Reflecting On irregular’s Mirrored Collabs with Philly Street Artists

Words and photos by Streets Dept Contributor Eric Dale.

Conrad first posted one of the innovative mirrored installations created by Philly street artist irregular (stylized all lowercase) in July. This artist is doing some amazing work, so now it’s my turn to post about him!

(irregular also worked with Streets Dept Walls for one of our Wawa Welcome America 2022 mini-murals that’s located at The Oval for the summer. And he was featured in this year’s Tiny Room For Elephants festival.)

If you’re wondering, yes, this is the same artist who has been spray-painting the word “irregular” around town. He’s shown canvas works informally at Rittenhouse Square for years, but has recently started popping up with street art pieces. There’s the aforementioned spray paint stencils, but now he really seems to be doubling down on his mirror work.

Mirrors appear to have played a role in irregular’s art for some time. Now, they’re a part of a collaboration with Philly artist Nomad. Here’s what the artist told me via Instagram DM:

“My ongoing collab with Nomad should be seen as two deeply rooted street artists choosing to explore and reflect emotion together through our work. The work is a study of what a Basquiat/Warhol/Haring collaborative work would have looked like, without money and fame. The streets are the source. So instead of scavenging the ground for change, we pick up all the dropped energy and carry the spirit through raw reflection.”

Here’s what Nomad had to say: “It’s a learning process and basically a creation in real time because at any moment we can decide to do whatever we are feeling. I think my messaging with [irregular’s] imagery is the perfect combination.”

This isn’t irregular’s first street art collaboration. He’s also worked with Lami in the past, and a few weeks ago, he installed pieces of mirror in the shape of stikman near Rittenhouse Square. “It was your interview with stikman that I read just before I did the piece,” he told me!

The mirrored stikman was buffed shortly after installation, but in a hilarious twist, it turns out that paint is very easy to scrap off of glass! A few days ago on Instagram, irregular posted a video of himself doing just that, leaving stikman’s mirrored pieces good as new. So buffed and scraped is the state I caught them in this week.

The stikman installation wasn’t exactly a collaboration with the legendary artist, who also happens to style the name of his creation in lowercase. Rather, it was “a nod to my very first memory of street art here in Philly,” irregular told me. “I recall seeing a stikman on a crosswalk maybe fifteen years ago before I ever started creating. I’ve been having many full circle moments as I continue to evolve my work, so to honor stikman was a must for me. His team/associates showed great appreciation of the work as well which felt great! Maybe a collaboration of sorts will arise some day!”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from interviewing Philly street artists, collaboration is core to the culture. So prepare to see more mirrored collabs from irregular in the near future!

“There is no end goal, just remain devoted to the work and trust the evolution. To remain undefined.” —irregular