Online marketplace aligns artists with developers to create a deeper sense of community by connecting muralists to public art commissions
WXLLSPACE , the art-tech platform that matches artists with real estate owners who want to commission available wall space for mural installations, has been growing, fielding hundreds of proposals for new murals.
“Our goal is to align artists with visionary property owners, empowering them to project their shared vision for all to see – while increasing property values,” explained Jordan Giha, WXLLSPACE’s founder. “We bridge the gap between muralists and real estate owners so together they can enable creative placemaking and community development.”
One of the newest murals generated by the WXLLSPACE market place was created by Ben Keller for Miami Art Basel 2021 in December.
Another example is an illustration a Philadelphia artist produced for a retail storefront by Rappaport in Washington, D.C.’s cultural H Street corridor. The artist Kyle Confehr created a cartoon illustration on window vinyl to incorporate many of the area’s moments. This proved WXLLSPACE’s versatility and offers commercial and retail tenants an opportunity to use colorful imagery while allowing artists to be creative not just through spray paint.
“For me, it’s all about facilitating more street art as a way to get people outside, exploring their neighborhoods. As the pandemic still has been affecting the public’s mobility and comfort in public spaces, this goal is more critical than ever,” Giha said. “I came up with the idea of WXLLSPACE during the global pandemic shutdown. We all needed more art on the streets because museums and galleries were closed. And we see that we’re still being careful because of Covid-19 so we’ll continue matching artists and owners.
WXLLSPACE sources available vertical real estate and connects owners with available artists to turn the wall space (hence WXLLSPACE)into a positive and uplifting environment through public street art. The platform works by letting real estate owners post their projects and proposed fees to https://wxllspace.com/. From there, muralists can quickly respond with their interest. Previous methods for this process were timely and extremely inefficient. This art-tech platform brings artists who are available and within budget directly to the owners. WXLLSPACE facilitates the process of artists transforming spaces into paid opportunities.
“The value-add for real estate developers is data: We’re collecting analytics for them to quantify the value of foot traffic and social engagement to eventually relate to property valuations when their property ultimately trades,” Giha said. “We’re hyper focused on art, expression and community development. To real estate developers, we’ve developed an opportunity to connect with talented and dedicated mural artists who now have a place to find opportunities to create. We’re aiming to paint every available wall.”
