Street Art Glitters in the Crumbling Halls of the Candy King

The abandoned Wrigley gum factory squats at the southeast corner of 35th Street and Ashland Avenue like a mouldering ruin. The site, a testament to corporate betrayal and official corruption, has been shuttered since 2006 and remains the biggest source of blight in the McKinley Park neighborhood.

But inside the factory's decaying shell lie treasures of street art painted across every type of surface by artists who have pierced the facility's porous borders. A local urban exploration (or "urbex") photographer recently captured the compelling artwork and silent vistas hidden inside the deserted edifice.

"It's powerful to be inside an industrial space that was part of an economic engine and people's well-being," said the photographer, who is based in Chicago and has exhibited nationally and internationally. "Much of the graffiti here was highly stylized and showed a lot of talent."

"What's different about this building is that it's almost a showplace gallery," he said. "I felt like any art opening in Chicago could have happened here because of the quantity and quality of the artwork."