Virgil Abloh Featured Among Trailblazers in New Mural – WWD

While Drake got a tattoo to pay tribute to Virgil Abloh and other creatives acknowledged his death in different ways, a muralist is recognizing the late designer with the hope of inspiring future generations.

Halfway through painting a mural in Miami featuring Abloh, Kyle Holbrook expects to finish the project within the next week. More than just an image of Abloh, the artist is also picturing an eye and other motifs as a symbol of Abloh’s vision and his role as a visionary. In 2002, Holbrook founded the Moving the Lives of Kids Community Mural Project, a public arts project focusing on the arts, youth development and education. In the past two decades he has painted murals in dozens of countries. Holbrook plans to send an image of the mural to Abloh’s family once it is completed.

Holbrook said of his latest project: “It’s for Virgil and for something larger — his life as an inspiration for many.”

Before taking on his unprecedented role at Louis Vuitton, Abloh started Off-White and collaborated on a myriad of projects with other brands. Noting Abloh’s accomplishments are certainly something to aspire to, Holbrook said: “As a Black artist, it’s also inspiring to see the possibilities of a career within the arts and being at the top of the art world. I really love his thoughts, his choice of colors, the spacing, his use of geometric shapes and the arrow. As an artist, I just see him as a genius.”

The former Louis Vuitton artistic director of men’s is featured amid such other groundbreaking forces as Martin Luther King Jr., Maya Angelou and August Wilson.

As for those who might not believe Abloh belongs in such illustrious ranks due to his age or that fashion isn’t considered part of the arts, Holbrook said he put a lot of thought into that. Featuring Abloh with such visionaries puts into perspective the impact that he had, Holbrook said. “It was done on purpose to have people think of him in that context,” the muralist said.

Holbrook said Wilson, Angelou and others were trailblazers and at the top of their respective fields, as well as being African American. “If you put it in that context, he was the greatest fashion designer or Black artist easily, in my opinion. He was certainly one of the trailblazers. And providing inspiration to other African Americans and to Black culture is the tie-in that all of them have.”

Holbrook is using what he described as “the Rolls Royce of lifts” — an all-terrain, gas-powered 65-foot lift — to paint the mural. Instead of using a video projection on a wall and tracing that image with paint, Holbrook paints it all. “I don’t use projectors. Every artist has their own style and I’m not taking away from anyone’s style. It’s essentially tracing when you’re [using] a projector,” he said. “For me, the proportions are part of the art. It’s almost like sculpting. It involves constantly stepping back.”

The idea is that fans and passersby will see Abloh’s likeness and visual cues of his thoughts and ideas. Stretching 50 feet in height and 25 feet across, the mural is located in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood. The mural was commissioned by Louis Wolfson 2nd, founding partner of Pinnacle Housing Group, and his company. The art is located on one of Pinnacle’s buildings.

Louis Vuitton staged a tribute to Abloh last month with a men’s wear show and event in Miami. Street artist Alec Monopoly also created a mural of Abloh in Miami in November. Earlier this month a painting of the late designer by pop artist Rob Prior that came with an NFT version sold for $1 million.

Having always worked in the arts, Holbrook said fashion was his first love. After majoring in graphic design, he graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh. His first clothing line was called Streetology and about four years later he started KH Designs. Holbrook designed men’s, women’s and children’s clothing with graphic designs, hand painting, imagery and some one-of-a-kind styles.

Started in 1997, Streetology consisted of apparel imprinted with neighborhood references like local landmarks, sculptures or street names. Holbrook would drive to different neighborhoods and sell out custom items from the trunk of his car usually in one full swoop. “I see fashion and art as all within the arts. All of the arts coincide to some degree,” he said.

After the Streetology team turned in another direction artistically, Holbrook left to start KH Designs. That label was sold via kiosks in shopping malls. As a result of a downturn in foot traffic due to many mall-based retailers shifting more toward online sales, Holbrook wound up stuck with too much inventory — 400 units or so — in 2013. That challenging year prompted him to focus more on art.

The payout for completing a large mural — $25,000 for one senior-year project that required two weeks of work — was a factor in venturing more toward art. “There is only so much money that I can make from doing something in two weeks, so then I got hope from there. That led to another mural and another mural. There hasn’t been a time that I haven’t been doing a mural in 20 years,” Holbrook said. “But I’ve really made it a goal of mine this year, partially because of Virgil’s passing, to make sure that I focus on fashion again.”

With 20 years of experience in painting murals, Holbrook has seen how interest in them as a medium has changed. Asked how murals resonate today with the public versus earlier this year when some were used powerfully to convey messages of social justice following the police murder of George Floyd, Holbrook said: “I have always used public art as some type of education or inspiration tool. My mom and dad were both teachers. I certainly use it to be a voice for the voiceless or a voice for some type of message whether it be stopping gun violence, domestic violence awareness or autism.”

While social media, especially Instagram, has created an uptick in the number of muralists, the art form was used by many people for greater impact after not only Floyd’s killing, but also to draw attention to the killings of unarmed Black males, Holbrook said. “It reached a peak maybe then. To a certain degree, people are now used to seeing murals with messages. In a way it may be oversaturated in that all the murals have great intent to spread the messages. But if there are so many, it may take [away] the power of some of the messages.”