A massive, 4,000-square-foot mural - 160 feet in length by 20-feet tall – will be celebrated this weekend at Brentwood Community Days.
The two-day Brentwood event is hosted by developer Grosvenor at its site at 2150 Alpha Ave. in Burnaby.
The mural, commissioned by Grosvenor, is located on part of its site which is also the location of the Brentwood Great Takeout Food Truck Festival and Brentwood Artisan Farmers’ Market.
The new mural, entitled “Pursuit of Chance,” was painted over the course of three weeks by Vancouver-based artist Drew Young.
“The mural has a unique aesthetic, striking a balance between photo-realism and digital abstraction on a huge scale. It’s got one foot in the past and one in the future,” said Young, a prolific muralist who acts as curator and artistic director for the Vancouver Mural Festival. “I’m looking at the mural’s vibrancy as a forecast for the neighbourhood, a soon-to-be vibrant space.”
As the founder of Snag, a weekly live-painting exhibition focused on illuminating Vancouver’s alternative arts culture, Young has worked on hundreds of public art projects across the Lower Mainland, including the impossible-to-miss south Granville mural on the side of the Aritzia/TNA storefront.
“The Brentwood mural was an opportunity for me to create unhindered - it became a paramount piece for me, in regard to scale and complexity,” says Young. “It’s everything I've learned from practicing public art, acting as a representation of the 10-plus years of skills I've developed as a muralist and fine artist.”
The Brentwood food truck festival (Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and farmers’ market (Sundays, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) are held each weekend through September 2020 and October 2020, respectively.
