If you’ve spent any time in downtown San Jose, you’ve probably noticed the city has a pretty good mural game. Our creative community has done its best to beat back the forces of blandness and turn this into a city that sees a blank space as an opportunity to add to the urban art gallery around us.
That didn’t happen overnight, though, and you could easily fill Plaza de Cesar Chavez with the people who’ve helped make it happen, from the individual artists to the groups that support them — Local Color, the San Jose Downtown Association, the San Jose Sharks and the San Jose Museum of Art among them.
And a key part of that effort has been San Jose Walls, the public art festival that is produced by Empire Seven Studios – the Japantown gallery that was founded 17 years ago by Juan Carlos Araujo and Jennifer Ahn.
“Qualities of Life,” a mural by twin-brother artist team How and Nosm, was painted on the back wall of the former Valley Title building in dowtown San Jose in 2018 for the San Jose Walls festival, which was then known as Pow!Wow! San Jose. (Sal Pizarro/Bay Area News Group)
The weeklong celebration returns this weekend for its ninth year — and it’s safe to say that it’s going to be bigger than ever. Araujo, Ahn and Director of Strategy Stacey Kellogg have brought together a collection of six artists or artist teams this year with their creative sights set on San Jose’s historic Japantown district.
“At its core, the mission is simple but powerful: to uplift neighborhoods through public art,” Araujo said in a blog post about San Jose Walls. “What started out of necessity — due to funding challenges and the loss of our physical gallery — has now come full circle. We’ve helped create over 100 murals throughout San Jose, transforming once-blank walls into symbols of identity, culture, and resilience.”
The festival — which was originally known as Pow!Wow! San Jose — launches Saturday with a retrospective exhibition at Empire Seven Studios, at 525 N. Seventh St., featuring work from nearly 30 artists who have been part of what Araujo describes as an “exhilarating mural-painting marathon.” The reception, with music and snacks, runs from 6 to 9 p.m., but the exhibition will be up through July.
On Thursday, the gallery will host an artists talk at 7 p.m. “Building Brands from a Creative Practice” will feature Brooklyn artist Kevin Lyon — known for his playful, colorful monster characters — and 123KLAN, the Venice, California-based crew founded by French-Canadian graffiti duo Scien & Klor, whose work merges graffiti art with graphic design.
The other artists who’ll be working during San Jose Walls have vastly different backgrounds and styles from California-based wire artist Spenser Little to husband-and-wife artists Darren and Trisha Inouye, who work under the name Giorgiko.
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Visitors can take in all the artistry in the Japantown neighborhood on an art walk, scheduled from noon to 6 p.m. on June 7, that includes about a dozen stops in the historic neighborhood including Roy’s Station, Know Future Gallery, Zonkey and Cukui. There’s a lot more information available about the artists and the events at the San Jose Walls website, www.sjwalls.com, and on its Instagram page.
SHAKING IT UP: A pair of upcoming productions are putting a modern spin on two classic Shakespeare plays. Sara Dean is directing and choreographing a huge cast for a musical comedy version of “Twelfth Night,” which opens at Los Altos Stage Company on Friday and runs through June 22. Get the details at www.losaltosstage.org.
And Silicon Valley Shakespeare will open its summer season June 6 with “The Tempest,” directed by Drew Benjamin Jones. The twist here is that it’s being seen through the lens of a Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game campaign, which makes sense for a play with a flash of magic in it. The show will be presented at Willow Street Frank Bramhall Park in San Jose on weekends through June 22, and admission is free. Get more information at www.svshakespeare.org/tempest.
ON YOUR MARKS: There’s going to be a lot of the old runaround in San Jose this weekend, as more than 5,000 people have registered to take part in the San Jose Half-Marathon and 8K races on Saturday and Sunday. There are a trio of events Saturday morning — the Thrive Shakeout Run, Speed City Mile and Kaiser Permanente Kids Fun Run — at Santana Row, with the Speed City Mile featuring 20 high-school athletes competing in the invitation-only event. The Blue House Band will perform at 11 a.m. after that set of races.
Sunday morning, the half-marathon and 8K runners will start and finish at Santana Row, with the 8K doing a loop at the scenic Municipal Rose Garden and the half-marathoners continuing on along The Alameda and Santa Clara Street past SAP Center and through downtown before heading back to the Row.
Both races conclude with the famous Mariachi Mile, just to add a little oomph to your finish. No matter who finishes first, the big winner is Special Olympics Northern California, the race’s beneficiary. Participants had raised about two-thirds of a $10,000 donation goal as of Thursday. Whether you’re running, planning to cheer on the runners or just avoid the closed streets, you can get race times, registration information and course maps at sanjosehalfmarathon.com.