ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station is thrilled to welcome its latest Installation at the Station by internationally recognized contemporary artist, Hugo Crosthwaite. For sixteen days Crosthwaite will create sixteen site-specific and improvised outdoor murals that will transform Liberty Station’s monochromatic and rigid military base appearance into a creative space that reflects the Station’s growing arts and cultural community.

Crosthwaite will paint his improvisational murals based on his every day experiences at the ARTS DISTRICT, from the architecture to the Naval history to the individual people he meets each day while on-site from August 3rd to 17th. Crosthwaite explained, “I look forward to creating an improvised mural performance in a public, communal place that will lead to a conversation about the nature and impermanence of art. At its core, the project is simply about a man, a ladder and a paint brush.”

Visitors are invited and encouraged to watch, engage, and converse directly with the artist as he paints and creates before their very eyes. The title of Crosthwaite’s murals, Column A and Column B: A Continual Mural Narrative Performance, refers, in part, to the sixteen columns located in Barracks 14 (where the murals will be painted). “Ideologies, intrinsically neutral, are given power — by those who are interpreting them. Column A and Column B: A Continual Mural Narrative Performance is just an idea — until someone gives it personal weight and meaning.”

Born in Tijuana, Crosthwaite is heavily inspired by the heritage and uproar of border communities. His unique style combines portraiture, comic-style characters, urban street scenes, and mythological references into dense collage-like installations that leave visitors feeling the chaos, beauty, and spontaneity of border towns like Tijuana and San Diego.

Located close to ARTS DISTRICT residents such as Point Loma Tea and The Hot Spot, this live-painting project presents a unique opportunity for the San Diego community to see and be a direct part of the creation of contemporary art in a public place while taking in the art and community of ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station.