Berlin-based artist Katharina Grosse transformed the landscape one of Philadelphia’s major transportation routes with a series of seven, vibrantly-coloured installations along the city’s rail gateway, visible primarily to passengers aboard passing trains.

‘Psychylustro’ utilized Grosse’s unique spray-paint technique to spread intense color across the chosen project sites, unfolding throughout the dynamic course and covering abandoned warehouse walls, small buildings and stretches of green spaces in bold hues.

I particularly like how formerly rather insignificant buildings, walls and corners of the city are changed through the brilliance of colour, bringing a new, fresh perspective to the daily routines of commuters and travellers.

About Katharina Grosse

One of the most significant painters on the contemporary art scene, Katharina Grosse (b. 1961, Freiburg/Breisgau, Germany) is known for her inventive use of vibrant color and innovative fusion of painting, sculpture and architecture. Grosse lives and works in Berlin. Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Münster and Düsseldorf with Norbert Tadeusz and Gotthard Graubner (from 1982 to 1990), her extensive journeys brought her to Asia, South America and New Zealand. She was awarded the Villa Romana-Prize, Florence, Italy (1992); the Karl-Schmidt-Rottluff Prize (1993); and served as Artist-in-Residence at the Chinati Foundation, in Marfa, Texas (1999). In 2000 she was appointed to a professorship at the Kunsthochschule Weißensee in Berlin, and she is currently a professor for painting at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf.

Grosse’s work has been commissioned by institutions around the world, including MOCA, Cleveland; MassMoCA, North Adams; Arken Museum of Modern Art, Copenhagen; Museu Serralves, Porto; Tate St. Ives; Kunstwerke, Berlin; Denver Art Museum, Denver; Prospect One, New Orleans; Amsterdam’s De Appel; Paris’ Palais de Tokyo; The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas; UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; and the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Brisbane, among many other venues.

Funding and Support

Commissioned by Mural Arts Philadelphia
Curated by Elizabeth Thomas

Presented in cooperation with Amtrak, psychylustro has been supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, National Endowment for the Arts, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Fierce Advocacy Fund, PTS Foundation, AT&T, Philadelphia Zoo, Joe and Jane Goldblum, David and Helen Pudlin, halfGenius, The Beneficial Foundation with support for the exhibition publication from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation.