Chicago murals: Ramova Theatre features South Side artists' work on beer garden wall
When it was time for a new mural at the beer garden outside Bridgeport’s restored Ramova Theatre, owner Emily Nevius says she and her husband, Tyler, wanted artists largely from the South Side.
Enter Bridgeport artist and chef Won Kim and Pilsen muralist Caesar Perez. They gathered some friends and turned one night last summer into a painting party for both artists and guests at the popular music venue and restaurant.
The result is a compilation mural about one story tall that stretches the length of the building, with works from nine popular regional artists who freestyled their designs into a mural that captures the essence of the neighborhood, Emily Nevius says. While it’s visible from the street, the mural is best enjoyed from a table outside — in weather warmer than a typical Chicago winter.
“It’s a really good representation of who we are visually,” Nevius says, with “different voices coming together and creating something unique and special and filling a space.”
In addition to Won Kim and Perez, those voices include artists who go by the names Cujo Dah, Underseagravy, Elloo, Chucho, Joey D, ZorZorZor and Kuaze.
Perez, who goes by the artist name CZR PRZ, says he reached out to artists he knew would help build on the vibe that's happening at Ramova Theatre.
“Those kinds of spaces are what help build community,” he says. “I felt they would be a good fit for what’s going on.”
Cujo Dah, whose real name is Joe Nelson, is cofounder of Englewood Art’s Collective and a longtime muralist. Perez and Kim invited him, and “if they call me, I’m coming,” he says. His addition included some sketches by his 7-year-old son, as well as an abstract interpretation of his child’s drum machine. The face of a boy with purplish hair — this time not his son — stares out from the wall.
“It’s kinda random. I try to be a little loose,” Nelson says.
Kim, a graffiti artist who is chef at Kimski restaurant in Bridgeport, says it was important to pull together a group of artists who would be comfortable painting in front of an audience. He painted his contribution in his graffiti-letter style. It reads, “Welcome to the South Side.”
“As a former North Sider, I’m discovering the South Side for what it is,” Kim says. As an artist, “the best walls are on the South Side.”
Alejandro Martell, who goes by the artist name Underseagravy, says he wasn’t planning to paint that night when he showed up for the event. But an artist backed out last minute, and he stepped in and took that space. He had so much fun he stayed for the show playing afterward in the theater.
Nevius remembers Martell asking her if his black and white image of a fuzzy demon with a nose chain and terrarium belly was “too dark and scary for the kids, and I said, 'No, this is what they’re drawn to.'”
The Ramova Theatre had been closed for nearly 40 years until the Neviuses reopened it in 2024 after a renovation that cost nearly $30 million.
Emily Nevius says she hopes to bring in artists who will expand the mural up the side of the Ramova Theatre wall.
“It would be awesome to have the kind of mural that stops people on Halsted,” she says. “There are a lot of artists on the South Side. It’s a scene that people want to be a part of.”