California artist says paintings critical of police were censored after officers complained
Aug. 6 (UPI) -- A California artist whose works were installed at San Mato City Hall for a six-week exhibition in mid-July said his works were taken down just two days later after complaints from police officers.
Diego Marcial Rios, the artist, told UPI in a phone interview that he got "a strange email" from city hall saying there had been some problems with his two of the artworks. He had 20 paintings installed for the exhibition.
"Some of your paintings have caused concern amongst city employees both at city hall and at other facilities. In order to avoid any workplace conflict, we would like to discuss swapping them out for other artwork that is mutually acceptable," San Mateo Public Library art gallery curator Noreen Chwee said in the email to Rios, which he provided to UPI.
"We have respect for your artistic ability, and we want to balance that with maintaining a supportive environment for our staff."
The two small paintings at issue, created in 2020 around the death of George Floyd, were titled Stop Killing Us! and Will Kill Blacks and Mexicans Cheap.
The first depicts a red human figure with a skull in place of its head surrounded by demonic figures. The latter features a police officer depicted as a skeleton in uniform running in front of a pile of apparent dead bodies.
"Nobody Googled my name before I put up the art show? Give me a break," he said. "They couldn't be this stupid."
Rios told UPI he wasn't surprised the city wanted him to swap a couple of the pieces but that he was disappointed in the series of events that followed.
"Periodically, you get people who object to a couple of works now and then. I responded and said I would swap them out," Rios told UPI.
Rios said he never got a response back from the city about when he could swap out the offending work and later learned that the whole show had been taken down when he was contacted for an interview by Fox News. Rios provided UPI with the email from a Fox reporter which revealed there was "backlash."
"I'm a political artist, what do you expect? I'm going to put up political artwork. At that point, I contacted the city again and said, 'You took down the entire show,'" Rios said. "They didn't have much of an answer."He said that the city didn't provide him with any legal justification for why his artwork was removed and told UPI he is mulling a lawsuit over the censorship.
"It hurt some people feelings and this and that. I was a little confused. Isn't that the point of artwork?" Rios said. "A couple of rough tough San Mateo cops got upset by a couple of paintings? What kind of thin-skinned guys are these?"
Rios said he eventually was able to arrange a time for him to gather up his artwork and stuff it into his car to get it "the heck out of there."
"A former mayor of San Mateo says he agrees with me and wants to purchase the artwork," Rios said. "This is getting weirder and weirder."
Rios said he politely declined the offer to sell the work at the moment but provided UPI with a copy of the email from former mayor David Lim informing the artist he was willing to purchase the paintings "in support of your right to express your political viewpoints."
The ACLU and the National Coalition Against Censorship sent a letter on July 28 to the mayor of San Mateo and other local officials "to express alarm" on Rios' behalf.
"We are also deeply concerned that the controversy surrounding two works in the show apparent prompted the suspension of all public art displays presented by the city library's Public Art Exhibit Program," the letter reads.
"Access to the arts -- including works that spark debate -- is crucial to a vibrant and democratic society. We urge the city to restore its Public Art Exhibit Program and prevent such cancellations in the future by adapting an exhibition criteria policy that explicitly protects artists' right to explore political subject matter and engage in social commentary within publicly funded exhibitions."
