Local Artists Create Mural for Suicide Squad

In what is sure to be a summer blockbuster movie, the cast of Suicide Squad came to South Florida on July 25th to unveil a huge mural in Wynwood that was painted by our star local artists Amanda Valdes and Diana “Didi Rok” Contreras. The dynamic duo spent a week collaboratively painting the wall that features the wildly colorful demented Super Heroes from the film. To hype the unveil, Warner Bros. threw an afternoon block party hosted by DJ Laz and Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado said a few words on stage before the reveal.

Amanda Valdes, of Palm Beach Gardens, has painted many landmark murals in the county at Howleys, Nicole Henry Fine Arts Graffitti Garden, and will be part of the official CANVAS lineup in the Fall.

Didi Rok is an art teacher and painted for the Miami Heat while 6 months pregnant.

“Warner Brothers found us online somehow,” Valdes says a few days after the unveiling. “They liked my illustration characters of Edward Scissorhands and Queen of Hearts so asked us to do this mural. They gave us total artistic freedom, the only stipulation was that it had to be the characters that would be at the unveiling. We made some sketches from the promo material they sent us and got the go ahead. Despite the heat it was a dream come true and very surreal being with those movie stars!”

The plot of Suicide Squad is this: A secret government agency recruits imprisoned supervillains to execute dangerous black ops missions in exchange for clemency. The movie stars A-listers Margot Robbie, Will Smith, Jared Leto and Adam Beach. Thousands of fans of the Marvel movie came to the block party dressed as their favorite characters from Harley Quinn (Robbie) to the Joker (Leto).

The movie is expected to be one of the biggest releases of 2016. “[Harley Quinn] has such a big fan following,” said Robbie at the unveiling. “When there’s a character or a book or something I really, really care about, and I’m so nervous when they make it into a movie. I’m like, ‘Please don’t wreck it. Please don’t wreck how much I love this book or character or whatever it is.’”

The difference between who the “bad guys” and “evil guys”  – and gals – are in this movie can be hard to tell. Will Smith explained the difference between the two and where the Suicide Squad falls under. “It was really interesting. It was fun on the set when we were trying to figure out the line. Like, what was the line between somebody who was bad and somebody who was evil,” Smith said.

Will Smith, Margot Robbie were a few of the cast members who attended the Suicide Squad block party, Monday afternoon.

Smith even jumped up performed one of his throwback rapper days songs, “Miami,” in front of the excited crowd in the mural covered South Florida neighborhood. He told 7News which line in his song describes Miami the best. “Oh wow, ‘Spanish, Haitian, Indian, Jamaican, black, white, Cuban and Asian,” Smith said.

The mural is at NW 2nd Ave between 27th and 28th Streets in Wynwood, Miami. The super villain movie Suicide Squad will hit theaters on August 5.

Suicide Squad Mural Photo Gallery

Click on any image to enlarge it

1 of 5

—