Within Hours of NBA Star Kobe Bryant’s Death, Street Artists Around the World Began Painting Tribute Murals—See Them Here

In the wake of NBA star Kobe Bryant’s death in a helicopter
crash on Sunday, artists have been moved to memorialize the former
Los Angeles Laker in murals around the world. Many of the works
also honor Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna Bryant, one of the
other eight victims in the accident.

The five-time NBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist
had been flying to his daughter’s basketball game at the time of
the crash, which had no survivors. Bryant is survived by his wife,
Vanessa Bryant, and daughters Natalia Bryant, Bianca Bryant, and
Capri Kobe Bryant.

In the hours following Bryant’s tragic death, Art “Artoon” Gozukuchikyan leaped into
action, taking his spray paint to a building on Ventura Boulevard
in LA’s Studio City and painting through the night.

“As an artist, I thought we have an obligation to document
what’s going on,” he told the Los Angeles Daily
News. The artist’s mural shows Bryant in his Laker’s
jersey, seemingly just having taken a jump shot, his daughter
smiling behind him.

Elsewhere in Los Angeles, on the wall of Pickford Market on
Washington Boulevard, Jules Muck took just six hours to complete a
new painting of Bryant and his daughter posed cheek-to-cheek. The
work reads “Kobe & Gigi Forever. Daddy’s Girl.”

Muck followed up with a second tribute painting at a Pico
Boulevard marijuana dispensary.

Another piece popped up at the Priority Barber Club on Orange
Avenue in Signal Hill. Artist Mister Alek painted Bryant in shades
of black and white, offering a dramatic contrast to the bright
yellow Lakers jersey and the dark purple background.

“Thank you for the countless memories,” he wrote on Instagram.
“LA would not be the same with out you.”

Fans have also flocked to existing Los Angeles murals honoring
Bryant. At the Shoe Palace on Melrose Avenue, mourners left flowers
and candles, and affixed Post-It Notes with their tributes to
Bryant on JC Ro‘s
painting Mamba on Melrose. (The title comes from
Bryant’s nickname, “The Black Mamba.”)

“For years this wall was just a local LA landmark that people
enjoyed visiting,” Ro told the Los Angeles
Times. “But with each note, each thank you, each moment of
remembrance that is taped to the wall now, its meaning becomes more
and more important in trying to help everyone heal.”

Basketball lovers also gathered in front of a Bryant mural
located on Lebanon Street, one block from the Los Angeles
Convention Center and a stone’s throw from the home of the Lakers
at the Staples Center. It was painted by sports muralist Jonas
Never in 2016, after Bryant announced plans to retire at the end of
the season.

Levi Ponce’s black-and-white Bryant portrait painted for the
now-shuttered Collective Lifestyle on Reseda Boulevard in
Northridge Los Angeles became a makeshift memorial as well. The
athlete’s death has inspired the artist to begin work on a new
memorial, he told Univision.

Tributes to Bryant can also be found outside Los Angeles,
including as far afield as the basketball-loving Philippines, where
Bryant visited numerous times.

Manila’s most famous public basketball court, in the Tenement
Housing complex in Taguig, is known for its rotating murals,
organized by Mike Swift, which have featured NBA stars Michael
Jordan and LeBron James as well as Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao
and Santa Claus. To honor Bryant’s death, the court has been
repainted with a giant portrait of Gianna with her arms around her
father. Fans were invited to paint written remembrances in white on
the court’s black walls.

“This is our tribute to them,” Eddie Barbuena, coach of the
Tenement’s basketball team, told ESPN. “We will always
love you, Kobe Bryant.”

A second mural was also erected at Manila’s House of Kobe
basketball court, where fans added handwritten inscriptions
memorializing Bryant and Gianna.

In New York, Madison Square Garden was lit up in purple and
yellow with a photo of Kobe Bryant on the giant LED screen during
Sunday night’s Knicks game. At the nearby Bryant Park subway
station an anonymous artist altered a sign to read “Kobe Bryant
Park” in handwritten Helvetica, reports Gothamist.

In Boston, a black-and-white painting of Bryant with his
daughter sitting on his shoulders appeared in “Graffiti Alley” in
Cambridge, Massachusetts. Street artist Brandalizm created the artwork on a
commission from the Central Square Business Improvement
District.

The National Museum of African American History and
Culture in Washington, DC, also paid tribute to the late
basketball player, praising his on-court accomplishments as well as
his generosity to the institution. (The Kobe and Vanessa Bryant
Family Foundation has founding donor status, which means
it gave at least $1 million to the museum.)

“In the very critical stages of building the museum, Kobe and
Vanessa Bryant became founding donors, giving us the boost that we
needed to keep moving forward,” said the museum’s interim director,
Spencer Crew, in a statement. “Kobe also
had the opportunity to visit the museum before its opening. He was
so moved by the experience that he later donated his uniform jersey
from the 2008 NBA Finals, the year he was named the league
MVP.”

The jersey is not currently on view, but that may soon change.
“We’re trying to figure out the best thing to do and we haven’t
really come to a final conclusion just yet,” Damion Thomas, the
museum’s sports curator, told the Washingtonian. Currently,
Bryant’s photo is included in the institution’s basketball room, in
a section titled “Style Matters.”

The biggest tribute may be yet to come. Some 2.7 million Bryant
fans, including Snoop Dogg, Justin Bieber, and Usher, have signed a
petition calling on the NBA to change its logo to feature Bryant.
The Change.org petition—featuring a potential new logo by Instagram
user @tysonbeck—was launched by
Nick M., a 16-year-old from Vancouver, and
has inspired graphic designers around the world to take a crack at
a new design.

The current logo, designed by Alan Siegel in 1969, features
the silhouette of former Laker and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West,
who became the Lakers general manager and who, incidentally, traded
for the draft rights for Bryant. The 81-year-old, nicknamed “The
Logo,” has expressed discomfort uncomfortable with the honor in the
past: “I don’t like to do anything to call attention to myself,”
West told ESPN’s The
Jump in 2017. “If they would want to change it, I
wish they would. In many ways, I wish they would.”

Though Bryant’s passing is widely mourned, the sports star is
also a controversial figure. He was charged with felony sexual
assault following a 2003 encounter with a Colorado hotel employee.
The case was settled out of court and charges were dropped, but in
the post-#MeToo era, many social media users were quick to remind
the public of the allegations after Bryant’s death.

The Washington Post suspended reporter
Felicia Sonmez after she Tweeted a link to a 2016 Daily Beast article
detailing the rape allegation. Sonmez, who also received death
threats and had her home address published online, was reinstated after 200
colleagues signed a letter protesting the decision.

See more photos of artistic tributes to Bryant below.

The post Within Hours of NBA Star Kobe Bryant’s Death,
Street Artists Around the World Began Painting Tribute Murals—See
Them Here appeared first on artnet News.