Dalí Museum associate curator Allison McCarthy said, "Outside In: New Murals Inspired by Dali" is a marriage of two of her favorite things in her hometown of St. Petersburg: The museum and the Shine Mural Festival.
"We were just throwing ideas around, and they seemed to like it, and I pitched it as a celebration of this creative spirit that we've got here," she said.
It celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Shine Mural Festival.
McCarthy said the goal of the exhibition was to represent a variety of styles from a diverse group of artists. But she said it was hard to narrow down the list of artists to 13.
"I did have a committee, including some curators here and Janee Priebe, who was the director of Shine from 2018 to 2024. She helped me as a consultant, and so as a team, we selected those works that the submissions that we felt really best exemplified what our mission was here, also that represented a diverse group of artists that really reflect what the street art movement is in reality," she said.
McCarthy said there were no limitations on the artists' works. The only directive was that they were to take inspiration from Dalí the man, Dalí the artist and the architecture of the museum itself.
Each artist had to work on a wall that was up to 18 feet tall, and sometimes 60 feet wide.
Peter Tush, The museum's curator and senior interpreter, gave a brief media tour before the exhibition opened to the public.
"So one of the great things for us here is to have artists who have worked in the community over these 10 years building, you know, really the visual culture of our of our city, starting to respond to these really iconic pieces that we have here, and just the idea of Dalí and the museum and Bask piece back here isn't about Dalí, it's really about the collectors who put this together," Tush said.
Some of the artists in the exhibition are locals who helped to establish the festival, like Palehorse, Bask, Tes One and Chad Mize.
Mize went to the old Dalí Museum as a teenager, and that experience helped cement his decision to become an artist and ultimately live in St. Petersburg.
"We came for an art club field trip, and it was basically the first museum I ever came to, and just the visual of ... seeing his work, really inspired me as an artist. So, yeah, like, 'I'm in,' so I bought a "Hallucinogenic Toreador" T-shirt that day in the gift shop. Wore it all the time. So I really wanted to, like, focus mostly on that piece with this mural and kind of that memory.
Mize's mural is whimsical and a feast for the eyes.
Orlando-based artist Naomi Haverland's anamorphic mural literally pulls you in.
"I do 3D optical illusions a lot. That's kind of my specialty, and I'm always trying to figure out a way to make a piece of art that's a fun photo op for people. But growing up, coming to this museum, I was always really inspired by his (Dalí's) optical illusions. And so I'm always trying to do that, put some little magic trick into my art to impress people," she said.
Her mural includes floor markings for where the subject and the photographer should stand.
Palehorse was inspired by the "woman behind the artist," Dalí's wife, Gala. Palehorse represents her with three Indian deities: Saraswati, the goddess of art, music and learning; Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth; and Durga, a warrior goddess and protector who wields a sword and rides on the back of a tiger.
"I could imagine a world where he didn't have Gala and people may have just seen him as a lunatic, or, you know, she really was the first one to inspire him to start painting with oils and to paint canvases and to take this seriously, and she was the one who was finding the buyers for his artwork and doing a lot of that behind the scenes," Palehorse said.
And how do the artists feel about knowing their art will only grace the walls of the museum for a brief time?
Mize said murals are temporary by nature.
"My thing is, I love the idea that it's up for so long, because when I'm in art shows, usually it's like a month, and then this one's like five months. So this one goes to Oct. 26," he said.
And it is inside where there's air conditioning.
Click here for more information about the Dalí' Museum's new murals.
