In Photos: Art Springs to Life on Allston's Western Ave.

By Saffron R. Agrawal
By Saffron R. Agrawal

The art installation “Allumination” is the rejuvenation of a formerly abandoned building with paint and recycled materials. This installation was created by the Baltimore-based artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn, who have been creating large-scale public murals as “Jessie and Katey” since 2011.

Within a fenced-off yard on Western Ave is the public work of art titled “Face of Allston.” The mural was completed in 2017 and was painted by contemporary artist and Allston resident Pete Cosmos and aims to represent Allston’s population, history, and cliches.

An ode to Allston, Sam Fish’s “Allston Rock City” is one of three garage murals in Zone 3’s Walls on Western mural series. It was completed in 2019 and celebrates the creativity of the neighborhood.

“Allston, I Really Love You!” by Sabrina Dorsainvil is another garage mural and part of the Walls on Western initiative. The mural depicts a diverse group of cartoons speaking sign language and aims to celebrate the local deaf community in greater Allston.

PRX is a community recording studio devoted to education and audio storytelling. The podcast garage was founded in 2016 and has since been committed to helping provide production resources and training to help voice a diverse variety of stories.

Next to the PRX Podcast Garage sits a portable recording studio provided by the Moth, a nonprofit organization in New York dedicated to the art of storytelling.

Art in Print is an initiative that aims to make buying art more accessible by charging 25 cents for limited release prints by local artists. Written in the mural on Zone 3’s creativity space is the @zone3westernave Instagram handle, which platforms Zone 3 and publicizes initiatives on its account.

Painted on the front exterior of 267 Western Ave is the mural “Saya Patri,” which translates from Nepali to “One With a Hundred Petals,” installed in 2018 by IMAGINE. IMAGINE is a pseudonym for Boston-based artist Sneha Shrestha who incorporates aspects of her Hindu-Buddhist Nepali upbringing into her work. Plastered on the windows of the building are posters advertising Zone 3’s upcoming community events.

Sculpted in 1967 by Donald Harcourt De Lue, “Quest Eternal” was inspired by a previous Italian sculpture of the same name. The sculpture was originally installed by the Prudential Tower in Boston, but was relocated to Allston in 2019.

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Visual ArtsAllstonMetroPhoto EssayFront Photo Feature