GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — From Frederik Meijer Gardens to Frank Lloyd Wright, from The American Horse to Calder Plaza's La Grande Vitesse — French for "the great swiftness" — there's a history of art and design sculpted into Grand Rapids, formerly furniture city.
On Ottawa Avenue, some of the freshest paint on the city's canvas has been splattered by Abdoulaye Conde, the young artist who won the Public Vote Grand Prize during last year's festival for his mural, Raining Wisdom.
"ArtPrize changed — poof — my life," Conde said in a recent interview with FOX 17. "Very amazing, wonderful."
Born in Guinea, West Africa, Conde moved to his country's capital as a teen to pursue a career in art, selling custom portraits and painting murals for local schools to support his mom and sister.
"I had to work hard because it was only me," Conde said. "I told my mom, 'I want to buy a house for you one day.'"
The aspiring artist cultivated a style called Gnabassan, meaning mixed up, yet together. Different, but the same.
"We have to be together," Conde said.
In 2019, Conde married Anisa Shaw, whom he met in Guinea while she was working with the Peace Corps. A few years later in 2022, the pair moved to Chicago. Through in-laws living in Michigan, he learned about ArtPrize.
"I said, 'Yeah, of course I want to try," Conde said about the first competition he entered. "This was my dream."
The blank wall on 45 Ottawa Avenue would become his canvas, a 30 by 66 foot space to hold his colorful elephants.
"The elephant is smart. Loves his family, protects his family," Conde said, also mentioning that the animal is a national symbol of Guinea.
Beginning in the top corner, the artist worked down and across. Two coats. 25 days: "Step by step. That's helped me."
In the end, Raining Wisdom was a winner, earning Conde $125,000. He could buy his mother a house.
"It's a really exciting time for the arts and culture scene here," said Catlin Whitington, the executive director of ArtPrize who announced Conde as the Public Vote Grand Prize Winner.
A newer resident of Grand Rapids, Whitington says the city "punches above" its weight class: "A certain level of affordability and accessibility that some of the bigger markets might not have for artists."
Because walk anywhere in Grand Rapids, he says, and there's a chance you'll see something special — perhaps Raining Wisdom — on a wall.
"It's not traditional commercial art and lobby art," Whitington said. "It's original and it's really quality artistry."
