Today – Monday, Nov. 23 – at 3 p.m., Milwaukee muralist Mauricio Ramirez will begin painting a colorful, abstract work in the BMO Tower Tenant Commons, an interior space that connects 770 and 790 N. Water St.
In spring, Irgens Partners, which owns the buildings, installed Radcliffe Bailey’s “Pensive” sculpture in a plaza near the entrance of 790 N. Water St.
The 12x30-foot mural that Ramirez will paint will be in the same area where a new Fiddleheads cafe is expected to open soon.
Here's where the mural will go.
Construction on the cafe, the first in the City of Milwaukee for the Thiensville-based Fiddleheads, is underway.
“Aside from Fiddleheads, we are looking at activating that space as well as the BMO retail space, the bank space and even the lower levels to create a vibrancy for the entire complex, says Steve Palec, the chief marketing officer for Irgens.
Ramirez has painted numerous public artworks around the city and his portraits of influential Milwaukeeans adorn a series of utility boxes on sidewalks around Downtown.
His BMO Tower work is expected to be completed by Wednesday or Thursday.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
