Muralist Morgan Cook has been hard at work on a huge graffiti-style mural in the new Raleigh Iron Works development off Atlantic Avenue, which will receive its final coat this week.
Born and raised in Raleigh, Morgan has lived all over the world for his art, but returned five years ago to work as a full time artist in the City of Oaks for commercial and private clients, as well as running his own private art practice.
Morgan has painted plenty of murals for clients throughout Raleigh, and with this project, he was given free rein for the design. "[Raleigh Iron Works] basically approached me and said, ‘Hey, we love your brand, we love your style, and we want to emulate that exact thing. We don’t want you to change anything that you do, just do you,’” Morgan told RALtoday.
For this piece, Morgan deconstructed his traditional style and created a more abstract piece of contemporary artwork with small details for passersby to find. At 30-by-64 feet, this mural will be the largest legal graffiti mural in Raleigh.
You can see Morgan’s work throughout Raleigh and Cary, like a vibrant graffiti mural on the patio of Cary’s Di Fara Pizza Tavern, a tribute to the restaurant’s Brooklyn roots. The mural includes the NYC cityscape along with other references to the Big Apple, and a memorial for the late founder of Di Fara.
Now that Morgan has nearly wrapped up the Raleigh Iron Works mural, he will be working on a piece at the new gym MADabolic in North Raleigh and a mural (plus a matching ice cream flavor) at the soon-to-open Two Roosters location in Wake Forest.
“I’m really excited to highlight this piece and show it because it’s just massive,” Morgan said. “And it’s such a colorful punch into the community. I’m just ready to see people engage with it.”
