The Speed of Dreams (Time and Space) (2024)
LOCATION: CHESTNUT STREET > PENNINGTON STREET
The Speed of Dreams (Time and Space) is a 20,000-square-foot artwork spans from Chestnut St. to Pennington St., representing the multitude of communities rooted in Newark. The mural depicts our various identities not through a lens of difference but through reflection and relativity to one another.
The Speed of Dreams is a dream sequence of 5 people that are representations of contemporary communities living in the city of Newark. The figures portraits are of the Latino (Caribbean, Ecuadorian and Brazilian), African, and African-American communities in Newark. Each of these groups has their origin stories of how they came about to make up what we know as Newark today. Often these communities are trivialized, overlooked, and under-celebrated when it comes to being represented in large-scale public art. The mural has each person dreaming of flora and fauna from their ancestral homelands within the context of one Newark’s busiest transportation throughways.
Assisted by Lucinda Yrene. Ruth Jampol, Malik Whitaker
Mata Ruda
MATA RUDA (Karl Miller Espinosa) (b. 1989) is a Latin-American artist and muralist who was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, and lived in Caracas, Venezuela, until he was 11 years old when he moved with his family to the United States. In 2012, he graduated from MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art) with a BFA in Painting and is currently attending The University of Arizona teaching undergrad illustration, seeking his MFA and is due to graduate in Spring 2019. Using iconography from both sides of the border, he creates a variety of murals and paintings that empower overlooked communities, illustrate local cultures, and speak about contemporary social issues.
Many of his murals and projects also lend a special focus on humanity’s relationship with the environment and how understanding one’s surroundings and rediscovering nature can be mind-opening and spiritual healing. His work has been exhibited by esteemed institutions, including but not limited to the Newark Museum, El Museo Barrio in Harlem, the Street Art Museum in Russia, and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. Since 2012, he has been invited to travel and paint various commissioned public murals worldwide including Russia, Puerto Rico, Ukraine, Mexico, and dozens of cities throughout the United States.
Instagram: @mataruda
"This wall was loosely based on a quote by Richard Wright:
'I was leaving the South to fling myself into the unknown... I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns and, perhaps, to bloom.'
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Mata Ruda is an artist, activist, and archivist who currently lives in Newark, NJ. He was born in San Jose, Costa Rica and lived in Caracas, Venezuela until he was 11 when he immigrated to the USA. Using iconography from both regions, he has painted a variety of murals and paintings that empower overlooked communities and cultures.
His work has been part of the Newark Museum, El Museo Barrio, The Painted Desert Project, and Calle 13’s Multi_Viral. By acknowledging the violence that occurs around the United States/Mexico border, and celebrating the resiliency of those who attempt to cross it, his artwork monumentalizes facets of the immigrant experience.
Mata Ruda currently has one additional mural in the City of Newark. The mural was created with the Model Neighborhood Initiative, and can be found on Springfield Avenue.