Hell’s Kitchen’s Colorful Renaissance: Initiative Sparks Drive for Murals Celebrating Neighborhood

Native Hell’s Kitchen muralist Koolcat Productions has been brightening up the neighborhood’s walls since 1994. He’s one of many artists who have filled the area with color in recent years, and he’s vying to keep going.

“I’d like to do a remix of my first one I did in ‘94, 30 years ago,” Koolcat told us. It would represent what to him is the essence of Hell’s Kitchen: “Nice funky devils, something to do with drugs, throw in a little rainbow there, you know?” That original mural stood on W52nd St.

Now, Councilmember Erik Bottcher is actively searching for property owners in District 3 (including all of Hell’s Kitchen south of W54th Street) who are interested in hosting murals on their buildings’ walls and other blank spaces.

“We believe that public art, especially wall murals, can do so much to uplift neighborhoods,” the councilmember told W42ST in an interview. “Murals can become beloved fixtures in a community that last for generations.”

Koolcat has been drawn to graffiti art since elementary school. He makes murals with “spray paint, no cut outs,” and his ideal wall is “anything that’s big and that’s public.”

When he first got started, Koolcat explained, “the passion was the lettering, the style, the colors, the bubbles. Everything just got me excited, and getting my name up was another thing.”

Koolcat’s most recent neighborhood artwork was a Hell’s Kitchen logo as the centerpiece of a new basketball court in the playground at Harborview Terrace , sponsored by billionaire Bill Ackman. The new murals at the public housing development painted over the artist’s previous iconic Hell’s Kitchen graffiti in the same location.

Hell’s Kitchen has a rich history of murals, such as Anton Refregier’s 1970 mosaic mural on the labor union 1199 SEIU’s old offices depicting Black and Puerto Rican union members which has since been relocated out of the neighborhood. A 1972 mural titled “Against Domestic Colonialism” by Arnold Belkin, currently covered by scaffolding at Mathews-Palmer Playground, may be lost due to construction work.

CM Bottcher said that local property owners and artists can contact his office directly to express interest in the new initiative. His staff is also proactively reaching out to property owners.

This new ‘call for the walls’ is wide open, and the only major criteria is that they be located above the ground floor of a building. That’s because there they won’t be easily vandalized, like when images of Dolly Parton and Betty White , the ‘patron saints’ of W47th St and 9th Ave, created by Captain Eyeliner, were tagged.

Since then, Hell’s Kitchen-raised street artist Hektad brought a ‘heartfelt’ revival to the same corner, a part of his May the Love Be With You series. His murals, along with work by artists BoogieRez and Queen Andrea , also adorn the fencing around the lot at 11th Ave and W41st St that property developer Silverstein would like to turn into a casino.

Last fall, artist Carlos Alberto painted a mural with a climate change message on the wall of the Javits Center, depicting animal species that are at risk of extinction and those that have recently seen a resurgence.

“Hopefully once we find success in getting some of these murals installed, property owners will see that it’s a painless process,” Bottcher said, “that enhances their property values and the whole neighborhood.”

Bottcher said he is in communication with two nonprofit organizations that will help paint and install murals. One is Yourban 2030 , dedicated to spreading awareness about the United Nations’ 2030 sustainability goals through public art, and the other is partnered with the Spanish consulate to create murals honoring the legacy of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso.

His office has been in touch with local muralists and other artists, Bottcher said. And New York City-based 501(c)3 nonprofits could potentially use City Council funds to help bring murals to life.

Bottcher has been calling for more murals on the west side for more than two years, and previously helped facilitate painting the bridges over some rail cuts in the neighborhood.

Property owners interested in bringing a mural to their building and local artists eager to create them can reach out to Councilmember Bottcher’s office at district3@council.nyc.gov

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