Gabriel Villa

Gabriel Villa (born in El Paso, Texas), is a [Chicago]]-based artist and muralist. Villa arrived in Chicago in the late 1990s where observations of my own neighborhood had a profound visual and conceptual impact on the evolution of my work. By 2004 the city of Chicago firmly planted itself as a kind of provocative muse found just outside my artist’s window. Subjects such as public housing, surveillance, the marginalized, gang culture, family, religion and most recently gentrification/displacement all begin to morph and weave it into broader ideas.

2009 mural censorship controversy

In May 2009, he was commissioned to paint a mural on a private property in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood depicting three Chicago Police Department public surveillance cameras that carried the CPD logo along with other images, like a crucified Christ, a deer head and a skull[1]. The mural was painted over completely by the Graffiti Blasters[2][3] at the behest of 11th ward Alderman James Balcer, who said about the mural "My main concern is the safety and well-being for the people in this community. We have gang violence and children getting shot, and I believed that the mural sent the wrong message.”[4] The incident sparked a local controversy over censorship, surveillance and private property.[5][6]

See also

References
  1. "(((antena))) - June 2009". 2011-09-04. Archived from the original on 2011-09-04. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  2. Rogers, Phil. "Graffiti Blasters Paint Over Artist's Commissioned Mural". NBC Chicago. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  3. Taliaferro, Tim (2009-06-16). "Alderman Orders Mural With Police Imagery Painted Over (VIDEO)". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-03-19.
  4. "Balcer orders City to paint over mural on private property". July 3, 2009. Retrieved April 4, 2015.
  5. Gabriel Villa’s Mural Destroyed, 05.15.2009, By Shannon Benine, mediating the medium
  6. BLUECANVAS Magazine, No. 5 page 92 'Artist Vs. System' by Margarita Korol
Notes


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