Curb Appeal: The Street Comes Indoors
Despite municipal anti-graffiti campaigns, don’t expect Matt Amero and Jason Ritchie to scour the walls of their Icon Hair Gallery in downtown Edmonton
by Scott Messenger
After buying the Manulife Place salon in August 2007 and deeming its yellow walls far too “1990,” the pair settled on industrial-inspired renos: leaden tones, brushed metal and, logically enough, graffiti. While monochromatic, labyrinthine scrawl adorns the interior, dominating Icon’s facade is a big, bright, vaguely menacing portrait of what could be the warrior heroine of a Japanese comic book. Both are by Trevor Peters, a local artist whose street style seemed perfect for infusing the mall’s glass and granite environs with some urban grit. “We wanted to bring the two together,” says Amero. “We figured we could do that with graffiti –
make things more exciting around here.” But, despite the edgy aesthetic, the pieces fall just short of the anti-establishment spray-painter’s spirit. That is, Amero admits, “They’re not cheap.”
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