Photo Gallery

10 Wisconsin Avenue Mini-Murals

Artist Mauricio Ramirez's murals on 10 Wisconsin Ave. utility boxes are complete. Take a look.

By - Jul 11th, 2017 04:35 pm
Mayor Tom Barrett congratulates Mauricio Ramirez. Photo by Alexandra Mucks.

Mayor Tom Barrett congratulates Mauricio Ramirez. Photo by Alexandra Mucks.

The much ballyhooed sculpture installation on Wisconsin Ave. isn’t the only arts project on the city’s main street. The Arts on Wisconsin Avenue program held a ribbon-cutting ceremony today on the corner of Wisconsin and Jefferson to celebrate the new mini-murals designed and created by visual artist Mauricio Ramirez. His murals can be found on 10 utility boxes on Wisconsin Avenue from Cass Street to 9th Street.

Lex Allen performs with DJ Shawna at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Photo by Alexandra Mucks.

Lex Allen performs with DJ Shawna at the ribbon cutting ceremony. Photo by Alexandra Mucks.

Local musicians Lex Allen and DJ Shawna performed, Pilcrow Coffee Roasters served their cold brew and food trucks Meat on the Street and Cupcake-A-Rhee served their specialties as the crowd gathered to watch Mayor Tom Barrett cut the ribbon alongside Ramirez.

Beth Weirick, CEO of Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21, which oversaw and paid for the project, told Urban Milwaukee’s Brandon Anderegg, “This is the year of Wisconsin Avenue. There is so much momentum along the avenue and the utility box project is just one of the many developments adding vibrancy to our historic main street.”

Milwaukee Downtown filed a request for creativity (RFC) this winter inviting artists to design artwork that would bring ordinarily overlooked parts of the city — namely, utility boxes — to life.

According to the RFC, Ramirez was selected as Wisconsin Avenue’s artist in residence by the Downtown Placmaking Task Force, composed of local artists and architects and representatives from various organizations like the Milwaukee Arts Board, BID #21 and the City Department of Public Works.

Anderegg offered more details on the initiative:

This project is intended to bring awareness of Milwaukee’s creative community as well as establish Wisconsin Avenue as the city’s historic main street. The organization hopes that the final designs will reflect Wisconsin Avenue’s rich history of architecture, commerce, diversity, people and the city’s bright future. 

Ramirez has created murals for companies like Microsoft, Warner Music Group, VitaminWater and Red Bull and has shown his work at galleries in Milwaukee, Chicago and Springfield.

Location of Boxes

  • 800 E. Wisconsin Ave. at NE Wis/Cass (NM Bus Stop)
  • 650 N. Jackson Street SE Corner Jackson/Wisconsin (Across from Fed Courthouse)
  • 401 E. Wisconsin Ave. SW Corner Wis/Jefferson
  • 411 E. Wisconsin Ave. SE Corner Wis/Milwaukee
  • 200 E. Wisconsin Ave. NE Corner Wis/Water
  • 707 N. Plankinton Ave. NW Corner Wis/Plankington (At MO’s Irish Pub)
  • 703 N. 2nd St. NW Corner Wis/2nd
  • 300 W. Wisconsin Ave. NW Corner Wis/3rd
  • 700 N. 6th St. NE Corner Wis/6th (at convention center)
  • 706 N. 9th St. NE Corner Wis/9th.

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7 thoughts on “Photo Gallery: 10 Wisconsin Avenue Mini-Murals”

  1. Gary Rebholz says:

    Wow, saw him in the act of painting these while I was on a MCTS bus – you see all kinds of crazy stuff riding the bus 😉
    I hope he’ll be asked to do the same to improve the “Art Stop” installation of the bus shelter in Bay View. 8-(

    http://archive.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/bay-view-artbus-shelter-would-honor-city-workers-gift-7360jq0-161378695.html/

  2. Begonia says:

    Is Mauricio Ramirez a Milwaukee resident? It would be great to do a profile on him. I’m curious to see more of his work!

  3. judith moriarty says:

    this artist would appear to deserve more than utility box art. how was this funded and what was the artist’s fee? years ago a local “art” maven consigned artist to “improve” trash cans…please, can’t we do better than this? I hope Tom Bamberger addresses this….

  4. steve Marcus says:

    Mauricio Ramirez work on the utility boxes is very special. A wonderful complement to Sculpture Milwaukee.

  5. Tom bamberger says:

    Actually I (Tom Bamberger) met the artist while shooting the sculpture project on Wisconsin Avenue. Nice guy who told me he wants to move to Milwaukee.

    And talented, he has a poppy style and is able to put a smile on anything he touches.

    I started writing about it and then Ramirez told me he is just illustrating themes and ideas that were given to him by his sponsor. You know, happy stories about Milwaukee. There is nothing wrong with that, someone has to do these things. It reminded me of when the church commissioned artists to tell their story, which being a Jew was not my story. So I dropped it.

  6. Tom bamberger says:

    PS. The idea of Modern Art, or rather art in the modern world, is the artists gets to tell their story or no story at all.

  7. Molly O says:

    Like it a lot.

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