If things had gone as originally planned, Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum would be launching its fall exhibition Friday. But officials postponed the show six weeks before the opening over concern that a painting by activist-artist Shepard Fairey could be seen as “disparaging toward some City of Mesa employees.”
Now, the Phoenix suburb is ready to move forward and debut the show in October, albeit with a prominent disclaimer that the artwork represents only the artist’s views. All the original artists have been invited to remain in the exhibition.
Thomas “Breeze” Marcus will not be one of them. And he says he won’t be displaying any of his work, which focuses on Native American life, in Mesa in the future.
The whole ordeal, in his view, is rooted in censorship.
I don’t think it’s very good but apparently it was impactful enough as a criticism of the police to get the exhibit delayed (and expose the Mesa city government’s bootlicking)