Local artist Neo Medina will transform a riverfront building with a forest-inspired mural celebrating the landscape and history of the Fox River
OSHKOSH, Wis. — A new mural by local artist Neo Medina will bring another destination to the city’s Riverwalk, transforming a pole building at the southwest corner of Riverside Cemetery into a forested landscape inspired by the natural and industrial history of the Fox River.
The mural is part of a broader effort by Discover Oshkosh and community partners to activate the entire 11-mile loop of riverfront trails, using public art, history and placemaking to create reasons for residents and visitors to explore beyond the most familiar stretches of the riverwalk.
“We don’t want all our public art concentrated in one or two places,” said Amy Albright, Executive Director of Discover Oshkosh. “The riverwalk is such an incredible asset. We see a real opportunity to create destinations all along it, investing in places that make you want to keep walking, biking and discovering what comes next.”
Medina’s design wraps multiple sides of an existing building in forest of Riverside Cemetery. On the river-facing wall, an owl will fly through the trees. Another side will draw the forest inward toward the Fox River, creating the impression that the landscape continues through the structure.
The forestry theme was chosen specifically because of this location. Riverside Cemetery is home to some of Oshkosh’s most beautiful mature trees, while old timber pilings remain visible in the Fox River nearby. They serve as a physical reminder of the lumber industry that helped shape the early city. The site is also just south of the historic location of Knaggs Ferry and other stories from Oshkosh’s earliest development along the river.
Those layers gave Medina an opportunity to create something that feels rooted in its surroundings without functioning as a literal history lesson. The mural will draw people to this location and then connect them to the living forest of Riverside Cemetery, the remnants of Oshkosh’s timber era and the Fox River itself.
The location also extends a growing corridor of public art. Just south of Riverside Cemetery is the 1,000-foot riverfront mural completed last year by artist Mauricio Ramirez, one of the largest and most visible pieces in Oshkosh’s expanding public art collection.
Rather than treating individual murals as isolated projects, the larger riverwalk initiative is using public art to stitch together the full riverfront experience. Each new destination gives people another reason to travel farther along the trail and to encounter a part of Oshkosh they may not otherwise visit.
“The goal is that eventually you can enter or turn off the riverwalk almost anywhere and know there is something worth discovering in every direction,” said Albright. “The river connects an extraordinary amount of Oshkosh. Public art will help people experience it that way.”
The Riverside Cemetery installation will start this week and is the third public art installation in this summer’s cycle. Additional public art projects and Riverwalk improvements are planned throughout Oshkosh as part of the continuing effort to make the city’s riverfront trail system a destination in its own right. Follow Discover Oshkosh for more updates.
