Akumal Arts Festival celebrated its fifth edition this January, welcoming nearly 100 international artists to the seaside pueblo in Mexico’s Riviera Maya to douse paradise stucco with fresh perspectives and paint—for the first time since November 2019, following a locally-focused edition in 2020 to recenter during the pandemic.
“From the first day, it was always this magical place,” Konstance Patton recalls of her introduction to Akumal. She learning of the annual festival at the end of 2020, and this year marked her first opportunity to paint. Arriving at her accommodations, the indigenous artist found her entry code matched her family’s sacred number—a message from her ancestors.
By this point in history municipalities around the world have made street art a central part of their culture, but every place is also unique. Akumal is a standalone spectacle. Surrounded by the stunning Caribbean sea and thick jungle, life thrives throughout the pueblo at the heart of Akumal. The place is a luscious live wire for greater forces.
Chicago-based Czr Prz returned to his roots in Mexico and made friends while painting in Akumal, a benefit of the event’s art camp vibe. Organizers set artists up in donated condos and fed them at the restaurant owned by fest founder Jennifer Smith. Imagine 100 artists at work on intimate murals in a compact town bursting with life. That atmosphere thrives on the walls, where color, form, and signature styles dance to the visual rhythm of a tropical ecosystem.
Attending the 2019 edition, I learned what drove the fest founders to seek new possibilities for the sleepy village—best known for its underwater caverns and nesting sea turtles—from business that aren’t stewards to the very environment that makes Riviera Maya an attraction. At the opening party, one artist and organizer explained to me how art is a primary part of Akumal’s agency, lest the pueblo end up like nearby Tulum and Playa del Carmen—gorgeous places with rich cultures and many peoples, dominated by big hospitality money and DJs.
Instead the fest aligns with authentic community, cultivating a street art program of the people. International artists arrive in droves to paint, but also to teach—this year, Akumal Arts Fest offered four packed days of artist workshops at the community center, ranging from “The Magic of Bees” by Alicia Rojas to “Modular Awesome Abstract Architecture” by Andrew Davis.
Traditionally, this year’s event would have ended on January 31st. Thanks to Thirdrail Art, the festivities continue into April, commemorating the fest’s momentous return to a full roster by partnering with the digital curator for the first drop in Thirdrail’s newest project, NFT-4-GOOD. The inaugural event selects 18 murals from this year’s festival, animating them as NFTs with assistance from Cryptic Gallery. Available in editions of ten each, the drop went live for early access on Monday, April 4th, and will open to the public on Friday, April 8th. 85% of the proceeds will benefit future art activities in Akumal.
For those who won’t make it to Akumal by the next edition—when these walls will be repainted—NFT-4-GOOD offers a new way to participate in their undeniable phenomenon. Prz’s mural, An Illusion of the Mind, depicts a friend and bohemian muse from Oaxaca he feels embodies the area’s innate spirituality. Surrounded by rich cornflower and magenta blooms, Prz’s realism retains surreal undertones. These flowers could be real, but they feel more like a half-forgotten dream. In NFT form the central deity comes to life, her eyes blinking and glowing like the spectral crown above her head.
A descendant of the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and a shaman amongst her tribe, Patton’s practice fosters healing—with a bit of clairvoyance. The artist hails from the Turtle Clan, and she planned to emblazon the sister fire and water goddesses she painted in Akumal with turtle pins even before learning about Half Moon Bay’s association with the amphibious animals. There was an unspoken understanding about her artwork’s purpose while painting—some people struck yoga poses by the artwork in progress, and a small toddler even took photos on her mom’s camera phone unprompted. “Seeing the power the work has drives me,” Patton remarked. With NFT-4-GOOD, energy rushes through the figures’ powerful auras—perhaps wind from cars rushing down the highway, where they’ll shower blessings upon hundreds of thousands of motorists over the next year
London-based Jim Vision helped piece together even more of Akumal’s back story that had evaded me at the event years prior. When a devastating hurricane struck in the 2000s, “Loads of houses were destroyed, lots of people lost their businesses, but everyone was living by the beach,” Vision said. The government moved residents from the playa to the pueblo, a stone’s throw away, but across a massive multi-lane motorway. “Once everyone was over there, they sold the land to the big hotels,” he continued—a subtle move which cut locals off from participating in Akumal’s tourism industry and their own birthright access to the sea. Painting the pueblo these past five years has reincorporated residents into the action.
This year, Vision painted the community health center, a distinct responsibility. “The doctor from the medical center got COVID very early on and unfortunately he died,” Vision said. Healing through heritage, he painted a medicine women making prayers to nature amongst a supernaturally vivid composition. “I tried to pick out all of the local animals from the Yucatán Peninsula,” Vision added, which he hopes will encourage area youth to engage with artwork, picking out and naming their favorite creatures.
Supporting the creative movement taking shape in Akumal helps beauty flourish alongside opportunity for artists. It also supports the environment and an environment of love, and an entire generation to come. Patton saw it in the uplifting spectacle herself—amazed onlookers, kids playing in the streets, and the artistic process on the precipice of a fresh start. New generations of artists will potentially arise from these efforts, “because there’s infrastructure for your work, for getting supplies, for getting assistance, ladders, all that,” she explained.
Of all the many places to witness street art, Akumal Arts Fest is fostering a hotspot of particular intensity. With NFT-4-GOOD, they dare try and capture lightning in a bottle to share this magic in support of a thriving phenomenon. Until next year, and beyond.
