To The Polls (2020)

What is your plan to vote this year?

  • location LOVE Park
  • Neighborhood

    Center City

  • completion date

    November 03, 2020

To the Polls Process Photos 

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • To The Polls 2020 in-process at Love Park. Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • To The Polls 2020 in-process at Love Park. Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • To The Polls 2020 in-process at Love Park. Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • To The Polls 2020 in-process at Love Park. Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • To The Polls 2020 in-process at Love Park. Photo by Steve Weinik.

  • To The Polls 2020 in-process at Love Park. Photo by Steve Weinik.

What is your plan to vote this year? This might be the most crucial election our country has ever seen – so voting is more important than ever! To the Polls features six large-scale temporary mural installations at LOVE Park intended to excite the electorate and explore their reasons for voting. Curated by Conrad Benner, the Philadelphia-based artists include D’nae Harrison, Candy Alexandra González, Kah Yangni, Khalid Dennis (aka BKLvisions), Hysterical Men, and Nathaniel Lee.

Artists 

D'nae Harrison

(pronouns: she/her)

D’nae Harrison is an Award-winning Interdisciplinary Artist from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 2014, she obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The Pennsylvania State University. In 2017, the City of Philadelphia commissioned D'nae to create a 52 in x 52 in oil painting, which remains downtown on permanent display. During the same year, her work featured with Six Summit Gallery for NYFW '17 (Fall). In 2018, her work showcased at the former Robert Miller Gallery in Chelsea, Manhattan during the Eminent Domain exhibition. D’nae is currently focused on creating a public art initiative dedicated to improving the quality of life in distressed and impoverished neighborhoods.

Candy Alexandra González

(pronouns: they/them)

Candy Alexandra González is a Little Havana-born and raised, Philadelphia-based, multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, activist and trauma-informed educator. Currently, Candy’s artwork explores themes of body politics, fat phobia and self-healing through photography, poetry, printmaking and papermaking. Candy received their MFA in Book Arts + Printmaking from the University of the Arts in 2017. Since graduating, they have been a 40th Street Artist-in-Residence in West Philadelphia, a West Bay View Fellow at Dieu Donné in Brooklyn, NY, and a Picasso Project Resident Artist at Kensington Health Sciences Academy in North Philadelphia.

Kah Yangni

(pronouns: they/them)

Kah Yangni is a self-taught illustrator and muralist living in Philadelphia, PA. They make heartfelt art about justice, queerness, and joy. Their clients include the New York Times, Vice, BUST Magazine, the Movement for Black Lives, Rock the Vote, the National Women’s Law Center, the Transgender Law Center, and others. They've presented their work for the Poster House in NYC and the RISD Museum, and their work has been featured in Them, Mashable, Hyperallergic, and Colorlines.

Khalid Dennis a.k.a BKLvisions

(pronouns: he/him)

Khalid Dennis a.k.a BKLVISIONS is a Philadelphia based Urban Abstract artist who does various mediums of art. Khalid was born in Northeast Philly and raised in north Philly where he attended Girard college boarding school from 1st to 12th grade. At the age of 13 Khalid discovered that he had a gift for creating art. BKL creates expressive style of art on paper, canvas, clothing, and walls. Using spray paints, High flow acrylics, heavy body paint, mixed media, raw materials, 3D paint, etc. Khalid appreciates the urban Culture because it continuously inspires him.BKL is also part owner of BKLvisions x 2.O.G an multi-Creative art company Located in The Globe Dye works warehouse. Khalid’s Vision is to share his art with the world, to encourage and increase LOVE in the city of brotherly love and throughout the world.

Hysterical Men

(pronouns: she/her)

Hysterical Men (aka Hysterical) is a street artist based in Philadelphia, PA. Her work was born out a cauldron of unexpressed anger. While a lifetime spent as a woman had gradually shortened the fuse, the Kavanaugh hearings were the match that lit that very short fuse. Hysterical Men exploded out of the artist and onto the Philadelphia streets shortly after. Hysterical's work turns negative stereotypes of women around on the men who embody those stereotypes more accurately. By doing so she highlights the double standards that exist in our culture for male vs. female behavior. These double standards are infinitely compounded for women of color. Hysterical's work is also a vehicle for critiquing United States culture, government and the Trump Administration's cruel and inhumane policies and practices. Hysterical's work has been shown at the Trolley Shop, Little Berlin, Tattooed Mom’s and walls all over Philadelphia and New York City.

Nathaniel Lee

(pronouns: he/him)

Nathaniel Lee graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia with a BFA in Illustration in 2004. He has a background in stained glass and has worked on staff with Mural Arts Philadelphia since 2007. Nathaniel started as the Mural Crew Leader of the Operations department where he provided artistic and technical support for the projects. He is now one of Mural Arts' full-time staff muralists who specializes in portraiture and glass mosaics.

An additional structure will feature Aram Han Sifuentes‘s Voting Station for the Disenfranchised, which collects ballots from those who can’t legally vote, as well as artwork from students in our Art Education classes that highlight artistic responses to the current political climate from youth voices. More than 1/4 of the U.S. population cannot vote, the largest demographic of that population being young people. This installation will amplify the voices of young people who lack decision-making power and lift up others who cannot vote such as undocumented people, residents of U.S. Territories, and in many states, those currently and formerly incarcerated. New artworks will rotate on the wall over the course of the month and anyone can cast a vote through Aram’s project at officialunofficial.vote.

The temporary installations will be on display in LOVE park from October 2 through Election Day on November 3.

#ToThePolls2020

In the News 

Murals sprout in LOVE Park urging Philadelphians to vote – WHYY October 7, 2020
You Oughta Know – WHYY October 15, 2020
Colorful and Loving Murals in Philadelphia Are Inspiring People to Vote – Hyperallergic October 19, 2020

Curated by 

Conrad Benner, StreetsDept.com

Funder 

City of Philadelphia

Media Partner