Living in an urban environment can often feel like living in a concrete box. There are many pieces of public art, however, that bring life and color to Boston.

Quetzal
by Felipe Ortiz

This mural, featured on the side of a building on South Huntington Avenue in Mission Hill, is an explosion of green-blue feathers with a few smaller birds around it. It was painted in 2021 by Felipe Ortiz, a Colombian artist who has created many murals throughout the city and country, including those on the walls of Northeastern University and the Mario Umana Academy. He works to combine many elements into his art: the environments of Colombia and the United States, urbanism and nature, and abstraction and realism. On his website, he refers to himself as a “modern surrealist.” Quetzal is part of his “Explosive Nature” series.

Clapp’s Favorite Pear
by Laura Baring-Gould

Anyone driving through Edward Everett Square in Dorchester will have seen the giant, 12-foot pear sitting in between lanes of traffic. Laura Baring-Gould, a sculptor who creates both public art and smaller pieces inspired by her childhood in Alaska, produced this piece in 2007. The city commissioned her to create the pear to celebrate the agricultural history of Dorchester, where Thaddeus Clapp, a descendant of one of Dorchester’s founding families, first bred and grew a new type of pear called Clapp’s Favorite. Smaller sculptures, modeled off of community members’ artifacts — such as Dorchester veterans’ dog tags — surround the sculpture. Quotations from stories of real people are engraved on the stands where these smaller sculptures sit. All of the statues are built on top of bricks bought and personalized by residents of the neighborhood. The entire display is meant to represent and celebrate the rich history, diverse culture and hardworking nature of Dorchester.

Cranes in the Sky
by Marka27

This piece depicts an Afro-futuristic woman’s face mixed with geometric shapes, along with cranes flying above them. The artist, known as Marka27, painted it as part of Underground at Ink Block, a project that started in 2017 and has since transformed the area beneath I-93 on the border of South Boston and the South End into a park. In 2019, more artists came to add new paintings to the highway. Cranes in the Sky, painted onto a 100-foot column holding up the highway, is one of the most notable pieces. Marka27 says that he wants his art to remind every person of color to be proud of their culture.