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Black Lives Matter mural painted outside Capital One Arena

By Ian Oland

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June 9, 2020 6:16 pm

Capital One Arena now has some beautiful and inspiring artwork on its facade.

Four days after Black Lives Matter was painted on 16th Street leading up to the White House, a sports-themed mural was painted a few blocks away on the side of Capital One Arena. The painting on wooden boards features the words Black Lives Matter with Black athletes playing hockey and basketball.

The Capital One Arena Twitter account published four photos with the caption, “We love celebrating beautiful art – inside the building and outside. We stand with you.”

Here’s another look as it was being painted.

Two accounts were credited on the mural, @DezCustomz and @LeviRobinsonArt.

Dez Customz has an online store and has a physical location in Maryland. The artist behind the account recently created this beautiful painting of George Floyd with the phrase I Can’t Breathe.

He also custom-painted these epic shoes for a Caps fan.

Levi Robinson also appears to be a local artist, whose Instagram is full of stunning African American artwork. You can view all of his paintings and support him on his website here.

View this post on Instagram

Title: Eve Reimagined Media: Mixed (Oil, Acrylic, Gold Leaf) on Canvas Size: 40”x 40” Imagine… Born… Fully mature. Woman. An Object. Created for the sole purpose of satisfying the desires of Man. Ignorant. Yet duty bound. Bound by a directive delivered from a courier. A glorified assistant manager. A child. She. Burdened with the weight of a trillion generations. An entire species. Not just A species but THE species. Imagine… Fruit. Sweet, beautiful to the eye, seductive. You may have all of these execept … Yet We will allow THE lord of deception, the great manipulator to whisper to you in your boundless ignorance. “Adam is full of shit… surely you can eat of this tree. In fact it’s the most delicious in all of Eden. Adam will do whatever you say… even above the directive delivered directly to HIM by the Great I Am, Creator of all that is and isn’t.” She eats… he eats. He points at her. She takes the blame. HE plays the victim. HE tells the story. He writes the story. WE buy it. SHE suffers. HE wins. Imagine that. —-———————————————————— #eve #adam #originalsin #gardenofeden #black #greyscale #grayscale #goldleaf #oilpaintings #floralart #reefaddict #crows #knowledgeofself #knowledgeispower📚

A post shared by LEVI ROBINSON | ART (@levirobinsonart) on

Both the Capitals and the Wizards have released statements supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

Owner Ted Leonsis recently wrote a blog post titled We Are In This Together.

“In no uncertain terms, it is important that you know that our company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, and the Leonsis family stand against racism, prejudice, discrimination, and police brutality,” he wrote. “We stand with you in our demands for justice because Black Lives Matter!”

Update: According to Leonsis, the mural outside Capital One Arena is part of a Black Lives Matter outdoor exhibit at Gallery place.

“The 27 mural exhibit showcases artistic expressions in solidarity with the Black Lives Matters movement on downtown D.C. storefronts in Gallery Place (7th St between H and F Streets NW),” Leonsis wrote in a blog post.

Headline photo courtesy of @capitalonearena

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