San Enrique Murals at Parkline Kitchen & Bar
1918 Park Boulevard
Oakland
On an evening back in February I visited one of our neighborhood stores, Two Star Market, to buy a beer and a snack. A popular place open late, it offers not only the provisions one would expect of a traditional corner store (although it’s not on a corner), but is also home to Dimond Kitchen, serving up delicious Southern comfort food like barbecue chicken, sweet potatoes, oxtail, greens, mac-and-cheese, and ribs. The tiny parking lot is usually crammed, which is probably why I hadn’t noticed the mural before, obscured as it was by parked cars.
Painted on a cinderblock enclosure for Two Star’s Dumpsters, it caught my eye with its somber yet gentle rendering of a pair of cupped hands with a diamond floating above them against a stark black background, framed by the words “Dimond District” and “Oakland.” I viewed it for a while, snapped a photo, and went inside for my cold one and victuals.
Looking at the photo later, I found the artist’s Instagram handle, @sanenrique872, through which i discovered his other murals, paintings, and signs. I immediately followed him. In the months that followed I saw other works appear in my Insta feed, including a mural for Beeryland (Telegraph Beer Garden) and pieces for a new cafe that opened in early August on Park Boulevard near Lake Merritt, Parkline Kitchen & Bar.
I reached out, and San Enrique agreed to meet.
A relaxed atmosphere awaited me inside the cafe. Parkline’s interior is filled with cushioned seats and small sofas, a wicker peacock chair, and wooden tables of differing sizes, all softly lit by strings of light laced on the ceiling. An easy, almost tropical vibe. The menu includes sandwiches — most named for Oakland neighborhoods (e.g. “The Laurel,” “Jingletown,” “Adams Point”) — plus burgers, salads, coffees, sodas, wine, beer, and wine-based cocktails.
I found San Enrique atop a ladder, painting a black-clad woman in Dia de los Muertos makeup with flowers in her hair, behind her abstract swirls of hot pink. I got a ginger beer at the bar from one of the co-owners, Val Shah, and Enrique and I sat down at an outdoor table beneath a mural he did called “Shaman,” San Enrique telling me that the jaguar mask the figure wears is in the style of one from Guerrero, Mexico.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Luis Enrique Sanchez Hernández has lived in the Bay Area for 6 years. He began studying art at the age of 16, initially with his mother and uncle, then at La Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado (nicknamed “La Esmeralda”) which is part of the National Fine Arts Institute (Instituto National de Bellas Artes). Now 32, San Enrique has painted murals in several locations in Oakland, El Cerrito, Richmond, and San Pablo, in addition to painting signs and murals for various businesses and doing carpentry.
A prolific artist, San Enrique also paints on canvas and makes ceramics and prints. But he doesn’t like to sell his canvases and dislikes art galleries, repelled by the idea that his work could be bought by “a rich asshole to hang in their living room.” He went on to say that money isn’t important to him: “It’s necessary, but it doesn’t impress me.” San Enrique likes public art because everyone can see it.
I asked about how he signs his work. San Enrique uses the word chroma — “color”— in classical capital Greek letters (ΧΡΩΜΑ) along with roman numerals for the year a piece is created. He often doesn’t title his pieces, saying, “I mean, the name doesn’t matter too much.”
Parkline was closing for the day and San Enrique needed to clean-up his brushes and put away his paints and ladder, so we parted ways. He invited me to visit his studio in the future; I’d like to see more of his smaller work. In the meantime I’ll be on the lookout for more of his public murals. Maybe you too will be surprised by one while out getting a beer and a snack.
Parkline Kitchen & Bar is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Two Star Market hosts an annual Thanksgiving Day community celebration. Their 22nd celebration will be held on Thursday, November 28, with free traditional Thanksgiving dinners available to the public from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
