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KT Merz
TRANSFORMING HISTORY AND COMMUNITY INTO ART
A life-long resident of Brooklyn, Katie Merz (“KT”) has become New York’s most renowned contemporary muralist and street artist. KT earned a BFA of Fine Art from Cooper Union School in NYC and has exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum and at institutions across the United States. She is also a professor at the Copper Union School of Art, where she was recently recognized with the August St. Gaudens Award for Lifetime Achievement.
"My parents let us run wild. I grew up in Brooklyn, in the city, and we played on the streets a lot, created things, games, buildings, drawings. And in the backyard, there were bizarre things that we would make - just worlds. I realized that this free way of playing and my magical thinking was a gateway to become an artist"
KT’s work translates the history, personality and culture of a location down to its purest forms: glyphs comprised of both words and icons, densely sandwiched in wild orientations across local landmarks. By collaborating with A-Street Prints, KT brings some of her most iconic URBNGLYPHS™ murals to its newest location: your home.
URBNGLYPHS™ MURAL COLLECTION
BKLYN NAVY YARD
The Brooklyn Navy Yard in New York commissioned KT Merz to create the original mural, which appears in the main lobby of Building 11, in 2019.
Given access to the Yard's archives, KT created a compacted illustrated map based on its history; the symbols and hieroglyphs contain hundreds of elemental details about workers, naval officers, events, ship names and logs, naval blueprints, and other signigicant locational details while the base color is reminiscent of the hull of a ship.
BUSHWICK BKLYN BLUE WALL
Originally commissioned for Citibike, the NYC bike share company, this mural by KT Merz can be found in the epicenter of Bushwick.
While the base color is Citibike Blue, the design itself is an homage to architecture and to KT's parents, who were both practicing architects in New York City.
The facade has been featured in numerous ads and commercials and is the vibrant center of the mural-filled Bushwick neighborhood.
The Brooklyn Bank in NYC was built in 1931 and served the community for nearly 60 years before being converted into a church. In 2019, the building reverted to its banking roots and became a financial literacy center for the neighborhood. KT Merz was commissioned to embellish the building with characters that blend banking themes with neighborhood identifiers against a matte black backdrop.
