43 Estudiantes by Munk One 2015Acrylic painting on mounted board 4X5 feet tall. First Exhibited at Manifest Justice in Los Angeles CA In this painting, the character, a female Zapatisa, is a figure of strength. She rides a bicycle while dressed in bold colored clothes, holding up a sign demanding JUSTICE FOR ALL!My grandmother once told me that she never learned how to ride a bike because her father didn’t allow her to since she was a female. It just wasn’t something a young lady living in her region did at the time. The character in the painting was painted in reference to the people in the world who were and are still not allowed to do simple things like ride bikes, drive cars, etc. Things that many people take for granted. The number 43 painted in red on the mask also represents those who will never be able to try new things because their lives were tragically cut short.In 2014, 43 students from a teachers college in Ayotzinapa, MX were kidnapped and murdered. According to government investigations, they were forcibly taken by Iguala local police authorities and then handed to local crime syndicates who brutally tortured and killed the students and then tried to erase all evidence of the crimes committed. The students were on their annual journey to Mexico City to commemorate the anniversary of a previous Massacre. Some arrests have been made since then, and the detailed collusion between government authorities and crime syndicates have in turn brought many communities, both local and afar, together to speak out against these injustices. One of the groups who stood up in solidarity with the parents of the fallen are the EZLN, commonly known as the Zapatisas. The monarch butterfly has represented the souls of the dead who return to earth to visit the living since pre-hispanic times. It sits on the handle bars as a sign of hope. …#painting #original #colorful #art #acrylic #paint #artist #arte #justice #artistoninstagram #munk #gallery #creative #artsy #artwork #bicycle @invisible_industries #bike #rebel

by | Aug 18, 2019 | Munk One