Brandan “Bmike” Odums doesn’t simply paint walls, he transforms forgotten spaces into monuments. After Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans filmmaker began using abandoned buildings as canvases for portraits of civil-rights leaders, cultural icons and local residents. Project BE turned hundreds of vacant units in the Florida Housing Development into a hidden museum, while Exhibit BE brought more than 30 artists to DeGaulle Manor and attracted thousands of visitors. Through these projects, Bmike reclaimed neglected spaces and made Black history, identity and resilience impossible to overlook.
I lived around the corner from Studio BE in New Orleans’ Bywater neighborhood, and visiting it was always an experience. The enormous warehouse is filled with historical figures, local heroes and everyday people presented at a monumental scale. You don’t simply look at the work you stand inside it. New Orleans is overflowing with visual art, but few artists stand out like Bmike. His distinctive style and massive murals reflect the city’s pain, pride, creativity and determination to keep moving forward. He is truly a gift to New Orleans.
Bmike’s influence now reaches far beyond the city. In 2021, he created the hand-painted cover for Will Smith’s memoir, WILL, layering portraits of Smith from different stages of his life to represent memory, growth and transformation. The cover reflects the same ideas found throughout Bmike’s murals: identity is layered, history remains present and no person can be understood through a single image. More than a graffiti artist, Bmike is a filmmaker, educator and cultural archivist who uses art to reclaim attention, preserve memory and ensure that communities too often overlooked are finally seen.
visit his site for more https://www.bmike.com/about
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