Abel Macias Uses Folkloric Images to Decorate Stores, Hotels and Restaurants
Inside Abel Macias’ art studio located in a gentrifying East Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, white butcher block paper covers one wall with charcoal sketches of griffins, owls, unicorns and peacocks.
On metal racks, jars upon jars of delicate paintbrushes sit near a rainbow of paint cans with color descriptions including Aegean teal, cobalt blue, sea star green and pale berry.
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Asked how many paintbrushes he owns, Macias hesitates and then shakes his head. “I don’t know. Hundreds?”
Those hundreds of paintbrushes are the tools the Latino artist employs to create colorful images that transform the interiors of stores, hotels and restaurants into magical places of wonder.
His murals grace the inside of three Dos Caminos restaurants in New York City, where walls painted light turquoise are filled with elongated rabbits decorated in layers of red, amber yellow and orange next to brightly hued flowers standing three feet tall.
In two Lane Crawford stores in China, one in Shanghai and the other in Hong Kong, saguaro cacti have populated display windows and interiors, rising like desert gardens.
Inside the Proper Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, housed in a renovated 1926 building, the curved light pink ceiling in the foyer is crammed with images of vibrant birds, bees, serpents and deer intermingled with branches and leaves, creating a garden-like ambience reminiscent of Mexico.
Macias has decorated several Faherty Brand stores of casual wear with Southwestern-themed murals and fashioned tree-covered murals for Flamingo Estate, the Los Angeles lifestyle brand founded by Richard Christiansen who has done some pop-up stores around the city.
Many of the artist’s murals draw upon his Mexican heritage as the son of immigrants from Guadalajara, Mexico, who settled in Atlanta to start one of the area’s first Mexican restaurants. Macias’ summers often were spent visiting his grandparents in Mexico, where he was introduced to the country’s iconic folk-art images splashed across ceramic pots, plates, textiles and clothing that are a reflection of native and Hispanic culture.
“As a little kid, I was always nurtured by my parents to be creative,” he explains.
That led him to study art at the Pratt Institute and later the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he graduated in 2002 with a bachelor’s degree in illustration.
He then moved to New York City, where he worked in restaurants while trying to establish himself in the local art scene. It was a struggle. “It’s not that easy in New York. It’s a huge city with a lot of creative individuals. But you really learn to hustle and put your foot in the door,” says Macias, sitting in his studio near a bookcase packed with a wide range of art books. Several of his paintings and artwork hang on the walls.
The artist’s first big break came in 2007 with the help of a friend who worked at an advertising agency handling the Dr. Martens account. “This job was really big because it was an established company. I got to go to London and work on illustrations for their campaign to release a new line of sneakers,” he recalls, noting his images at the time were more punk and had more Día de los Muertos-style skulls than animals. “That was probably the start of my mural making,” he explains.
A commission eight years ago to paint the interior walls of a Faherty Brand store in Malibu brought Macias from New York to the Los Angeles area, which he immediately loved. As soon as the mural was finished, he returned to New York, packed up his things and headed to California, where he set up an art studio and looked for a job.
While working at HomArt, a home furnishings design firm in Laguna Beach that creates products for stores including Pottery Barn and CB2, word spread about his artwork. That led Christiansen, a man with his own wild creative energy, to hire Macias. The first project was to paint the metal roll-down door that covered Christiansen’s street-front office in Highland Park, a hip neighborhood in east Los Angeles.
The result was a colorful screen that became a piece of art when rolled down at the end of the day. It was a desert scene punctuated with eye-popping cacti, boulders and a large owl staring from atop a rock. Christiansen loved it. “Abel is pure sunshine,” says the Flaming Estate founder, who went on to hire Macias for other projects. “He captures the contagious enthusiasm of Los Angeles.”
One of Macias’ biggest projects was done during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown. He was hired by famed interior designer Kelly Wearstler to paint the lobby of the Proper Hotel, a project constructed inside an old 1926 building in downtown Los Angeles. She and her husband, Brad Korzen, cofounder of Proper Hospitality, have a chain of luxury hotel and residential projects that are far from ordinary.
With the hotel unable to open until October 2021, Macias had lots of time to work, which is evident in the rich detail and color seen in the flora and fauna hanging overhead. “It was the greatest thing for me,” the artist recalls. “I had nothing to do during that time. So I would go in there and embellish the hell out of that ceiling. The level of detail I put into that space shows because there was no deadline. Kelly kind of let me do my own thing.”
The result is a magical realm of folkloric animals that hover overhead. An elongated crocodile painted in green, orange and yellow stripes in the ceiling stands over the check-in desk. A preening peacock perched on a corner wall sits by a large terracotta pot filled with a towering cactus. In one corner, if you look carefully, you can see a snail with the words “I love you” painted on it.
Wearstler, who has worked on numerous commercial design projects, pretty much left Macias on his own to create the lobby ceiling. “It was amazing to watch him do his thing, with very little direction from me,” she recounts in an email. “Abel’s work is very informed by his own Mexican heritage, with color and imagery inspired by Mexican folktales.”
In addition to the Proper Hotel, Macias at the same time began developing a capsule collection with Dutch clothing company Scotch & Soda for the brand’s summer 2022 season. The theme was “The Sun Comes Out,” to reflect the upbeat mood the country would hopefully be in by the time the worst of the pandemic was over. “They said, ‘We want something joyful to bring people outside,’” the artist recalls.
The main image from the campaign was a rising sun peeping over a green hill. That sun and Southwestern desert images were splashed onto shirts, skirts and shorts. Macias also created window displays to go with the collection.
He also painted the folkloric tale across the ceiling of the Dante restaurant inside the Maybourne Beverly Hills hotel.
All these projects have led to one of his biggest projects yet. Currently, Macias is collaborating with a luxury jewelry line, which he declined to name, on a collection coming out this spring. Part of the project includes painting murals inside a Beverly Hills Spanish-revival mansion, which will be part of the presentation. It fits in with the artist’s love of re-inventing special areas.
“I enjoy creating beauty and creating spaces that make people feel joy,” he explains. “Color is a magical tool that makes you really feel things.”
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