Dramatic design permeates the Meatpacking District, so making a splash here, standing out from the numerous other fashionista-packed spaces, is a challenge for any restaurant new to the neighborhood.

Artwork is the approach Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato, founders of the Serafina Group, chose for the latest installment of their Italian restaurant empire, Serafina Meatpacking. Housed in a four-story townhouse on buzzing Ninth Avenue, graffiti-inspired murals by local artist Michela Martello stand in funky juxtaposition to the classic menu.

“We wanted to [evoke] something more edgy and contemporary to represent the atmosphere of the Meatpacking District,” says Martello, who adapted the art of ancient fresco-making through modern techniques like glue glazing and materials such as acrylic and gesso primer.

“The artwork integrates with the restaurant, creating a sort of artistic installation instead of a decoration,” she notes. Letters, words, and numbers make their way into her murals to “express a vibrant subliminal message about food and wine. What inspired me most is the casualness and freedom of street art, [paired] with my classic Italian artistic education.”

On one wall, “Nation,” combines words and collage to unveil an updated version of a wing-donning sun. “This is the major protagonist of Serafina,” Martino explains. “Serafina is the name of an angel.” In another, lips serve as a mixed message “about love for food, food made with love, and sexy energy. Everything is a victory.” Chunky-lettered “Believe,” meanwhile, is intended to be “straight, simple, and direct, as graffiti is,” instilling “faithful and positive energy.”

For Martello, collaborating with Assaf and Granato was a “mutual inspiration, almost like a work in progress.” One day she was talking to Granato, who shared his passion for the word love, and how he would like it captured on the restaurant’s big wall. “Immediately hearing his words I visualized the word made with the hand alphabetic signs,” Martello points out, and “Love” was born. “Every day we had a conversation about the energy of the place, how it was developing, manifesting, and transforming; [it is] exactly how art is and should be, always in movement, reflecting people’s many different moods-especially in a public space like a restaurant.”