By GINNY VAN ALYEA

On the morning of Friday, September 20 a small group of special guests visiting Fashion Outlets of Chicago in suburban Rosemont toasted THE COLLECTION’s newest permanent commission, Midnight Blue by acclaimed contemporary artist Hebru Brantley. The installation, which features one of Brantley's iconic Flyboys as well as a surface work running along an elevator stack, is the 25th work to become part of Fashion Outlet's permanent collection of public art.
  
Midnight Blue was inspired by the world of Jazz, particularly the atmosphere created in the classic tune titled “Round Midnight and composed in the 1940s by Thelonious Monk. The song has been widely covered ever since. 

While visitors wander the mall and move between the upper and levels Brantley's art will hopefully draw their attention to something different about this shopping experience, much the way the artist's murals elsewhere around the city invite passersby by to stop for a moment. Midnight Blue aims to convey a state of being lost in the moment, carried away by the interplay of colors and shapes. 

Brantley is known throughout Chicago and around the country for his distinctive, narrative-driven work that revolves around his conceptualized characters. His art historical references include Robert Colescott, Andy Warhol, Kerry James Marshall and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and he utilizes his characters in a narrative output to address complex ideas around nostalgia, fear, safety, power, and hope. The color palettes, motifs and characters themselves juxtapose this intricacy, creating an air of innocence and accessibility around his layered and multifaceted ideas. In particular the public has come to recognize Brantly's character of the Flyboy. In his Negro Mythos series, Brantley reimagines the super heroes of American pop culture as people of color – as a quest to readdress modern mythology through his lens. Flyboy was also born from this concept. The one that is part of Midnight Blue is the second Flyboy publicly installed in the Chicago area. The first is at Navy Pier near the Chicago Children's Museum, and a third, which will actually be a (20 foot tall) Lil Mama figure, is coming soon to the city's west side, though there has been delays in unveiling it.  

Brantley himself has become a public figure, with an international reputation that has followed his beginnings in public art. Much of the work he has become known for is outside. He added, As somebody that started in public art, being able to do something in more of a controlled environment was kind of appealing. It's inside versus outside, And it's a challenge to figure out how to create a narrative around an escalator, but it's still wall space. It's just different.

When I asked Brantley what he was most excited about for this particular installation at THE COLLECTION, he shared, For me, the thing that's exciting is that I haven't mixed the mediums of sculpture and painting before. I've done installations, murals, sculptures, but now this is the opportunity for that to all come together. 

As far as the concept of youth passing time walking in a mall, I wanted to know how much time Brantley had spent in malls growing up. While he did mall walk like many kids, he also recalled that he always had two jobs as a kid, and his first was at Water Tower downtown. I've been known to snack and spend a lot of time at the food court when it comes to malls, he admits. That's basically the kitchen, right? It's like when people come to someone's house – the part of the house they spent the most time in is the kitchen. The heart. Brantley wanted his work to be where people would be taking a break and socializing. And for Brantley, Midnight Blue's addition to THE COLLECTION feels good. This is coming home, so to speak, he says. It's really cool.

Details on Hebru Brantley and Midnight Blue at the Fashion Outlets may be found here

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