A Colorful Expression

SLATE Art Consulting first approached Fernando Reyes about the public art project in 2018. SLATE presented several artists’ work to the team, and the Oakland artist’s paper collage work was selected as a point of departure for the Denizen Apartments’ courtyard entrance.

Commissioned by Signature Development Group to satisfy Oakland’s percent for public art requirement, the Denizen Gate, aptly named “Jubilation,” was built to last using powder-coated cut-metal shapes attached to a custom-built arch structure.

Although this was Oakland artist Fernando Reyes’ first experience with public art, the piece that he created was reminiscent of work he’d created from a previous collection of collages influenced by mid-century elements.

DEKA welded fixtures to the back of each metal shape at precise locations, and sent all 150 pieces to a local powder-coater to be treated with 20 different colors that had been hand-selected by Reyes.

Jubilation, the imaginative welcome gate that sits at the courtyard entrance of the Denizen apartment, even has its own special tool to add and remove the uniquely shaped plates for cleaning or when natural wear and tear occurs.