The Bombin’ Wealth Strikes Back: Boston’s Underground Art Community

“I remember when I was a freshman. I got stuck in the Berklee bubble. I just pictured myself as a freshman getting planted into this and just being like ‘holy god’,” Zebulon Krol of Allston-based band Mornin’ Old Sport said.

Krol, now graduated from Berklee College of Music, was referring to the booming community of young artists and bands in Boston and the city’s surrounding neighborhoods.

And if you don’t leave the swaddling comfort of Comm. Ave. now and then, you just might miss the explosion.

Last March, Krol and street artist Iansanity of Allston launched the Bombin’ Wealth, an interactive art showcase. Their second installation, the Bombin’ Wealth Strikes Back, dropped Saturday, Sept. 11 at the Cambridge Family YMCA in Central Square.

Photo by Bombin' Wealth

The event featured live music by local bands Mornin’ Old Sport, Gentlemen Hall, Dirty Dishes, Defcon, Mighty Tiny, The Anymen, Ming Ming Dance Company and The Points North, as well as live painting by artists Iansanity, Chris Mindle and Sol Nine.

Other artists–including Madness 2012, Meg Leary, Maker, Short Stack, Super Kings Win and Kimieye–displayed and sold their artwork while the bands took to the stage. In one corner of the small theater, attendants painted on a large, white sheet of paper and created a collective art piece.

“I’ve always been really into art, and I met the street artists around here…and they’re phenomenal” Krol said. “They’re putting out tons of work, and I just wanted to try to give them another venue to sell their art and get exposure.”

Lena Gustafson, an undergraduate illustration student at the Art Institute of Boston, has lived in Boston for about four years and has found hardly any galleries for young artists, she said.

“There aren’t a lot of places where artists and musicians can show their work,” Gustafson said. “The only other places where I’ve seen this kind of thing are at house shows.” Holding the event in a public space gets it more respect, she said.

As compared to the first Bombin’ Wealth, “the art this year is at the next level,” Boston graffiti artist Sol Nine said. He was painting a winged gorrilla, a parody of the Wizard of Oz apes, combining fine art and street art styles.

Sol Nine said that the event was a good metaphor for the Boston art scene. “The people make really clever art, but in terms of engaging the public, they have a way to go,” Sol Nine said.

And the competition’s fierce.

“You see something like 20,000 advertisements everyday,” Krol said. “It’s put in front of you, so you just take that soda and drink it, and you don’t know about all the other stuff that’s available.”

Through Bombin’ Wealth, Krol said he hopes to bring more attention to this lively, less-recognized community, not only so that the artists and musicians can eventually quit their day jobs, but also to get people to venture out once in a while and have some fun.

To see some of the Bombin’ Wealth artists’ work, check out the exhibit at Orchard Skateshop’s Extension Gallery at 156 Harvard Ave. in Allston, which features artists Iansanity, Sol Nine and Madness 2012. Today is the last day of the exhibit, so stop by before 9 p.m.!

2 Comments on “The Bombin’ Wealth Strikes Back: Boston’s Underground Art Community”

  1. none of these people are or have been graffiti icons in boston. the truth is they have never done it and try to get recognition off of people who really do it

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