Dutch abstract painter Zedz likes to think of his new work in Erie, Pennsylvania as attempting to create a symbiosis. A former graffiti writer, he says that it is the architecture that has inspired him here, and his draftsman eye may be informed perhaps by Mondrian as well.
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-1.jpg)
A layering of geometries are placed in a diagonal dance across the long walls, at once revealing grids, sharp lines, gradiated shadings, punches of sharply shattered color, and enlarge digitization of black/white shapes – a field pattern of many squares and rectangles.
He says that he has hopes for viewers if you let yourself stare for a while at his piece, perhaps “losing yourself in space and time, becoming part of the architectural plan or in fact becoming a part of the graffiti presented.”
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-7.jpg)
“Zedz seemed to be the perfect artist to visually change ordinary architecture, bring some depth and erase borders between windows and doors,” says curator Iryna Kanishcheva, who organized this project in the Pennsylvania town.
Patrick Fisher has a different take on the project – hiring an artist improves social cohesion and accentuates the value of certain areas of cities: “The vacant lot adjacent to the mural had a history of unfavorable behavior,” says from the organization called Erie Art & Culture.
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-6.jpg)
“After the completion of the mural, overgrown weeds in the lot were cleared, disheveled vehicles were removed, and new lighting was installed,” says Mr. Fisher. “All of this creates a better sightline of the mural, but these additional investments also help make the surrounding area safer.”
Fair enough. Also it’s good to remember that young graffiti artists usually get their creative start painting in marginal parts of the urban landscape exactly like this, and are vilified or criminalized for it. Later, some of them actually get hired to paint murals.
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-3.jpg)
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-4.jpg)
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-2.jpg)
![](https://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/brooklyn-street-art-zedz-erie-pensylvania-2019-web-8.jpg)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
“This is a celebration of them directly,” artist Helen Bur says as she describes her new six-story high painting in Ferizaj, Kosovo. Warm and idiosyncratic, it is a candid photo of local youth whom s...
Idealized figures, they are not. It’s a curious pleasure to meet some of the extended members of the Isaac Cordal businessmen after all these years, isn’t it? For a decade or so you’ve been seeing...
Did you see the blue moon over New York Friday night? Looked to be more crimson actually. Welcome to August and the hot sticky band of dirty grit that comes with it. Escape from New York if you ...
TIC TAC NO Anamorphic Street Art has been a parallel universe to the illegal Street Art scene for years, and Dutch pop-surrealist Leon Keer is one of the most ingenious on the scene and well travelle...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. VERMIBUS: PROCESS 2. Aeon in Sri Lanka 3. OS Gemeos "Opera of the Moon" BSA Speci...