Art Week South Walton Launch Event

The Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) announces the Art Week South Walton Launch Event at The Foster Gallery in Grand Boulevard on Wednesday, May 9th. The official kick-off event will showcase a special exhibition and live mural painting performance by internationally renowned artist Billy the Artist (BTA), as well as an introduction to the recently selected group of Summer Rotation Artists.

The Art Week Launch Event will take place on Wednesday, May 9th from 6 - 9 PM with celebratory hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer and music. Guests can meet BTA, purchase his work and witness a live mural painting performance inside the gallery. The event will also introduce the work of twenty local and regional artists who will be featured in the gallery through July 22nd.

The Foster Gallery, located at 560 Grand Boulevard, Suite L101 in Grand Boulevard’s Town Center, is the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County’s (CAA) professional artist collective that showcases rotating regional artists, special exhibitions and featured guests, in addition to special events, workshops and student educational opportunities. 

An internationally renowned artist based in the East Village of New York City, this is Billy the Artist’s first introduction and exhibition to South Walton and the Emerald Coast, thanks to friends and half-year residents Andre & Diane Dominick. BTA’s projects and designs have been seen all over the world for such clients and global brands as Swatch, Viacom, Lamborghini, The Rock N Roll Hall of Fame Museum, New Balance Shoes, Sony, The Champs Snowboarding Championship in Leysin, Switzerland, Gibson Guitar, Smart Car, Suzuki, Hyundai, Toyota, Mountain Dew, MTV, Puma, Microsoft, Chock Full O Nuts, Vans shoes, Cow Parade, race car driver Danica Patrick, Fashion Week Athens and Madrid, Enesco, Goebel and currently the designer of the new Nescafe Dolce Gusto machine world wide.

Mural projects include Woodstock 99, Art Basel Miami, Casa Décor Miami, Delaguarda, The Rio Casino Las Vegas,  the Broadway, National, and London productions of the musical RENT. His paintings have hung at the prestigious Forbes Gallery as well as other galleries in New York, Chicago, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Austin, Cleveland, Mexico City, Hamburg, Paris, Carib Fine Art in Curacao, Foxx Galerie Zurich, Minsheng Art Museum Shanghai, Surge Art Fair Shanghai, and The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art. Billy has been published in Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Elle, US Weekly, Juxtapoz, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, and numerous other magazines and newspapers around the globe. He has appeared on MTV, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX, TLC, DISCOVERY, 60 MINUTES and other feature programs all over the world.

For the world launch of Billy’s watches for Swatch, he painted a 40x30 foot mural live in front of 30,000 people while 300 foot animated projections of his work adorned the walls of Piazza San Marco in Venice, Italy during the Venice Biennale. BTA was also one of the first American artists to be allowed by the Chinese government to paint live on the famous Bund in Shanghai. Philanthropic projects include work with The American Red Cross, Live On NY, The Fresh Air Fund, Covenant House, St. Mary’s Foundation for Children, The JCC of Manhattan, The Breathe Foundation Brazil, and various schools both in the U.S and abroad.

The mural BTA paints during the kick-off event will be raffled off the next evening during the “Under the Sea” Underwater Museum of Art (UMA) Fundraiser on Thursday, May 10, from 7 - 10pm in Grand Park at Grand Boulevard Town Center. The event will feature delicious food, a Tiki bar and a special concert by Shawn Mullins with his band, Soul Carnival.

For more information on all Art Week South Walton events, including tickets to the “Under the Sea” party, please visit ArtweekSouthWalton.com. Art Week South Walton is sponsored in part by Grand Boulevard and Visit South Walton. Information on the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County can be found at CulturalArtsAlliance.com.