{"id":189130,"date":"2026-02-22T20:11:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/189130\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T20:11:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T20:11:07","slug":"robert-vargas-murals-keep-los-angeles-vibrant-lamag","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/189130\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert\u00a0Vargas&#8217; Murals Keep\u00a0Los\u00a0Angeles Vibrant\u00a0 &#8211; LAmag"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Boyle Heights artist looks back on 2025 and what\u2019s next<\/p>\n<p>Robert\u00a0Vargas\u00a0is on track to break a world record. For the last few years, the Boyle Heights-born artist has been painting a 60,000-plus-square-foot piece at Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles that will result in the largest mural by one artist in the world, logged in the Guinness World Records.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo finally see that through and then hand it over to the community of L.A., it\u2019s going to be pretty special,\u201d he says.\u00a0Vargas\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0remember a time in his life when he\u00a0wasn\u2019t\u00a0painting. Best known for his murals around the city\u2014 like the Shohei Ohtani \u201cL.A. Rising\u201d mural on the side of the Miyako Hotel in Little Tokyo, which graced the cover of Los Angeles magazine\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/lamag.com\/sports\/dodgers-dynasty-world-series-champions-december-2025-l\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December issue<\/a> \u2014 the sixth-generation Mexican-American Angeleno\u2019s fruitful career and community-focused work has earned him\u00a0Robert\u00a0Vargas Square in Boyle Heights and the declaration of Sept. 8 as\u00a0Robert\u00a0Vargas Day by the city. Some of his other murals include \u201cOur Lady of DTLA\u201d (2013) on the corner of Spring and Sixth Streets; \u201cFernandomania\u00a0Forever\u201d in Boyle Heights near Mariachi Plaza; and \u201cNourishing the Community\u201d on the\u00a0Project Angel Food Vine Street\u00a0headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"676\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Robert Vargas mural\" class=\"wp-image-287358\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20250827_114817_edit-1200x676.jpeg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"676\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/20250827_114817_edit-1200x676.jpeg\" alt=\"Robert Vargas mural\" class=\"wp-image-287358\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\"  \/>\u201cNourishing the Community\u201d on Project Angel Food headquartersCredit: Courtesy Robert Vargas<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the mural at Pershing Square, Vargas\u2019 2026 plans include a Dodgers mural in Torrance and jet-setting to Europe and Japan again. Last year, Vargas jumped from\u00a0Paris to London, Venice, Italy,\u00a0Brazil\u00a0and Japan (four times) in between his time in Los Angeles. But he considers his hometown murals as some of his most important pieces of last year, having kicked off the year with his \u201cHeroes\u201d mural at the L.A. Art Show that honors the first responders involved in the Eaton fire \u2014 which was featured on a <a href=\"https:\/\/lamag.com\/arts-and-entertainment\/la-magazine-february-covers-honor-los-angeles-following-wildfires-through-original-art\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">February 2025 cover<\/a> of Los Angeles. Then in June, he painted \u201cFrom the Ashes\u201d on Fair Oaks Burger in Altadena, channeling the stories of residents who lost their homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1018\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns=\" http:=\"\" alt=\"Robert Vargas mural \u201cFrom the Ashes\u201d In Altadena.\" class=\"wp-image-285514\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\" data-lazy- data-lazy- data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot_20251015_074628_Gallery-1200x1018.jpg\"\/><img fetchpriority=\"low\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1018\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Screenshot_20251015_074628_Gallery-1200x1018.jpg\" alt=\"Robert Vargas mural \u201cFrom the Ashes\u201d In Altadena.\" class=\"wp-image-285514\" style=\"object-position: 50% 50%;\"  \/>\u201cFrom the Ashes\u201d In Altadena. Credit: Courtesy Robert Vargas<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe public artwork, especially the murals, is really different than [my] studio work,\u201d explains Vargas.\u00a0\u201cThe studio work is accessible to a certain kind of art aficionado in a gallery setting, where the nontraditional art space of just this open-air gallery outside allows work to be accessible to everyone and people who\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0feel that the traditional spaces are meant for them\u2026. My process is very, very accessible as well.\u00a0So\u00a0I think that people\u00a0get to also feel like\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0a part of seeing something through and witnessing the work happen firsthand, so it really humanizes the built environment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Boyle Heights artist looks back on 2025 and what\u2019s next Robert\u00a0Vargas\u00a0is on track to break a world&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":189131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2308,426,76726,48,52,51,47,50,49,80932],"class_list":{"0":"post-189130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-february-2026","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-headlines","13":"tag-la-news","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","16":"tag-los-angeles-news","17":"tag-robert-vargas"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/189131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}