Massive Pollution-Absorbing Mural Comes to Hell’s Kitchen Park

An enormous mural depicting blooming plant life now graces Hell’s Kitchen Park, located between W. 47th & 48th Sts. on 10th Ave., thanks to collaboration between City Council Erik Bottcher & the Italian environmental art nonprofit Yourban2030.

Interestingly, the artist Fabio Patani composed “Botanical Pulse” with a special U.N.-touted paint called AirLite, which can absorb local pollution. Bottcher and Veronica de Angelis, Yourban’s founder, spoke about how the mural came together at a June 2 presser.

“When I took office in 2022, one of the goals I set out was get public art installed throughout our district. To me, public art plays such an important role in our lives,” Bottcher told the assembled crowd. “It enlivens the spaces that are part of our community.

Bottcher was drawn to partnering with Yourban because of its “cutting-edge eco-friendly process,” he added. “It was such an exciting opportunity...but then, we discovered how difficult it was to find a property owner who would be willing to let their wall become a mural. To me, it’s a no-brainer.”

Eventually, Bottcher’s office reached out to the co-op residents at 463 W. 47th St., who let Yourban–and by extension, Patani–paint the side of their building. After a contractor restored the wall, which took longer than expected due to persistent winter conditions, Patani flew in from Italy this month to finish the entire thing in roughly four-and-a-half days. The resulting mural will reportedly “neutralize” the nitrous and sulfur oxide emissions (via oxidation) of 43 cars per day, every day, for the next ten years.

A QR code affixed to the mural will take locals to a webpage run by Horticultural Society (the “Hort,” for short), which will allow them to contribute to the Street Tree Fund–a Bottcher-Hort partnership that revolves around planting 1,000 trees in his district.

De Angelis told the crowd that her nonprofit’s overarching mission is to “create public art that speaks about the goals of the U.N. agenda, through sustainability.” Specifically, its work is inspired by the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda For Sustainable Development, which is comprised of 17 “goals” intended to create a “shared blueprint for peace and prosperity” by the end of the decade.

She clarified that she has spent 18 years traveling “back and forth” between Europe and New York, a “city that I love,” which inspired her to commission AirLite murals in the area. Indeed, Yourban2030 already commissioned an indoor mural at the High School of Art & Design on W. 56th St. in 2022; “Botanical Pulse” represents the organization’s first foray into the great outdoors.

In a chat with Chelsea News after her remarks, de Angelis said that the flowery painting represented “Life on Land,” the 15th goal in the agenda. Future murals would reflect other agenda goals, she said, and Yourban “would totally love to do them in Erik [Bottcher’s] district.”

As for the process of producing such a vast mural, Petani explained to Chelsea News that he used the “windows in the wall as a reference,” and that his approach was “similar to a print machine.” He chose to be a muralist, he noted, because it involves “creating something for the community.”