GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Condado Tacos unveiled some new murals at its Bridge Street location. It didn’t have to look far for one of the artists.
For the second year in a row, the Mexican cuisine restaurant commissioned pieces for ArtPrize, which kicked off Thursday in Grand Rapids. And for the second year in a row, Kevin Forest Wolfrom was asked to help.
“Last year it was, I think they reached out and asked if I wanted to be part of the ArtPrize piece. And of course, I said yes, I’d love to be part of ArtPrize,” Wolfrom said.
Wolfrom is a bartender at the establishment but has been making art for several years. He graduated from Kendall College of Art and Design and has had multiple previous works submitted in ArtPrize, including one last year at the Condado where he works.
Multiple artists were asked to return to decorate the back patio wall at Condado for the 18-day art competition. For the entry, called “Masters of Masterpiece Mayhem,” they were asked to take famous art pieces and make them “Condado-esque,” Wolfrom said.
Several of the designs found at the Bridge Street building feature one of Condado’s mascots, Peezler, a common sight at every location across the country. One of Wolfrom’s pieces has the cat “tripping on queso” and is a play on Gustave Courbet’s self-portrait from the 1840s.
“I thought it’d be kind of cool to throw Peezler in there … freaking out a little bit and just kind of throw some funny things in there,” Wolfrom said.
A second Wolfrom piece can be seen above the Peezler of a tortilla chip with lime sunglasses about to be swallowed up by a wave of cheese sauce. Both works were made with just spray paint and Sharpie markers, which has quickly become one of Wolfrom’s favorite mediums.
“I love spray painting,” he said. “The use of it, you can push it around a lot, manipulate it a lot if you need to… It’s just a different medium and you can get different effects and whatever. So it’s a fun thing to use, for sure.”
It’s not just fun that Wolfrom has gotten out of his ArtPrize piece. He said he loves the festival and competition and hopes that the other artists who submit their work and those who come out to observe the pieces get the same joy out of it.
“I hope that it kind of just amplifies art, lets people know that they can do whatever art they want to do,” he said. “I hope it kind of just inspires people to kind of do their own thing and take that leap and go for that dream of doing art.”
ArtPrize runs through Oct. 1.
