Urban Indianapolis & Beyond

For the month of February, City Gallery is exhibiting Urban Indianapolis & Beyond by Diane Staver, a collection of bold, colorful urban artworks pulsing with the dynamic energy of city life. 

Since she was five years old, Diane Staver has devoted herself to art. She studied painting in college, taught art for thirteen years as a professor at IU, and created bold, graffiti-inspired artwork in her own distinctive style. Her work is inspired by the urban environments around her, using bright, bold colors and flattened forms to depict the raw energy of city life. 

To create each piece, Staver starts with a digital photograph of buildings or storefronts, many of them familiar locations in Indianapolis or broader Indiana. She then manipulates the photo using Photoshop, adding, combining, and eliminating areas to create a final image, sometimes adding original graffiti to decorate the blank buildings. Staver often uses the manipulated photo as a reference to paint her final acrylic work, though sometimes a piece will remain digital artwork. 

With bright colors and fun, detailed graffiti, Staver's work transforms mundane city storefronts and side buildings into lively, eye-catching artwork. "I love cities; the bigger, the better!" she says. In her art, she highlights the raw beauty hidden in generic urban buildings and invites viewers to join her in exploring the movement, architecture, and energy of city life. 

Urban Indianapolis & Beyond is open to the public anytime through the month of February during our posted gallery hours: Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The works can also be viewed and purchased on our online gallery through March.