‘GOOD SERVICE,’ A NEW MURAL IN MARKET SQUARE BY ARTIST RIGEL RICHARDSON | PHOTO BY VIRGINIA LINN

Market Square is a little brighter these days after the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership designated a spot on the side of a restaurant for a colorful mural created by a local artist.

“Market Square Moment” is a new platform to showcase large-scale art on a 20-by-50-foot-frame on the building facade of 8 Market Square, home to Pizzaiolo Primo, above the intersection of Market Square and Forbes Avenue. This platform will allow for new, original artwork to be put on display. The new work depicts two Cedar Waxwings, a bird native to Western Pennsylvania, eating serviceberries.

“The purpose of this project is to provide a space for local artists to showcase their artwork,” says Bruce Chan, the partnership’s senior director of Urban Design, who managed the project.

According to Chan, the project began by looking at different large-scale places Downtown for potential artwork by artists in the area. The “Market Square Moment” is one of seven such projects underway by the partnership. This project took under a year to complete and was funded through the partnership’s Uncommon and Curated Fund.

A regional competition for artists was conducted by Shiftworks, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organization working across southwestern Pennsylvania to support the growth of social, cultural and neighborhood assets.

Artist Rigel Richardson, who is of Mexican heritage and is based in Pittsburgh, was selected to reproduce an existing painting. The painting Richardson modified was called “Good Service.” This project — acrylic painting on wood — took a month for her to complete, and according to Richardson, the most challenging part was adapting her work to fit the site criteria since she was working with different dimensions.

“The theme of this painting is about currents and how they affect the environment in Pittsburgh. The birds in the painting are a metaphor for people and how they come and go in our lives,” Richardson says.

Richardson grew up in Southern California but has been in Pittsburgh since 2007. She attended Carnegie Mellon University and  received a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 2013. She published her first book in February 2019 titled “Pour Over,” a book of prose. She runs a small press with their husband called New Evil Press, and they publish local authors. Her work is influenced by her childhood growing up in California near the ocean and her Mexican heritage. In many of her paintings, Richardson uses the Mexican dog, Xolo, a guide for the Land of the Dead.

Formerly the Office of Public Art, Shiftworks launched in 2005 through partnership between the public and private sectors to support and advance the role of public art in the Pittsburgh region.