A traveling solo exhibition by Dallas-raised artist Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez sat open at the University of North Texas for nine days before administrators quietly papered over the gallery windows, locked the doors, and sent the artist a termination email signed only with a first name. “I didn’t hear it from the institution first,” Quiñonez told Glasstire. “I heard it from students. That matters.”
The show, Ni de Aquí, Ni de Allá, curated by former MoMA PS1 director Kate Fowle and organized by Boston University, explored Quiñonez’s childhood crossing the border at age 4 and growing up undocumented in East Dallas. Its centerpiece: an illuminated paleta cart bearing the letters “I.C.E. SCREAM,” with popsicle sticks engraved “U.S. Inhumane and Cruelty Enforcement.” “Never in my 30-plus year career have I had an exhibition canceled or a large work of art censored,” Quiñonez said in a conversation with KERA News.
Text messages between UNT President Harrison Keller and Provost Michael McPherson, obtained through an open records request and first reported by Urgent Matter, reveal the pair worried about “barking from our friends in Austin.” Chloe Kempf, a lawyer for the ACLU of Texas, called it part of a larger pattern. “When people don’t know what they need to do to avoid getting in trouble, they’re going to just automatically do less and censor themselves,” she told KERA. State Rep. Andy Hopper, whose district covers Denton, offered no apologies. “These institutions do not exist to provide a publicly-funded platform for those who despise our republic,” he told the Denton Record-Chronicle.
UNT has issued no public explanation. Quiñonez’s installation Elevar La Cultura remains on view at the Latino Cultural Center, 2600 Live Oak St., through March 30, still standing, if a few miles removed.