David Wojnarowicz Murals Found in Louisville, Kentucky
In the winter of 1985, David Wojnarowicz and several other East Village artists mounted The Missing Children Show: 6 Artists from the East Village on Main Street—in the rubble strewn first floor of an abandoned warehouse in Louisville, Kentucky—to benefit Kentucky’s Child Victims’ Trust Fund.
In subsequent decades, the building was converted to apartments, the neighborhood revitalized and, in 2022, David’s murals were found preserved behind drywall whilepreparing the space for commercial use. The building owners decided to move ahead with plans to convert the space where the murals are located into a gym in 2025. On August 7th, 2025, the murals were once again covered up with drywall, protected, but no longer to be seen.
Images: Details, David Wojnarowicz, “The Missing Children Show”, 1985 (photographed in 2022). Mixed media mural. Photographer: Mindy Best. Copyright Estate of David Wojnarowicz. Courtesy of the Estate of David Wojnarowicz and P·P·O·W, New York.