This past weekend, a few of us were so lucky to have been invited to Blind Whino, a project by the G40 Art Summit, and backed by Heineken Mural Project. I can't stress how extremely happy I am that we decided to attend, and how grateful I am that we were invited by Art Whino to attend in VIP fashion. This party that Heineken so generously hosted, was the official Heineken Mural Project VIP Launch Party. As a venue for many events to come, it was pretty cool to be able to step foot inside Blind Whino a little sooner than some.
We stepped inside the Beer Garden area, after a bit of a wait in the line outside. Everyone was eager to enter, and the vibe was on-point. Music booming, people chatting, and of course beer flowing...we couldn't wait to get our wrist bands and become part of the buzz. Above is what you'll see as you step up to Blind Whino, which has been an on-going project lead up by the G40 Art Summit and Premiere Events Venue. The building, previously vacant for two decades, obviously was a very Gothic-esque church in its time.
Out in the beer garden, a large canvas sat upright for guests to leave their signature upon. Unfortunately by the time we got to it, it looked like most of the paint and ink had been used up.
Someone found some..
Inside the building was definitely more hectic and overwhelming than outside. Almost every inch of interior was covered in mural or painting, if not having some type of art from the exhibit being displayed.
There was a DJ set going on for folks on the first floor..
..while there was a live performance taking place upstairs.
Back on level one, each little corridor of a room displayed art pieces from several different artists. Some of these pieces might be recognized from Art Whino's gallery back at National Harbor. Some of the pieces were ones I hadn't seen before which was awesome. And of course, some Angry Woebots were present, so all was well!
The above landing shows the north stairwell leading to the second floor...
...while the above shows the south stairwell. With extremely different themes, both
were very intriguing and lured you further up and up.
Wall murals on the second floor, which focused mainly around the performers' stage, had such emotional colors. I feel as though upstairs had some sort of living and breathing atmosphere with an aura about it, and made you feel a very specific way - in a good demeanor.
The mural literally extended from the floorboards, to the walls, onto the ceiling, and all the way to the back of the room. Like I said, you get very sucked-in to this environment. Above is an image of the art extending all the way from the stage and back to nearly the edge of the room on the ceiling.
A close-up of the colors, textures, and noise that the paint creates throughout the room.
And what would a D.C. event be without a food truck present?! The team inside this smaller cart were serving up food of the cheesesteak and gyro variety. I cannot tell you how happy this dude was to soon be eating his fresh cheesesteak with Old Bay sprinkled in. Sadly, as 11PM rolled around, we migrated our way back to the front gates, chatted and waited around a bit before eventually heading-out. I'm really stoked that we made it out to see Blind Whino, and just generally felt great about attending the event. Can't wait to head back for future events, which look like they will be taking place several times a week in the near future. To learn more about the Heineken Mural Project, check out the link below! Bushido!
