Street artist Victor Quiñonez, known widely by his graffiti tag Marka27, spoke to a packed auditorium at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas on Tuesday night.
Quiñonez, a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, made his first local appearance since the University of North Texas closed an exhibit of his work last week without explanation.
UNT covered the windows of the College of Visual Arts & Design Gallery in Denton with paper before ending the loan agreement with Boston University.
Some of that art confronted U.S. immigration policy and criticized ICE.
“We wanted to show the beauty of our culture, what we bring to this country,” Quiñonez said. “But we also wanted to express some of the challenges that we have, some of the things we fear and some of the things that we have been fighting for so long to overcome.”
During a panel discussion, Latino Arts Project founder Jorge Baldor asked Quiñonez to “address the brown gorilla in the room,” which was the exhibit cancellation on the Denton campus.
Quiñonez credited UNT students for alerting him about what was happening to his art exhibit.
“I have to give it up for the students because they were the brave ones that alerted me that something was wrong,” Quiñonez said.
He said the exhibition was “mysteriously and suddenly” taken down and covered up.
“Honestly, I was ghosted for the first time, and it felt pretty bad. I'm sure you've all been ghosted, so you know how that feels. It's a bit ghosted by an entire university. That's next level,” he said.
Quiñonez said he felt he had done something wrong - but felt relief when someone finally shed some light into the situation.
“And it was because of the students at UNT that were brave enough to reach out and let me know that they were concerned that I finally got a very vague answer. And the answer was that they had to close the exhibition and that they terminated the loan agreement with Boston University,” he said.
As of last night, Quiñonez said he had still not received any explanation from UNT for the removal of the art and the termination of the loan agreement.
“So I know about as much as all of you know,” Quiñonez said.
He was at the cultural center to present an artist’s talk on his exhibit “Elevar La Cultura” (To elevate the culture).
The massive installation stands on the plaza outside the center.
A 22-foot-tall pyramid made of coolers painted gold, some of them converted into Nichos Mexicanos and altars that contain textiles, artifacts, hidden sound and sculptures of indigenous spiritual characters.
They are illuminated by LED lights.
One side is trimmed with marigolds, a nod to the flowers Mexicans use to honor the dead on decorated altars.
The back of the pyramid references Quiñonez’ huge murals, depicting an indigenous woman nursing a baby.
LUCINDA BREEDING-GONZALES can be reached at 940-566-6877 and cbreeding@dentonrc.com.
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