Dominican artist paints tallest mural in the United States in the Bronx

A Dominican artist has finished a mural more than 90 meters tall on a Bronx building. The work celebrates cultural diversity.

A Dominican visual artist has painted a mural more than 90 meters tall in the Bronx, which he says became the tallest in New York and then in the United States.

The work is called "Un MAR de Gente / From Every Shore." It covers the facade of a 29-story building in the Morrisania Air Rights residential complex, in the South Bronx. The mural celebrates cultural diversity and recognizes the stories and contributions of Latino communities to New York's identity.

The artist is Néstor Omar García, known as Angurria. He said the project was both a surprise and a privilege, especially because it was done in a neighborhood with a strong Dominican presence. "This is a milestone, a before and after," he said of what it means for his career.

Angurria explained that working above 20 floors poses a technical challenge of a different scale. He stressed that the mural's message is what matters most to him, at a time when, he said, anything different tends to be rejected.

His inspiration comes from Los Alcarrizos, in the Dominican Republic, where he grew up around his mother's hair salon. Residents took part in the design through community workshops. Angurria completed the mural in about four weeks, alongside Dominican artists Dovente and Son Coro.

ArtBridge commissioned the project, MAC Cosmetics funded it, and Monumenta.do, a company specializing in large-scale public art, produced it.