CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Artist Thomas Agran’s murals typically cover the entire side of buildings, but customers at Lion Bridge Brewing Co., can get an up-close view of his most recent work that includes nods to Czech culture and history.
“I tend to do large-scale buildings,” Agran said, as he put the finishing touches this week on a mural in the vestibule of the brewery in Czech Village.
Examples of his work can be found at New Pioneer Food Co-op in Coralville, Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, and the Park Cedar Rapids Parkade on First Avenue.
This time, Agran was hired to create a mural on two approximately 8-by-12-foot walls inside Lion Bridge, 59 16th Ave. SW.
Artist Thomas Agran puts finishing touches on a mural inside Lion Bridge Brewing on June 4, 2026. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
“It’s actually harder to work smaller,” he said, citing the more exacting details needed as viewers will be just inches away from the art.
With a large carp on one wall and images of women playing a paddleball game on the other, the mural offers a somewhat surreal take on Czech heritage, with the fish connecting not only to the nearby Cedar River, but to the Czech tradition of keeping a live carp in a bathtub for Christmas dinner, and the sports game reflecting the Sokol movement, a gymnastics and fitness organization founded in Prague in 1862.
Paddles or bottles — customers can debate what they are — include important dates in the building’s history: 1938, when the building opened as Fritz’s Food Market in the heart of Czech Village, and 2014, when Lion Bridge — named for the nearby Bridge of Lions — opened.
Images of linden leaves, the national tree of the Czech Republic, and other motifs that reflect Czech heritage dot the mural, with the landscape also sourced from Czech origins.
Agran noted that one landscape was inspired by a 1935 travel poster designed by Ladislav Sutnar for the Czechoslovak State Railways, believed to depict the Praděd mountain, and the other side is based on an 1895 painting by Czech artist František Kupka.
Artist Thomas Agran continues work on the mural inside Lion Bridge Brewing in Czech Village. (photo/Cindy Hadish)
“We wanted to look more toward modern and contemporary Czech and Slovak design for inspiration on this mural as all other murals around the neighborhood focus more on historic dress or Mucha,” Quinton McClain, who owns Lion Bridge with his wife, Ana, said in an email, referencing murals in Czech Village inspired by Czech artist Alphonse Mucha. “We love those images, but we didn’t need to do more of it. I really love the absurdist and surreal imagery that I see in some of the more Eastern European design, and that is what we used to inspire our mural.”
Art consultant Janelle McClain, Quinton’s mother, said the mural offers a contemporary nod to local ethnicity.
“As you enter and immerse yourself within the vestibule mural, you become a part of it,” she said in an email. “Possibly you wonder what it all means. Possibly you smile. Possibly you don’t care what it means but just enjoy its vibrancy.”
Agran said the McClains could have opted for a more commercial entryway to their business, but intentionally chose an artistic approach.
“Any time a business is working with an artist, they’re inviting a human touch within the business,” he said. “That warmth of human touch goes a long way in reflecting the values of the business.”
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See more from the mural at Lion Bridge, below:
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