Boxpark Becomes Home to Urban Art

Dubai based street artists Fats, Myneandyours and Sya One to leave their mark on the Boxpark as Dubai Walls expands its footprint in a new Meraas destination

Dubai, April 1, 2017:  Boxpark, the offbeat destination by Meraas, welcomes three renowned local artists as part of Dubai Walls, the ground-breaking initiative that brings life into Dubai’s street art scene, as part of its contribution to Art Season. 

As the perfect urban canvas for artists to share their creativity, Dubai-based globally-acclaimed artists, Fats, Myneandyours and Sya One, will take over walls at Boxpark between 30th March and 4th April to transform the space into a living open-air exhibition. Visitors can stop by the destination between these dates to catch the artists live in action with spray cans and paintbrushes in hand as they develop unique artworks. 

The initiative, which has seen great interest at City Walk, now adds to its portfolio local artists, engaging home-grown talent within the art community at Boxpark. With its funky and colourful container style design, the destination is the perfect setting for the next instalment of urban street art. To its core, Boxpark is an open and dynamic space breathing energy and creativity into the streets of Dubai, lending itself as the perfect spot for artists, events and installations. 
The artists were given free rein on their design and were invited to create whatever they wished with a blank canvas, transforming plain walls into fascinating art projects of expression. 

Sya One, the first Graffiti artist to join the Dubai Walls street artists line up, will be engaging the Dubai community by requesting followers of Boxpark’s Instagram to choose between two different designs, the winning artwork will then become a mural at the destination. 

Dubai Walls x Boxpark Artists: 
Fats 
Dubai-born artist Fathima has spent the last 10 years living and working in Toronto, London, and Dubai. Fatima’s artwork deals with notions of subjectivity, identity, the subconscious, belonging and the standardization of society. Her distinguishable style of mark-making has lent itself to large-scale drawing, painting, mural work, graffiti, installation, photography, stop-motion animation, body art, live art, and many collaborations.
Fathima has exhibited her work in near 15 exhibitions in the UAE in the last 3 years, the most recent being at the Sharjah Art Museum. In 2010 she won the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award, worked on an illustrated music video introduced at the Gulf Film Festival, and was selected for the Cultural Leadership International programme carried out by the British Council. In 2011 she was nominated for the Emirates Woman of the Year Award and most recently has set up the artist run entity - ‘The Domino’.

Myneandyours
London born and of Iraqi descent, Marwan Shakarchi who paints under the moniker Myneandyours moved to Dubai to pursue his artistic career having already developed his signature cloud symbol, which began as a doodle on a wall in his family home. The Myneandyours project revolves around the story of a cloud, and its relationship with the environment that surrounds it. It is an experiment in symbology, inspiring us to question ourselves, and what exists around us.

Sya One
Sya One was raised on the streets and lines of the UK and now lives and breathes the endless cultures of Dubai. A graffiti writer for nearly 25 years, was born with the intention to create. 

As a sign writer by trade, this is what took Sya down the road of letter construction and colour combinations, looking at the never-ending styles and realms as to what a letter can do. The style he has adopted, in his words, is “LAZY” fat letters with an easy flow and bright fills. 

Dubai Walls aims to provide an attractive platform for global admirers of street art and encourage them to visit the region throughout the year. The initiative also attempts to transform public spaces at Meraas destinations into permanent street art exhibitions that perfectly align with Dubai’s modern landscape and offer an opportunity to visitors and residents to enjoy the beautiful artistic creations.