Biggie Smalls Will Soon Guide Drivers Onto Brooklyn's Gowanus Expressway

• Pictured: One of two walls under the Gowanus Expressway to be painted. Photos by John V. Santore

SOUTH SLOPE, BROOKLYN — A public mural project will soon emblazon three neighborhood walls with some of the most famous words of Brooklyn's own Biggie Smalls.

To make it happen, the artists of the South Slope-based Open Source Gallery have teamed up with Boa Mistura, an arts collective from Spain that has been painting massive murals around the world in conjunction with local community members.

The first part of the project will involve two opposing walls under the Gowanus Expressway at the intersection of 3rd Avenue and Prospect Avenue.

Using large, colorful, overlapping letters, Boa will paint one to read, "Everything you get you gotta work hard for it," from Biggie's track "The What." The other will say, “We can't change the world unless we change ourselves," a quote attributed to the artist.

The second wall under the Gowanus Expressway to be painted

Several blocks away, a wall outside the Associated Supermarket at 5th Avenue and 17th Street will be painted to read, "Spread Love, it's the Brooklyn way," from Biggie's iconic track "Juicy."

The canvas outside the Associated Supermarket

As it has done elsewhere, Boa Mistura is opening up the project to anyone who wants to participate. You can sign up on the Open Source Gallery's website. 

Boa's artists will begin prepping the walls on June 13th, and the community-based painting will run from June 17 to June 23, with an unveiling planned for June 24.

Shauna Sorensen, the development director for the Open Source Gallery, said the organization reached out to Boa, which then picked the lyrics it wanted to use.

The project was approved by the city's Department of Transportation, which has also provided funding for the effort, Sorensen said.

A Boa Mistura mural in Panama