MURAL | OCTOBER 10–20 | FREE
Rising High Mural Expo: Paint in Progress
FUSION presents the “Rising High Mural Expo: Paint in Progress” featuring five local artists curated by Lapis Room at FUSION | The Meadow. On view for the duration of the Rising High Arts Festival, October 10th–20th (and beyond)!
With the prompt of “industry meets nature,” Lapis Room’s community of artists were selected to bring a contemporary perspective to FUSION’s vibrant, historical district. Painting is underway and is expected to be completed by the end of October. FUSION and Lapis Room invite visitors to experience the works in progress!
Featured artists include Joshua Patterson, Thomas Christopher Haag, Beedallo, Aquilla Kappy, and David Kappy.
FUSION has incredibly deep and wonderful collaborations with many organizations, artists and businesses. The festival is a methodology for each of the individual events to expand their profile and audience. There is something for everyone, with many free or Pay What You Wish events.
MEET THE ARTISTS!
ABOUT JOSHUA PATTERSON
At the intersection of street art and fine art is the unique work of Joshua Patterson. Working entirely in spray paint and neon glass, Joshua has developed an immediately recognizable style characterized by his clown characters—Art and Justice. By giving these big concepts figurative forms, Patterson is able to play with the relationship between the two and explore complicated ideas with humor and pathos. He is a self-taught artist.
"As a chicano artist, born and raised in Albuquerque, NM on the west side of the city, I believe art should be thought provoking and challenge the viewer to grasp the idea of what's taking place whether that be something that invokes culture, community, or the state of where I am as a man finding himself daily. With my art, I use the idea of two subject matters—Art and Justice. I use this idea to tell the story of what their relationship looks like no matter the subject. I work with spray paint, hand-cut stencils, an 8-color palette, and neon glass."
ABOUT THOMAS CHRISTOPHER HAAG
Thomas Christopher Haag was born in Wichita, Kansas into a family as vast as the sea. He took chemistry and math classes for some reason at the University of Kansas and then dropped out and started hitchhiking. He has lived in southern Mexico, Switzerland, India, Spain, the Pacific Northwest, and the great American Southwest. For the past 15 years, he has been ridiculously involved and obnoxiously in love with the New Mexico art scene, living and working in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Taos. When he’s had to work, he’s been a commercial diver, propman, art director, low-volume smuggler, curator, and gallery owner. He also once worked for eleven days in a dog food factory where they made Kibbles’ n Bits, but he prefers to paint. An avid muralist, both commissioned and not, he has painted buildings in Oaxaca, Barcelona, Venice, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Varanasi, Bangkok, Rangoon, Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Oakland and many other places, under the names “Detach”, “Stove” and “El Pituitario”. He has exhibited with the likes of Shepard Fairey, Chaz Bojorquez, Swoon, Gaia, Slinkachu, Henry Chalfant, Mark Jenkins, Chris Stain, and Chip Thomas.
Using “reclaimed” house paint taken from chemical disposal facilities, found wood, and discarded books, he constructs multi-layered, collaged paintings and assemblages which reference ancient cultures and spiritual traditions, but with just a hint of smart-ass. Homages to criminal saints, a bodhisattva telling a fart joke, events of divine banality and cosmic significance, stripped of pretense or stuffed with it. Either way, it is all holy shit.
ABOUT BEEDALLO
Beedallo grew up in Los Chavez, a small strip of farmland in Valencia County, New Mexico. Much of her work is an attempt to combine her love of cartooning with traditional folk art and imagery passed down from her family to express conflicted, and often surreal experiences with the land, family, and tradition.
She is currently based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico and shows in several galleries in the area. Her work has been featured both nationally and internationally as album art for the American synth-pop band Future Islands, the Australian experimental noise band Pleasure, and the Italian punk band The Whistling heads. Her work has also appeared in promotional material for Apple.
ABOUT AQUILLA KAPPY
Aquilla Kappy is a self-taught painter and muralist from the small town of Shingletown, California. Her artistic journey began at home, inspired by her mother, an elementary school art teacher. She began painting at 17 as a means to navigate the complex emotions of adolescence. In 2007, she moved to Albuquerque, where she found an inspiring DIY artist community, further enriching her style and techniques.
For Aquilla, painting is a “hidden language,” a medium through which she articulates her innermost feelings when words fall short. Her work serves as a sanctuary—a vibrant, wordless space where emotions can freely unfold through her intricate lines and expressive faces. While many perceive an underlying sadness in her work, Aquilla sees it as a nuanced exploration of human experience. She embraces the coexistence of joy and sorrow, revealing that profound love often carries the weight of fear and loss. This duality invites viewers to project their own feelings onto her characters, creating a shared emotional experience.
Aquilla has shown her work at various galleries including, Stove, Cirque, Relic, The Albuquerque Art Museum, Zendo, Ghost Wolf Gallery, and the Attleboro Arts Museum.
ABOUT DAVID KAPPY
David Kappy is a multidisciplinary artist based in his hometown of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Although he has no formal arts training, his parents introduced him to art at an early age, encouraging his creative exploration. Early influences like the Muppets and after-school cartoons played a role in shaping his imagination. Kappy’s interest in painting developed during his teenage years after discovering graffiti, a practice that continues to inform his work.
The ethos of graffiti—its unconventional use of materials, resourcefulness, accessibility, and engagement with the environment—remains central to his approach. Recent projects include unsanctioned, site-specific large-scale charcoal drawings created from burn sites along the Rio Grande Bosque, rhythm-based musical compositions performed on bridges and public art sculptures, and works crafted from discarded materials.
Kappy’s work has been exhibited at Fritz+Kouri, 1415, Keep Contemporary, Relic, Parse Seco, Garage Door, Stove, and The Albuquerque Museum.