Artist sues in federal court to block destruction of Santa Fe mural [View all]

The creator of a downtown Santa Fe mural that has become a flashpoint for discussions of class, race and gentrification is seeking a court order to keep his artwork from being torn down to make way for a new contemporary art museum.

Gilberto Guzman’s mural Multi-Cultural is a colorful piece that was painted on the east side of the Halpin Building on Guadalupe Street in 1980 with the help of several other artists and students from the Institute of American Indian Arts.

According to his lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque, the state agreed not to alter or paint over the work “during its normal life” and to give Guzman access to the mural so he could maintain it over the years, which he last did in the early 1990s.

But now the Halpin Building is being renovated and will be replaced with the Vladem Contemporary, a satellite branch of the the New Mexico Museum of Art.

Read more: https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/artist-sues-in-federal-court-to-block-destruction-of-santa-fe-mural/article_1cafc2f6-8058-11eb-b468-8bfbd8b87b22.html


Demonstrators in a Gentrification Walking Tour gather Saturday in front of the Multi-Cultural mural to support its preservation. Gilberto Guzman, who painted it in 1980, is suing to keep it from being torn down.
Luis Sánchez Saturno/The New Mexican