HCUAP’s visiting artists leave their mark on Pittsburgh

This fall, three international style writers, muralists, and street artists stepped foot in Pittsburgh for their first time — and they left their marks on the walls of Bloomfield, Homewood, and Garfield.

The artists flew into Western Pennsylvania for a 10-day residency curated and organized by Hemispheric Conversations: Urban Art Project (HCUAP, pronounced “hiccup”). Since 2016, HCUAP has prioritized cross-cultural engagement between street artists from Spanish-speaking communities, local and abroad, and Pittsburgh’s locales.

The 2025 residency brought two graffiti artists from Spain, Harry Bones and Musa71, along with a muralist from the Philippines, Venazir Martinez, to engage with Pittsburghers and their communities. The collaborators, Caitlin Bruce, Max Gonzales, Shane Pilster, and Emma Riva decided on the theme of “Entangled Histories: Urban Art and its Diasporas,” due to the complex, shared cultural heritage of the artists’ home countries.
Harry and Musa traveled into Pittsburgh together and collaboratively worked on the Homewood wall during their residency. Harry and Musa met about 10 years ago and have since combined their art styles on numerous walls, including a 2023 “Com a Casa/Like Home” exhibition. Both artists grew up in post-Franco Spain, a political landscape that shaped their experience with artistry and the symbols in their street art.