If you happen to be on the suite levels at MetLife Stadium, be prepared to be wowed by some vibrant, colorful new additions. Namely, a series of eye-catching murals that depict scenes from the five boroughs and New Jersey—all created by six local graffiti and mural artists.
Titled Scenes From Our Streets , each mural captures the diverse communities, cultures, and of course diehard entertainment fandom that make up the New York City and New Jersey area. The murals were commissioned by Ticketmaster to bring more life and color to the suite level surroundings, and more importantly to show the makeup and culture of New York and Jersey sports fans.
Whether you’re at MetLife Stadium for a concert, New York Giants or New York Jets game, or other massive event, the unique spark of live entertainment is always felt. Scenes From Our Streets aims to further reflect that feeling, and celebrate the fans that make NYC and Jersey so great.
Ticketmaster had the chance to catch up with some of the artists at the ribbon-cutting of their murals at the stadium in August. Below, Andre Trenier, Lexi Bella, Leon Rainbow and Zeehan Wazed take us into their artistic process and discuss the meaning behind their finished pieces.
We just took a tour and saw everybody’s mural, and it was great to see fans and staff reacting to the pieces. What did you feel while seeing your mural in action, with real people walking around and looking at it?
Andre Trenier (Bronx Keeps Creating It!): I felt good. For me, while I was working on it, they had me kind of in a square bubble thing, so I couldn’t step back more than probably three feet from it. This was the first time I’m getting to experience it by being able to see it all the way from a distance. I didn’t walk up the stairs, which I wanted to do, but while Danielle was painting, she actually sent me a video walking up the stairs. That was the first time I got to see it and I was like, “Oh, I like how it came out.”
Lexi Bella (Jersey Girls): It was really amazing. I was lucky because I was able to bring my daughter the last day that I had to clean up, so she had seen it prior. The mural is about me and my daughter [and she’s here today], so it was very special to be able to actually have her see everyone’s reaction as well. Seeing it during a game, in the environment, and the feeling that it’s gonna be living in was really exciting.
It was also cool to hear from the people that work here at MetLife—they are all really excited to have something amazing to look at while they’re working!
Bella: Yeah, it was really meaningful. This one woman was like being my PR rep and standing there and telling people my Instagram. Knowing that the people who are going to see it all the time and who come to work, that it makes their lives better, is this extra layer of meaningfulness to me. I really appreciated getting to talk to people who were gonna experience that.
Leon Rainbow (Jersey Fresh): Yeah, it was really exciting. I came a little earlier and went down there. We got a lot of positive feedback. I’m super excited just to see people interact with it and its natural environment with the fans and everything. It just had a great energy.
Bella: And the lighting. All three of you did murals with the staircases and the light. I had only seen them at night, or not when it was that sunset, golden hour—that was really cool seeing everybody’s mural like that.
Zeehan Wazed (Hustle and Bustle): As artists, we’re all really critical of our own work, but when you see other people interact with it, it kind of helps you see it in a third person perspective with fresh eyes. And it’s not just for visitors, but it’s also really important to the staff here. A lady was telling me that she grew up by the 7 train [in Queens]. It was a really humbling experience, being able to contribute.
There are obviously limitations when creating art in a corporate environment, but did you feel like you were able to work within those parameters?
Bella: I have to give [Ticketmaster and MetLife Stadium] so much credit for really believing in us and trusting us. We all know that to get this kind of opportunity, especially in a corporate environment, where they’re saying, “We want you to really show who you are as an artist,” does not happen often. Usually it comes with a whole bunch of bounds and restrictions. Then there’s people that are talking about what they want in the design. [But] our heart showed, we all were able to excel and show our top level of work. I really am grateful to them for giving us that opportunity, because I feel like this should set an example. Hopefully, there’ll be more opportunities like this for artists.
Rainbow: I definitely think that was one of the best parts; we did have a lot of creative freedom, and I think that shows in the results. Every piece is very unique and very different, but they’re all very high quality. You can tell the artist really cares about each piece. When I look at it, I wouldn’t have thought of that [imagery] for that borough, but it’s really interesting to see a different artist’s take on how it would be. They all came out really good.
Bella: The ownership over locations made us all kind of take another level of pride in it as well.
On that note, can you each talk about which borough or area you represent, and how that came across in your mural?
Trenier: I’m from the Bronx. And I was really surprised, because one of the things would have been like Yankee Stadium, the cliche things, but it wouldn’t make sense to put Yankee Stadium here. So the fact that they just let me pick kind of obscure things that mean something to me, like the Rainey Gates of the Bronx Zoo—those have always been a strong visual that I’ve been kind of tied to my whole life. Most people are used to seeing them in the daytime, and I wanted to show them at nighttime and show the highways and the elevated trains.
Most of the time when you get these types of opportunities, it’s like, “We want what you do, but in our way.” It’s, “We don’t want the rough edges, we want to see it a little more polished.” And this was cool, because they just let me rock.
Bella: My piece was about both New Jersey and New York City. I’m from New Jersey and I moved to New York about 15 years ago and had my children there, and currently live there. That’s why, in the image, the African American girl has the city in her heart. They’re supposed to be sitting in the flowers, looking at the city. They’re supposed to be sitting in New Jersey.
My favorite thing about New Jersey is the nature, and a lot of people in New York don’t ever think of it that way, but it is the Garden State. I put in the Delaware Water Gap and the Barnegat Lighthouse and native New Jersey flowers. The more I thought about it, the more emotional and in depth and meaningful it was for me.
Rainbow: I represented New Jersey. I’ve been doing a graffiti jam called Jersey Fresh for almost 20 years now. I’m originally from California, but I’ve lived in Jersey since 1997.
What my piece is trying to capture is the energy of a live event. I had the music, the sports and stuff—but also just trying to capture that energy. Some of the things, with the neon, are supposed to reference football plays and different things. A lot of it was based on the Statue of Liberty, the microphone and then the number one [foam] finger. It kind of brings you around the different areas of the wall. I tried to use similar, reverse color schemes to kind of make everything kind of mold together in a color way, also.
Bella: I love your turnpike sign, because, if you’re from Jersey, you know what exit of the turnpike it is.
Rainbow: What exits, everything. It’s like a Jersey thing.
Wazed: It was an honor to represent Queens my native borough. It’s the most diverse boroughs, land of immigrants, right? A lot of times I like to sort of pick from the palette of different flags so it doesn’t seem exclusive to any sort of demographic or nationality. It does get political when you’re creating public art and you want this sort of fair representation. Sometimes it’s a challenge to represent all of Queens.
But it was fun to paint the 7 train because it cuts through some of the most diverse neighborhoods: Jackson Heights, Flushing and the entirety of Queens, really. As a more subtle ode, I painted the Court Square Station—that was like my first exposure to the arts. My parents didn’t really take me to museums, but 5 Pointz was there [in Long Island City]. That was my first real exposure to any type of art, really, especially coming from Queens, where it’s an uphill battle to get art over there. It’s still kind of slow out there. People sleep on Queens, but it’s really beautiful and has so much to offer culturally. It was fun to represent them.
I’m curious to know if any of you managed to get a little easter egg into your mural, or anything that’s sort of either hidden in there?
Trenier: Like I said, they didn’t really censor me. They just kind of let me do it. Hip-hop, the High Bridge, the highway that passes by where I live—all of these things kind of have special meaning to me.
Rainbow: The one thing that I did that wasn’t in the mockup, is that I did the transparencies on the letters of the Garden State. In the mockup, it was just white, but I thought it would look better if it had that lighter tone, so it looks like that part of the state is coming through.