OftenSeenRarelySpoken presents still life paintings with a pop sensibility at ABV Gallery. (All images courtesy of OftenSeenRarelySpoken)
Resurgence, a solo show by OftenSeenRarelySpoken — a five-man artist collective based in Louisville and Cincinnati — runs at ABV Gallery in East Atlanta through February 9. This is primarily a gallery show, but make no mistake about it: These guys are street artists. Like many street artists, aspects of their process and even their full identities are shrouded in mystery. The show includes gallery paintings, as well as some actual street art with a mural on the exterior of the building. I recently corresponded with Jeremy L., who cofounded the collective in 2016, about Resurgence and OftenSeenRarelySpoken.
The interview below has been lightly edited for readability.
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Arthur Rudick: What is OftenSeenRarelySpoken?
OftenSeenRarelySpoken: We are a group of artists with almost identical goals when it comes to creating. We are a five-person collective that has been painting together for 15 years now, with long-standing friendships that date back to 2004/2005 through skateboarding and graffiti. We established a company that specializes in large-scale murals called OSRS Mural Co. But we have drawn a line between our commercial work and what we pursue as a creative unit under OftenSeenRarelySpoken.
AR: What are your typical projects?
OSRS: We are usually working outdoors on a large scale. We have completed commercial projects that span the side of a 10-level parking garage or required us to be on-site in New York City for 30-day periods. OSRS Mural Co. works nationwide with a wide variety of clients, all with individual requests. We use our studios to create the [type] of work currently on view at ABV Gallery when we are not working in the commercial space. We show that work as OftenSeenRarelySpoken.
AR: How did Resurgence come about?
OSRS: This gallery exhibit came about after building relationships with some key figures in the Atlanta art scene. I personally have been coming to Atlanta with the intentions to paint and network for over 10 years now. OftenSeenRarelySpoken had been working on the pieces shown since 2023, and, after getting 30-plus paintings complete, we reached a point of being prepared to get the work into the world. ABV had room for us on their walls for their first show of 2025, so we quickly rose to the occasion and here we are!
AR: How does OftenSeenRarelySpoken re-imagine the traditional still life in Resurgence?
OSRS: We have come to realize the beauty in items that sometimes may be looked over due to how common they are. Taking something as simple as a toy car, a piece of fruit or a phone booth and photographing them for a study can naturally create an amazing composition. We take it a few steps further and enhance our compositions with abstract shapes and a refined color palette that may help the viewer also see the attraction to these mundane items.
AR: How did you select the found objects featured in your paintings?
OSRS: They found us!
AR: Please say a few words about the exterior mural.
OSRS: That mural is a scaled-up interpretation of a lemon and an abstract composition that were created through photography and design. It very closely matches the work hung in the gallery. We added a few shapes that continue off the mural as if they are free floating.
AR: Can you please say a few words about the mural that OftenSeenRarelySpoken did with ABV in downtown Atlanta?
OSRS: We had a great time with that mural. That was our first time working on a swing stage [a type of suspension scaffold] and our largest project to date in Atlanta. We worked side by side with ABV to bring Jiha Moon’s work to scale on a parking garage wall that is in the heart of the city. Hanging from the garage for three weeks had its challenges, but, overall, we had a blast!
OftenSeenRarelySpoken’s large-scale, downtown mural can be viewed at 182 Courtland St. NE. Resurgence is showing concurrently with the group show Nostalgia, featuring artists inspired by the past at ABV Gallery.
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Arthur Rudick created the Atlanta Street Art Map in 2017 after retiring from a successful career as an engineer with Eastman Kodak and the Coca-Cola Company. His first experience of art was seeing an Alexander Calder mobile as a child in the Pittsburgh airport. Rudick is ArtsATL’s street art expert and a regular contributor.
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