Players of The Year (Fran Harris, Clarissa Davis, Annette Smith), 2022
J Muzacz is a muralist mosaicist, public artist, community art advocate, and educator.
Originally from Houston, J is a graduate of the University of Texas’ Sociology program and has since traveled extensively and lived abroad. His large-scale murals span places as far-reaching as Taiwan, New Zealand, and Okinawa, Japan. His past clients include Facebook, Vice Media, Anheuser-Busch, the City of Austin, HUE Mural Festival, Georgetown Arts & Culture, Flint Public Art Project, CBRE, Transwestern, Troublemaker Studios, and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
In recent work, J’s vibrant, stained-glass-style paintings, pixelated pop-art mosaics and murals are informed by his roots as a street artist and frequently respond to contemporary environment, cultural icons, and important social issues. J is also co-founder of The Mosaic Workshop, an artist-run initiative at Something Cool Studios in East Austin where community members can learn the process of public art with hands-on training for monumentally scaled projects.
Depicted prominently in this mural is Retha Swindell, the first black woman to play with the Texas Longhorns women’s basketball team. Swindell was one of the UT women’s basketball program’s first two All-Americans. In 2001, Swindell was recognized for her collegiate career with an induction into the University of Texas’ Women’s Athletics Hall of Honor.
