and take in all the magic of the show.