During this year’s Art Basel Miami watch out for a new façade on Locust Projects as well as an animatronic installation at the Scope Fair. An image of a giant beer bottle by Milwaukee-based artist Pentti Monkkonen will be appearing on the front wall of Locust Projects shortly. This will be unveiled in conjunction with Locust Projects December 9th opening featuring New York-based artists Scott Hug, Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua as part of the “Art Loves Design” evening, 7-11pm. Locust is also collaborating with Tampa group Flight 19 and Negativland to bring down an animatronic Abe Lincoln to be displayed at their booth during this years Scope fair. The installation is entitled “Rightmanland”. The fair runs from December 6-10 and is open daily from 10am-8pm.

Pentti Monkkonen is a Milwaukee-based artist renowned for his off-beat and humorous interventions. The Locust Projects façade will soon be unveiled to bare an image of a beer bottle bearing the label “Monkkonen Ideas”. Monkkonen takes an ordinary everyday object and subverts its meaning by taking ownership of the object and creating a brand of his own (perhaps also suggesting that the artist’s ideas stem from the contents of the beer bottle). This replaces Matthew Brannon’s signature “knife” image, which began the project in 2005. This mural project will be ongoing, and Locust plans to feature artwork by a new artist on its building front every 6 months.

Monkkonen’s mural will be featured on the façade of Locust Projects, 105 NW 23rd Street, in the center of the Wynwood Art District.  The unveiling is scheduled in conjunction with Locust Projects opening reception on December 9th, 7-11pm as part of Art Loves Design. This opening showcases two exhibitions by New York-based artists Scott Hug, Jesse Bercowetz and Matt Bua and features a live performance by the New York based band Mirror Mirror. This mural project is sponsored by Peroni, Italy.