CRUSH Festival to Bring Over 100 Graffiti Artists and Muralists to RiNo

You might want to take an extra-long stare at your favorite RiNo murals, because CRUSH 2017 will see them coated with a whole new layer of aerosol art. The lineup for this year's street art festival features over over one hundred muralists and graffiti artists; it's the biggest roster CRUSH, which was founded in 2010, has hosted yet.

By Lila Thulin

August 28, 2017

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You might want to take an extra-long look at your favorite RiNo murals this week, because CRUSH 2017 will see them coated with a whole new layer of aerosol art.

The lineup for this year's street-art festival includes over 100 muralists and graffiti artists. It's the biggest roster that CRUSH, which was founded in 2010, has yet hosted. The list boasts 23 newcomers; in the past, CRUSH has served as a launch pad for many Denver artists getting into the medium of aerosol, like Thomas "Detour" Evans, whose murals now dot the city.

This year's participants include seventy Colorado artists, such as Jaime Molina and CRUSH founder Robin Munro (aka Dread), as well as thirty artists who'll travel to Denver for the festival, flying in from locations as far-flung as Juárez and London. Project director Lindsey Hendershot says she invited such artists as Los Angeles's MDMN and the Canadian duo clandestinos with the goal of "bringing new visuals to Denver."

When the complete schedule is released on August 29, it will include workshops on copyright law, a Saturday kids' paint wall, and screenings of the documentaries White Walls Say Nothing and Wall Writers, which detail art and activism in Buenos Aires and a history of graffiti, respectively. Meow Wolf is hosting its own pop-up gallery at 2750 Blake Street, too.

CRUSH begins on Monday, September 11; there will be a 5 p.m. kickoff party. From then until the festival concludes on September 17, you can catch artists at work throughout much of RiNo, from 24th and Arapahoe streets to East 40th Avenue and Williams Street.

For a complete list of featured artists and more details, visit crushwalls.org.

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Lila Thulin recently graduated from Stanford University, where she earned a Human Biology degree with a minor in Creative Writing (she also learned to bike no-handed). She’s an aficionado of libraries, bagels and art in all forms; she covers the latter as a Westword intern.

Contact: Lila Thulin

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Twitter: @LilaThulin