Graffiti Jam Trigger Fingers Coming To Trinity Groves With More Introspective, Refined Art

Dallas’ prestigious graffiti jam Trigger Fingers will be in a new part of town for the first time since its inception.

Trigger Fingers, an all-day live painting event, returns for its sixth annual event in West Dallas on April 5 in Trinity Groves at 320 Singleton Blvd. The event serendipitously came together.

“It's a callback to our first Trigger Fingers, where we didn't think it was going to happen, but part of it was, this is definitely going to happen because all the right talent is together,” Trigger Fingers co-founder Ray Albarez says.

Albarez, Bobby Janss and Danny Dejong founded the graffiti jam in 2019. Trigger Fingers is one of three North Texas paint jams, including Go Paint Day and a lower-key Euless event celebrating the timeless art form founded on unsanctioned art. Over the last five iterations, the event has been held at the now-gated Deep Ellum Self Storage. For insurance purposes, it had to be relocated.

“I am excited to bring the event to West Dallas, where the community is more welcoming to artists and public art,” Albarez says. The city of Dallas is backing the event with a sponsorship.

In 2023, the Observer covered Trigger Fingers during a peak interest period in the art form. Albarez says the local graffiti scene was bigger because it was the cool thing to do. Since then, Dallas graffiti has become introspective with an emphasis on craft.

“All the graffiti, all the artists are making themselves more refined as artists and as graffiti artists,” he notes. “I want to say that Trigger Fingers helps it because you bring in other talent, and it's something different you see, and a lot of that stuff is just incredible.”

Trigger Fingers 2025 will include a roster of nationally acclaimed professional graffiti artists, each renowned for their craftsmanship and self-identifying styles. These include Dallas’ Urban Army Crew, Bware, Shiq, Sens and Pako from the nationwide Thoughts Manifested crew, JM Rizzi, Risk184, Ripman and more.

The wall space will be the same length with a decreased height of 8 feet. This will be more manageable for artists, but Albarez says don’t confuse the wall for a legal graffiti wall.

“It's not a legal wall because it was given to us, and we're trying to take care of it so that it can last for a year, so we can redo it again the next year,” Albarez says.

The gifted wall affords featured graffiti artists the rare luxury of a year's worth of longevity for their creations.

“This is a curated wall to look at, and if you want to take photos, it's fine, but just don't put your mark on it without permission, without asking us,” Albarez says.

Along with the wall came an event space for an art show. Trigger Fingers debuted the event’s coordinated art show in 2023 at Umbrella Gallery. The white-walled art show polished the street art. In 2024, the art show was housed at the recently closed community art space Mi Barrio.

“It's kind of where I feel comfortable at, where I feel like I'm home,” Albarez says. 2025’s art show maintains graffiti’s ethos.

Trigger Fingers Art Show is curated by Shoebox from R.O.A.M., Real Ones Around Me. The 18-and-up art show is Friday, April 4, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 620 Bedford St. Admission is $15 and includes two drinks and a raffle ticket. DJ Sober and Oscar Lozada will be providing the sounds with food by Pinky’s Summer.

“It is a part of Trigger Fingers, but it also stands on its own,” Albarez says.  Expect a salon-style gallery and installations highlighting the succeeding generations of graffiti artists. The anonymity of graffiti will naturally be spotlighted.

“You'll be able to recognize some pieces and some tags from throughout the city,” Albarez says.

Graffiti artists do not publicize their identities and practice their craft in the shadows. The names they write on the streets become their graffiti identities.

“You're either going to get my real name if I trust you, or you're gonna get, actually, you're actually going to get my graffiti name if I trust you,” he says. “If you don't get any of those, we're not there yet.”

During the art show, artists will be present, but in true “if you know you know” fashion, those outside graffiti’s circle won’t know who they are.

Albarez onboarded contemporary artist and high school art teacher Desireé Vaniecia to develop Trigger Fingers’ youth-centered community outreach. A 10-foot-long, 8-foot-high portion of the event’s wall will be allocated for a mural crafted by 12 of Vaniecia’s students.

“A lot of times they get stuck in this notion of what we as society have said what graffiti is, which is not a good thing, but in truth, it's something that requires a lot of skill set,” the instructor says. “It's something that requires a lot of thought, a lot of critical thinking.”

Vaniecia says exposure to high-caliber street artists will teach the students to push their limits and boundaries. Connecting them to the graffiti scene is integral to developing student artists who are in awe of the capabilities of a spray can nozzle.

Their launching pad for the medium will be aligned with established artists like Will Heron, whose black-and-white cactus public art murals have been commissioned by Meow Wolf and The Loop Dallas.

“They felt like, ‘Am I worthy enough to be in this space’ and I had to explain to them that everybody starts out with something, ‘You get to start with the top of the top. You get to be a part of an organization and be a part of something that's already established that's bigger than life,’” she says.