A freshly painted mural by Chicago artist Gabriel Villa was destroyed last Friday by order of a local politician who found it “distasteful.†Alderman Jim Balcer used the local “Graffiti Blasters†to wipe the legal mural off private property, falsely claiming the painting required a permit.
Commissioned as part of a local arts festival, the public painting depicted three police surveillance boxes ornamented with the crucified Jesus Christ, a deer head, and a human skull. Villa, the artist behind the work, told NBC, “I wanted to create something that was urban … something that we see in a lot of marginalized neighborhoods, like the surveillance camera.†The artist also hoped “to create a platform for dialogue, but the mural was never given a chance†thanks to the censorship of one art-hating Alderman who suggested that there “there was hidden gang meaning†and “something anti-police†in the painting he ignorantly destroyed.
Images via Chicago Public Radio
STOP DESTROYING OUR ART!