Brandon Sadler
Year: 2019
Location: Mount
If the shapes and characters in Brandon Sadler’s “14 Doors” mural look familiar, it’s likely because of a certain film set in the fictional land of Wakanda. Sadler, who works under the name “Riding Red Lotus,” designed murals in a lab prominently featured in Black Panther. (Breakout character Shuri’s lab, in particular, where she unveils the hero’s suits and much more.) When he’s not conjuring setpieces for one of the highest-grossing films ever, he’s painting walls and gallery works influenced by “graffiti, and his studies in traditional Korean, Chinese, and Japanese calligraphy and painting, Ukiyo-e woodblock prints, comic books, graphic design, and indigenous symbolism and lore.
The cascading masks of Sadler’s piece across from Hygge each offer a different thought:
“Truth!”
“Love!”
“Respect!”
“Kindness!”
“Grace!”
Yet, it’s the banner above it all that presents the definitive call to action: “Play Your Part.” This is a theme that carries across the artist’s work. Even his pseudonym, Rising Red Lotus, is a tale of the sum of the parts making one. Or as a statement says, “the story of the lotus who’s roots were sown deep in the mud of good and evil, who gathered nutrients from both sides, and rose to the surface to become whole.”