GAP+VICE #BACKTOBLUE

Art of Blue is a global arts collaboration between Gap and VICE, featuring the original work of today’s most gifted emerging artists, each of whom will create a large-scale public mural in six cities (New York, Paris, London, Rome, San Francisco, Los Angeles). The collaboration aimed to empower a new generation of artists and give them a bigger platform to show their work and inspire people in cities around the world. The first mural opened in New York, on Kenmare & Elizabeth Streets, as part of a global launch event.

Designed and painted by Roman Grandinetti of CNNCTD, the Kenmare mural tells the story of the underground NYC art scene and pays tribute to the institutions that support urban artists that operate outside of the gallery world. Themed “organized confusion”, Grandinetti’s mural design reflects simultaneous order and disorder, a beautiful and arresting puzzle consisting of paint applied via fire extinguisher, overlaid with phone numbers corresponding to 15 specific downtown locations who support the arts. From New Museum to Galli Restaurant – where local artists design its interior, to Kinko’s – where even the most rebellious graffiti artist prints stencils, this mural depicts the real life of a street level creative in NYC.

CNNCTD played a key role in bringing Gap and VICE's vision for their Art of Blue campaign to life. Initially brought in as a creative partner for the Art of Blue, CNNCTD quickly found itself handling multiple aspects of the art project. "We became the whole production crew," says CNNCTD founder, Roman Grandinetti. "We were handling everything from creative direction to art direction to video production to marketing to public relations. It was then that it was realized that even though CNNCTD was a baby agency, that it could do just about everything for a company, almost without thinking."