“My vision is to add to Boston’s skyline in a way that elevates the voices and work of those who’ve come before us as well as our future generations. It’s about taking this space to a higher frequency of love and understanding,” says Boston artist Rob “ProBlak” Gibbs, who has been painting his “Breathe Life Together” mural in Dewey Square on Boston’s Greenway. It’s the tenth mural at the location in the Greenway’s public art series and the first by a Boston-based artist.
Local artists Genaro “Go Five” Ortega, Lee “SOEM” Beard and Luis “Take 1” Taforo have been helping Gibbs paint the mural.
The Greenway says: “The tenth iteration of the Dewey Square mural also comes as the Conservancy’s Public Art Program builds new strategies to engage and support Greater Boston’s local creative communities in just and inclusive ways. As one step in this process, the Conservancy’s Public Art Program is proud to announce its new commitment to feature the work of local artists on the Dewey Square mural at least once every three years, in addition to national or international artists.”
Gibbs began his “Breathe Life” series in 2017 with a mural of a young boy at the UCERM Empowerment Center at 324 Blue Hill Ave. in Dorchester’s Grove Hall neighborhood. In 2019, with support from Now + There, he painted the second mural at 808 Tremont St. in Roxbury, depicting the boy lifting up his sister. Gibbs’s 2020 “Breathe Life” mural at Boston’s Madison Park Technical Vocational High School depicts the same young girl blowing bubbles and “surrounded by ideas and knowledge from artists that came before her, in the form of books emanating from her backpack,” according to the Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, which supported the project.
Previously:
2020: Rob ‘ProBlak’ Gibbs’ New ‘Breathe Life’ Mural At Boston’s Madison Park High School
2019: First Look At Rob ‘ProBlak’ Gibbs’ New Roxbury Mural ‘Breathe Life 3’
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