A Love Letter to the City

Stretched across city walls and along rooftops, Stephen Powers´s colorful large-scale murals sneak up on you. "Open your eyes / I see the sunrise," "If you were here I´d be home," "Forever begins when you say yes." What at first looks like nothing as much as an advertisement suddenly becomes something grander and more mysterious, a hand-painted love letter at billboard size. Combining community activism and public art, Powers and his team of sign mechanics collaborate with a neighborhood´s residents to create visual jingles, sincere and often poignant affirmations and confessions that reflect the collective hopes and dreams of the host community. A Love Letter to the City gathers the artist´s powerful public art project for the first time, including murals on the walls and rooftops of Brooklyn and Syracuse, New York; Philadelphia; Dublin and Belfast, Ireland; S.o Paolo, Brazil, and Johannesburg, South Africa.