Jeremy Biggers is one of the most prolific artists in Dallas, and he works quickly to execute an idea once inspiration hits. Unfortunately, sometimes the lifespan of his artworks is similarly fleeting. Biggers and fellow artist Hatziel Flores painted a new mural in Dallas on Saturday dedicated to the late actor Chadwick Boseman, but you’ll have to move fast to see it. The new painting, which depicts Boseman’s face and the actor in his Black Panther suit, could be painted over at any moment.
It’s located in the Fabrication Yard, a public graffiti park where Biggers paints when he wants to whip up a mural without having to obtain a permit or get permission from building owners. Last week he made a moving tribute to Kobe Bryant in the same park; it was defaced less than a day later by some less-skilled graffiti scribblers.
It’s just the nature of the Fabrication Yard, Biggers says, and he’s come to accept that the work he makes there is certain to be covered with new coats of paint. It’s a much different situation than having a permanent mural defaced–which, for the record, did happen to a mural of Tejano icon Selena that Biggers and Flores collaborated on in Austin. At Fabrication Yard, all the walls are fair game, even if they already tell another artist’s story.
“It’s a bit lawless out there,” he laughs, but it’s a ready canvas for urgent ideas.
Hopefully the Chadwick Boseman memorial mural stays unscathed in Fabrication Yard for at least a few more days, but we’d recommend checking it out sooner than later, just in case. You can see another new, larger mural by Jeremy Biggers at Glendale Shopping Center in Oak Cliff. One of the last places the late Nipsey Hussle visited in Dallas is now home to a massive mural of the rapper, a saintly portrait set against a sunset with the words “Hussle & Motivate.” Biggers’ work is also on view in a group show at 500X gallery, which you can read more about here.
