camille walala transforms vintage gas station into a colorful landmark in arkansas

for the past five years, creative house justkids has been curating and producing art in unexpected places across the cityscape of fort smith, arkansas, enriching the community and urban area. now, french artist camille walala has joined ‘the unexpected’ project by turning a disused, vintage gas station into a thrilling piece of public art. ‘I love this canvas — it was exciting to do something really bold, that stands out on a bigger scale,’ walala says of her time in arkansas. ‘we had a great team of people working with us for a few days, most of them were locals from fort smith who came to help and it has been an amazing execution of the project.’

influenced by walala’s travels, the memphis movement, optical art masters and the southern ndebele tribe women, the immersive mural stretches across a 1950’s gas station located at the intersection of grand avenue and 11th street. ‘walala pump & go’ embodies the artist’s eclectic tribal pop style, with a sea of vibrant geometric patterns enriching the existing architectural elements. the creation of the eye-catching social space brought together the community and a collaboration with local artist nate meyers, as well as a group of skillful volunteers.

‘the artist’s bold and playful style incredibly enhances built space and architecture, creating welcoming social spaces,’ said justkids curator charlotte dutoit on the project. ‘after five years of curating diverse visual projects in fort smith, I learned that a big part of good place-making is creating community and a sense of re-discovery of the beauty that is there, in the city, all along, and camille’s work does just that.’

project info: 

artist: camille walala
curator/producer: justkids
title: walala pump & go
location: grand avenue and 11th street, fort smith, arkansas