Gabriel Villa (born in El Paso, Texas), is a

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

-based artist and

muralist A mural is any piece of Graphic arts, graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' ...

. Villa arrived in Chicago in the late 1990s. Observations of his neighborhood had a profound visual and conceptual impact on the evolution of his work. Subjects such as public housing, surveillance, the marginalized, gang culture, family, religion and most recently gentrification/displacement all begin to morph and weave into broader ideas.

2009 mural censorship controversy

In May 2009, he was commissioned to paint a mural on

private property Private property is a legal designation for the ownership of property by non-governmental Capacity (law), legal entities. Private property is distinguishable from public property, which is owned by a state entity, and from Collective ownership ...

in Chicago's Bridgeport neighborhood depicting three

Chicago Police Department The Chicago Police Department (CPD) is the primary law enforcement agency of the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States, under the jurisdiction of the Chicago City Council. It is the second-largest Law enforcement in the United States#Local, ...

public

surveillance Surveillance is the monitoring of behavior, many activities, or information for the purpose of information gathering, influencing, managing, or directing. This can include observation from a distance by means of electronic equipment, such as ...

cameras that carried the CPD logo along with other images, like a crucified

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

, a deer head and a

skull The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate. In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...

. The mural was painted over completely by the Graffiti Blasters at the behest of

11th ward In music theory, an eleventh is a compound interval consisting of an octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration ...

Alderman An alderman is a member of a Municipal government, municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law with similar officials existing in the Netherlands (wethouder) and Belgium (schepen). The term may be titular, denotin ...

James Balcer James A. Balcer (born June 24, 1950) is a former alderman of the 11th Ward, Chicago, 11th Ward of the City of Chicagomap. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was appointed to the Chicago City Council by Mayor R ...

, 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." The incident sparked a local controversy over censorship, surveillance and private property.BLUECANVAS Magazine, No. 5 page 92 'Artist Vs. System' by Margarita Korol

References

;Notes
Mural painted over sparks censorship debate on Chicago public radio
antena

External links

GabrielVilla.Net
Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American muralists Painters from Chicago Artists from El Paso, Texas 21st-century American painters 21st-century American male artists {{US-painter-stub

2009 mural censorship controversy

See also

References

External links