DCist, admittedly, was not in love with the first ArtWalk, the large installation of murals on the old convention center site at 10th St. between New York Ave. and H St., NW. The third edition of ArtWalk opened this afternoon, and while we still have many of the prior complaints about the space (Astroturf is unnecessary, and the backstops with tarps that make up the walkway are far from aesthetically pleasing), the artwork itself is much better this year, and some of it is actually very good.

The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities decided on Emerge for this year’s theme to correspond with the impending transformation of the space (buildings and condos are scheduled to be built on the site starting next January). This is the final ArtWalk due to these changes, and it is probably the most successful one of the three, with more hits than misses. The twelve 6' x 24' murals range in media from photography to painting to screen-printing, and the majority of the artists are from the Washington metro area, while two are from Philadelphia.

Nascent Flight by Michele de la Menardiere

Highlights include Michele de la Menardiere’s Nascent Flight (pictured), a colorful work made by screen-printing and digital media, which examines humanity’s universal consciousness and meditates on the sublime. The word Gayatri, which appears more easily in the real life version, refers to the Hindu goddess of awakening, an apt symbol for emergence.

The Memory of Tomorrow, by Ira Tattelman and Thomas Drymon, is another terrific mural — the photograph of a wedding explores the body, light, time, and space, and the active quality of the image makes you feel as though you’re a part of the wedding itself.

The most clichéd mural is Emerge by Kate Kaman and Joel Erland — the pair departed from their usual style to create an image of a groundhog and insects, animals associated with various “emergences.” Their stated message for the work, “I emerge, therefore I exist,” claims to be “post-ironic” but doesn’t quite seem to make the connections the artists were intending.

ArtWalk would probably be more successful as an art exhibit with stricter parameters (maybe have fewer artists participating), so that the whole installation could have a more unified feel. It’s still not the sort of thing one might seek out if not already in the area, but it succeeds in adding some color to the boring parking lot, and perhaps a nice place to sit and eat your lunch. The murals will be on display until construction begins on the site.