Painting the town: PRHBTN brings colorful murals to different parts of Lexington

By Ben Wolford

news@kykernel.com

Lexington’s rising art community has placed a “prohibition” on unoriginal urban art, thanks to John Winters and his wife, Jessica.

The Winters’ group, PRHBTN — pronounced “prohibition” — is a formulated attempt to find the best local artists in Lexington and to contract acclaimed international artists to put their stamp on the city, as well as help push Lexington in a more artistic direction.

“We look at artists’ Instagrams, which has really become one of the easiest ways to do it. We start the year with a list of 50 artists, which we then narrow down to about six, send emails and cross our fingers,” John Winters said.

PRHBTN has been adding art to Lexington since 2010 — however, a rise in reputation came in 2013 when the Winters contracted world-renowned muralist Eduardo Kobra from Brazil to construct what is now an iconic piece of street art in Lexington, “the Lincoln.”

Kobra’s fame comes from similar murals of iconic cultural heroes that he has created in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo. This mural, at the time, was PRHBTN’s largest contracted piece and set the bar high for street art in Lexington. Kobra’s mural stands nearly 12 stories tall with colored shapes overlaying a black-and-white image of Lincoln in his quintessential pose, sitting in his presidential chair.

“I never thought we’d be able to get someone like Kobra to come to Lexington of all places,” Winters said. “What it’s grown into is an ability to form a community. It’s been fun to bring these guys from out of town to Lexington to do what they love to do: travel and paint.”

Street art is approved by a city’s government to help bring attention to that city. Just this year on Feb. 12, Abe Lincoln’s birthday, Mayor Jim Gray passed a resolution to light the Lincoln mural every sundown.

In a Kentucky.com article, Councilman Bill Farmer, Jr. went on record saying, “I think we all like public art.”

“Clearly the Lincoln mural should be my favorite based on what it brought to Lexington,” John Winters said. “It was weird and fun just because we brought Kobra here and then realized ‘How are we going to pay this guy?’”

Jessica Winters, Winter’s wife and co-founder of PRHBTN, plays just as big a role in the community as her husband, both paving the road for a more artistic future and community in Lexington. Jessica Winters is no stranger to creating a local art scene, co-owning the locally famous Buster’s Billiards and Ballroom for nearly five years.

“Our house is here. Lexington is our city,” John Winters said. “We’ve been asked to do things in other cities like Frankfort and Cincinnati. There’s no money or corporate business behind it. We do it to have fun, and we are really happy that Lexington has been so welcoming.”