Chris Devins is an artist/

urban planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, tow ...

from Chicago, Illinois who engages in

placemaking Placemaking is a multi-faceted approach to the urban planning, planning, design and management of public spaces. Placemaking capitalizes on a local community's assets, inspiration, and potential, with the intention of creating public spaces tha ...

, which blends

Art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

and

Urban Planning Urban planning (also called city planning in some contexts) is the process of developing and designing land use and the built environment, including air, water, and the infrastructure passing into and out of urban areas, such as transportatio ...

. He is the creator of several outdoor Art initiatives in the Chicago area, including Hyde Park Heroes, the Pullman Project, Chatham 2.0, and Bronzeville Legends. In April 2017, Devins admitted to using an image created by Rhode Island art student Gelila Mesfin for a mural of former first lady

Michelle Obama Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama ( Robinson; born January 17, 1964) is an American attorney and author who served as the first lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017, being married to Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United Stat ...

. Devins raised $12,000 through a

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the ...

campaign for the creation of the mural, triggering much negative media coverage. In 2021, Devins painted the

King Von Dayvon Daquan Bennett (August 9, 1994 – November 6, 2020), known professionally as King Von, was an American rapper and gangster from Chicago, Illinois, who was affiliated with the Black Disciples gang. He was considered a preeminent figure ...

mural near 65th and King Drive in Chicago.

References

21st-century American painters American muralists American urban planners Living people Painters from Chicago Place of birth missing (living people) American male painters Year of birth missing (living people) {{US-painter-1970s-stub