Roberto Chavez

Roberto Chavez is a Mexican-American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He is known for his personally symbolic portraits, public murals and “funny-grotesque” paintings that reflect the multicultural landscape of Los Angeles. 

Chavez received his MFA from UCLA in 1961, and was involved in the emerging gallery scene along La Cienega Boulevard and worked alongside Charles Garabedian, Gordon Rice, Eduardo Carrillo and Maxwell Hendler. In the mid-1970s, Chavez began painting public murals throughout the city of Los Angeles where the La Raza political movement was gaining ground. His 1972 anti-war mural Porque Se Pelean? Que No Son Carnales became part of artist Sandra de la Loza's Mural Remix show at LACMA Mural Remixed. Chavez was a part of Roberto Chavez and The False University: A Retrospective at the Vincent Price Museum, Murales Rebeldes: L.A. Chicana/o Murals under Siege for Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA Beyond Borders, the Getty Center's Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980, and the Smithsonian’s Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art exhibits.