As Snack Boys prepares to open its new East Side location in the former Hotel Foster / Globe East, 2028 E. North Ave., next week, we got another peek at the colorful murals painted inside over the winter by local installation artist Kristina Rolander.
OnMilwaukee also got a video tour of the space in a Facebook live in late April.
Snack Boys will begin taking table reservations Wednesday for next week. Follow the restaurant on Instagram for details.
Rolander, a Santa Cruz native and Milwaukee resident (pictured below in front of one of the murals) – and MIAD grad – painted six walls in the building, which has a long history on the East Side. (You can read about that here.)
The work is called "Neon Forest Remix," and shows flowers and ferns and other shapes in bright colors on a dark background.
"The (artwork) really sets the tone for the look we're going for," co-owner John Revord told OnMilwaukee in February.
Among Rolander's many works – which you can see here – is the monochromatic 2017 backdrop at the Cactus Club – titled "Op Art Psychedelia" – which is appropriate as she has often collaborated with musicians.
(PHOTO: Joey Grihalva)
Rolander was one of the official artists at the 2017 Eaux Claires festival for which she created a design for the stage upon which Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon and The National’s Aaron Dessner debuted their Big Red Machine collaboration.
Rolander is currently part of a team of artists creating murals at Bayshore Town Center.
(PHOTO: Joey Grihalva)
Snack Boys, which is moving from Walker’s Point, had hoped to open in March, but the shutdown delayed that a bit.
During the painting of the murals, Rolander shared progress on her Instagram account, too:
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.
