BENJAMIN HANVY // Colourflage Public Murals & Spatial Design
St. Louis City Unbound (244-Foot Gateway Elevation)
ARPA for the Arts Commission • 1,415 Sq. Ft. Biomorphic Acrylic Mural • Ellendale Gateway (Ward 4)
Public Murals & Signature “Colourflage”
Engineered across two simultaneous viewing distances: Macro Scale (bold chromatic currents establishing an unmistakable vehicular and transit landmark) and Micro Scale (intricate nested linework, neighborhood iconography, and structured paint-by-contour cells built for community participation).
“St. Louis City Unbound: A City Blended”
Spanning 244 linear feet (1,415 sq. ft.) along Southwest Avenue & McCausland Avenue (Ward 4), this gateway landmark welcomes travelers entering St. Louis City. Executed with UV-protected exterior mineral acrylics (Chroma Mural Paint & Golden Paintworks) over a masonry-primed concrete retaining wall, its 14 interlocking Colourflage color currents celebrate the city's 14 wards.
Work Sample 02A • Live Co-Creation
Community Paint Day Action (50+ Residents)
Structured biomorphic cells allowed 50+ volunteers across Ellendale, Clifton Heights, and Maplewood to actively co-create the mural before professional contour lining and UV sealing.
Work Sample 02B • 14-Ward Map Detail
14-Ward Map & Volunteer Signatures
Micro-scale pedestrian storytelling: nested within the macro Colourflage currents is a color-coded map of St. Louis's 14 wards signed by every participating volunteer.
Work Sample 02C • Youth & Family Engagement
Accessible Paint-by-Contour System
Designed for inclusive public participation: community members of all ages contribute directly to the artwork's foundation, directly adaptable to upcoming community engagement sessions.
Turbo Widget Micro Mural Gallery & National CaFÉ Feature
Whereas rigid pictorial scenes fracture when interrupted by corners, soffits, columns, and doorways, Colourflage ribbons operate as an unbroken spatial continuum—wrapping multi-surface elevations seamlessly.
Upstairs → Downstairs Continuum
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★ CaFÉ National Portal Banner
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“Robot girl in myco-Land” & “Wavy Spectrum” (Turbo Widget Micro Mural Gallery)
Wrapping the ground-floor vestibule, stairwell, transoms, and second-floor landing of an 1891 St. Louis building, this continuous installation demonstrates how biomorphic ribbons navigate doors, ceilings, and architectural trim without visual fragmentation. Co-created work “Robot girl in myco-Land” (with Kimberly Hanvy) integrates physical 3D fiber-optic/wire assemblage and 365nm UV-reactive pigments—selected by Creative West (CaFÉ) as their national public art landing banner and juried into the 2026 MUD Foundation International Showcase.
Note: Due to the historic narrow hallway geometry, on-site photography below captures detailed upstairs, mid-stairwell, UV blacklight, and downstairs perspectives without wide-angle fish-eye optical distortion.
Work Sample 03 • The City Museum
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“Spindles in the City” @ The City Museum
Invited by the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) and The City Museum (750 N. 16th St.) to transform an iconic 3-foot turned architectural column into a 360° cylindrical relief—directly demonstrating capability for wrapping architectural and structural columns.
Work Sample 07 • Municipal Steel Substrate
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“Colourflage in Transit” Municipal Container Mural
Created for the City of St. Louis Streets Department (Urban Beautification Project) to transform a 20′ × 8′ × 8′ (600 sq. ft.) mobile municipal container with hard-wearing exterior enamels resilient to mechanical lifting and Midwest weather.
Inside the Turbo Widget Micro Mural Gallery: Downstairs, Stairwell & Upstairs Views
Downstairs • 1891 Entry Threshold
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Downstairs: The 1891 Threshold
Gilded 1891 transom emblem honoring the building’s founding year, surrounded by organic Colourflage shapes and rising Wavy Spectrum bands.
Downstairs • Wavy Spectrum Hallway
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Downstairs: “Wavy Spectrum” Corridor
Continuous undulating ribbons of magenta, violet, cobalt, emerald, and gold expand the perceived width of the ground-floor corridor.
Downstairs • Gold-Leaf Contour Detail
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Downstairs: Gold-Bordered Colourflage
Interlocking biomorphic color cells outlined in reflective metallic gold leaf paint that catches ambient light as visitors move through the entry.
Mid-Stairwell • Daylight View
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Stairwell: “Robot girl in myco-Land” (Day)
Co-created with Kimberly Hanvy: a cybernetic warrior with a physical 3D wire ponytail meets an overscaled mushroom forest along the staircase.
⚡ Mid-Stairwell • 365nm UV Glow
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Stairwell: 365nm UV & Fiber-Optic State
Dual-state optical engineering: integrated 3D fiber-optic strands and UV-reactive fluorescent pigments transform the stairwell at night.
Stairwell • Door B Canopy Wrap
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Stairwell: Mycelial Canopy & Door B
Towering spotted mushroom caps and botanical tendrils wrap directly into the historic door frames and stairwell trim.
Upstairs • 2nd Floor Corner Wrap
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Upstairs: 2nd Floor Pop Triptych Corner
Upper landing climax where biomorphic currents wrap a 90° corner into high-impact Pop Surrealist imagery and color-blocked doors.
Upstairs • Cyan Iris & Portal
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Upstairs: All-Seeing Iris & Yellow Door
Radiant cyan iris set against deep violet and overhead ceiling ribbons, framing the bright yellow upstairs studio threshold.
Upstairs • Crimson Lips Detail
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Upstairs: Pop Surrealist Crimson Lips
High-gloss figurative rendering on the 2nd-floor landing, pairing graphic Pop Art energy with fluid turquoise and violet contours.
Sculptural Vessels, Fine Art Photography & Functional Art
Bio-Mechanical Relic Planter I translates Ben Hanvy’s signature “Colourflage” biomorphic mural language into three-dimensional space, pairing a precision 3D-printed thermoplastic armature by The Near Wild with hand-rubbed cold-cast bronze, burnished mahogany chiaroscuro, gold mica crests, and living botanicals.
Piece No. 01 • Living Installation
Bio-Mechanical Relic Planter I
Additive 3D thermoplastic armature (The Near Wild) hand-patinated with chiaroscuro bronze, mahogany, and gold mica. Gifted complete with a living variegated spider plant.
Piece No. 02 • Daylight State
Bioluminescent Spore Vessel
Dual-state optical relief sculpture: metallic midnight-indigo and emerald-jade daylight patina that undergoes Stokes shift into blazing neon orange-red under 365nm UV excitation.
Work Sample 09A • Nurse-Log
Arboreal Mycelium Nurse-Log
Horizontal bridge-form sculpture featuring cantilevered fungi, open root tunnels, bronze timber patina, and polychromatic interference mica across 3 planting ports.
Piece No. 03 • Iridescent Moss
Bio-Mechanical Relic Planter II
Intertwining vascular relief finished in iridescent moss-green, verdigris interference mica, and burnished gold crests over matte carbon-black shadow channels.
Piece No. 04 • Botanical Relief
Variegated Foliage Relic Planter
3D-printed botanical bas-relief vessel contrasting warm sandstone terracotta grounds with hand-patinated emerald, bronze-gold, and violet climbing leaf venation.
Work Sample 08 • Figurative Portrait
Portrait of Thom Lakey
16″ × 20″ acrylic on canvas. Demonstrates nuanced figurative brushwork and psychological warmth—proving capacity to weave real community faces into civic murals.
Fine Art Photography • Macro Study
“Her” (Calla Lily)
High-contrast botanical macro photography exploring sensual biomorphic curves and deep velvet shadows, reflecting the organic foundations of the studio's sculptural work.
★ Juried Winner • Soulard Art Gallery
“Ketchup and Mustard Rose”
Juried exhibition selection and award winner at the Soulard Art Gallery (12/2025). Demonstrates precision color grading and chromatic intensity.
Turbo Widget & Immersive 360° Media
Directed and staged in partnership with the Regional Arts Commission (RAC, formerly at City Foundry) at City Foundry STL (Suite 149), The Turbo Widget Immersive Experience: Resonance in 360° transformed a 2,400-square-foot industrial hall into a free, public multi-sensory environment.
Personal Art House & Geodesic Studio
Beyond two-dimensional wall surfaces, Benjamin Hanvy's practice encompasses complete physical space-making. In Morehouse, Missouri, Hanvy acquired this geodesic structure in 2023 (after initial erection, slab pouring, and ~20% rough-in) and carried through the comprehensive interior buildout into a fully permitted, functional art house and studio—rare among geodesic homes for having full municipal approval and complete plumbing and electrical systems.
Engineered F-Domes architectural framework with heavy galvanized structural steel struts, poured slab foundation, and precision hub joinery.
Enclosed with 3 inches of exterior roofing closed-cell polyurethane foam over the PVC shell, sealed with continuous protective elastomeric coating.
Municipally approved infrastructure equipped with full residential plumbing, dedicated electrical circuits, interior timber loft, and kitchen facilities.
Official RAC Portrait • Southwest Ave. Gateway Mural
About Benjamin Hanvy
Benjamin Hanvy is a St. Louis-based multidisciplinary public artist, muralist, composer, and sculptural fabricator with over 15 years of experience transforming architectural spaces into community landmarks. Benjamin and his wife, Kimberly Hanvy, work together as the creative team Turbo Widget, collaborating across all public murals, immersive media, micro-mural galleries, and large-scale studio productions.
Together they develop “Colourflage”—a fluid, hard-edge biomorphic design language engineered to navigate multi-planar building elevations, historic hallways, and community paint-day events.
In 2024, as one of 28 recipients of the Regional Arts Commission’s ARPA for the Arts Grant ($31,110), Hanvy designed and executed “St. Louis Unbound”—a 244-foot, 1,415-square-foot gateway mural on Southwest Avenue that engaged 50+ neighborhood volunteers across Ellendale, Clifton Heights, and Maplewood. In 2025–2026, his co-created mixed-media stairwell installation “Robot girl in myco-Land” was selected by Creative West (formerly WESTAF) as the flagship hero image on the national CaFÉ Public Art Calls portal (callforentry.org/public-art) and juried into the 2026 MUD Foundation international showcase.
Alongside co-founding the audiovisual duo Turbo Widget (staging the 2,400 sq. ft. Resonance in 360° immersive installation at City Foundry STL), Hanvy creates the Archaic Flora sculptural series in collaboration with The Near Wild—an innovative 3D fabrication start-up—producing precision armatures finished with cold-cast bronze patinas, interference micas, and UV-luminescent living botanical vessels.
Benjamin Hanvy Studio
Civic and commercial murals, architectural wraps, community paint-day programming, 360° projection installations, and sculptural vessel acquisitions.
