streetart
John and Jessica Winters, organizers behind the street art festival PRHBTN.
The title PRHBTN might be a play on the word “prohibition” – referring to the stigma often affiliated with the art forms featured at the annual “street art” event – but one of the primary goals of event organizers John and Jessica Winters is to make art more accessible for everyone.
“There has always been this perception of art as ‘elitist,’ or that it’s only for the chosen few who can appreciate it or who seek it out,” John said. “We love being able to help put works on the street where anyone can enjoy them – it really breaks down the barrier that galleries and established art shows can sometimes create.”
A multi-faceted art and music event primarily concentrated on the weekend of Nov. 15-17, PRHBTN has a special focus on art forms typically found on the street, including spray paint, wheat paste, decals and stencils, but to be clear, one of the primary elements of the third annual PRHBTN is indeed a gallery show at Buster’s Billiards & Backroom. In the words of John and Jessica, however, this isn’t “some stuffy art show” – PRHBTN weekend events include a Friday night party for the Lexington Tattoo Project and a Saturday event culminating in a dance party with high energy electronic artists Paper Diamond and Wick-It the Instigator. Additional PRHBTN events include artist talks and a showcase featuring local and regional street art, where the public can purchase and take home art that’s primarily relegated to the side of buildings or other public settings.
“Part of PRHBTN is that we are trying to give these artists a legal platform for expressing themselves and making money and making art,” Jessica said.
New to this year’s event is a public art component, something that was inspired in part by the local response to the large commissioned murals that German artist duo HERAKUT installed on two downtown buildings last year. In November, PRHBTN will bring in four internationally recognized muralists from locations as far as Portugal and Brazil to create large scale, permanent or semi-permanent installations on prominent public walls around Lexington. Owners of the walls – which include the large brick wall on the backside of the Kentucky Theater and the side of The Bazaar at the Gathering Place adjacent to the Lexington Rescue Mission in north Lexington – will be signing agreements not to alter the works for 10 years.
While the public response and support has been overwhelmingly positive, the organizers are aware that there is still a stigma attached to this kind of art, and that’s something they hope to help the public overcome.
“It’s kind of controversial – some people are hesitant to get involved, because they’re like ‘I don’t want anyone to think I support vandalism,’” she added. “But everything that we are promoting is legal and with permission.”
One goal of bringing in national and international muralists is to ultimately help raise the profile not only of PRHBTN but of the Lexington art scene overall, John explained – as a result of their involvement with both PRHBTN and the HERAKUT murals (which were organized by Kremena Todorova and Kurt Gohde, but which John and Jessica helped promote and support), several business owners have come to the couple asking them to connect them with local artists for commissioned artwork.
“After last year’s show we had a lot of requests for mural work,” John said. “In the last year alone, murals and large scale pieces have gone up in over half a dozen locations and they have all been done by local artists. We love being able to turn the excitement around Herakut’s murals and the upcoming murals from Eduardo Kobra, Gaia, Phlegm, and Odeith into opportunities for our local artists.”
Jessica is looking forward to the public murals doing what she feels public art does best: making people think.
“When you see something on the street, it should zap you out of the everyday hum drum and make you think – whether you laugh, or are inspired, quizzical, or even disgusted,” she said. “If it gets your attention, I believe it’s done its job.”
PRHBTN
Nov. 15-17
In addition to the installation of four large-scale, public murals at various Lexington locations by artists Gaia, Odeith, Kobra and Phlegm, PRHBTN will host the following events at Buster’s Billiards and Backroom:
Gallery Hop reception. 5-8 p.m. Nov. 15
Closing party. 8 p.m. Nov. 16
Gallery exhibit open to the public. Nov. 17, hours TBA.
Details on artists lectures and additional event information coming soon. Visit www.prhbtn.com for more information.