Image Courtesy of St. Phillips College
Bio Courtesy of georgeyepes.com
Photo by
Dr. Ricardo Romo
Born in a cross-fire hurricane beneath a meteor shower over Baja, then raised and educated in the crucibles of East Los Angeles, the meteoric double-barrel life of Painter/Muralist, George Yepes, continues to burn beyond the Los Angeles art world. Formed by a hard street life of poverty, and gang violence; this painter not only survived the gang violence of East L.A.’s toughest neighborhoods but he has also risen above and beyond the Chicano genre. Yepes’ oeuvre incorporates art and architecture, ethereally beautiful women, world history, religion and literature presented in powerfully charged atmospheres. Self-taught, with a refined renaissance bent; from religious iconography to erotica George Yepes brings a confidence and knowledge of his craft that calls to mind the great Velasquez and Titian, and the great Mexican Muralists. Imbued with a contemporary street sense, his paintings and murals combine the best of both worlds where bravado meets classical standards.
George Yepes was born a Painter. At three years old he was already completing detailed and accurate sketches. At ten years old he began to oil paint. At twelve years old he became a gangster, and at fourteen he became a US citizen. From First grade through Eleventh grade he was elected class president, his Senior year he was elected Student Body President. At eighteen years old he became a muralist.
Called “The City’s Preeminent Badass Muralist” (L.A. New Times), and named a “Treasure of Los Angeles” in 1997 by Mayor Richard Riordan and the Los Angeles City Council, painter George Yepes takes no prisoners. In 1992, George Yepes was named “El Fuego de Los Angeles” (The Fire of Los Angeles) by Councilman Richard Alatorre and the Los Angeles City Council. In 1993, for the Los Angeles Subway project, George Yepes was partnered with Ricardo Legorreta, the AIA Gold Medal architect from Mexico City, as the duo “Lead Urban Design Team” in charge of designing seven subway stations beneath East Los Angeles. In 1997, the State Superintendent of Public Instruction named George Yepes to the State Task Force on the Visual and Performing Arts for the California Department of Education. In 1998, the California Governor and Secretary of State hand picked George Yepes to design and paint a seventy-foot vaulted ceiling mural depicting “The Promise of California” at the State Capital in Sacramento. In 1999, the Los Angeles City Council unanimously adopted a resolution commending George Yepes for establishing a training program that assisted teachers to effectively implement State Learning Standards for the Visual Arts.
During the 1970’s, as one of the more prolific painters of the Los Angeles Chicano Mural Movement, Yepes gained his reputation as a ferocious painter when he became a founding partner in the top mural groups of East Los Angeles. In 1974, George Yepes was a founding member of the Public Art Center, El Centro de Arte Publico, Concilio de Arte Popular, and Corazon Art Productions. In 1977, Yepes painted the 40 foot tall by 60 foot wide mural for Cesar Chavez and the 1977 Farmworkers Convention in Fresno, California. From 1979 through 1985, as an original founding partner of the mural group “East Los Streetscapers”, Yepes painted murals at the famous Estrada Courts and Ramona Gardens Housing Projects including: “Dreams of Flight”, “Ghosts of the Barrio”, “Read Between the Lines”, and the four panoramic “Moonscapes” murals in Culver City. Over the course of six years, as a member of East Los Streetscapers, Yepes co-designed and painted 28 iconic murals that are regarded by historians as prime examples of the Los Angeles Chicano Mural Movement.
In 1985, after 11 years of group painting with the top East Los Angeles Art collectives, George Yepes decided that group painting wasn’t suited to his temperament or pace. With grand scale and furious momentum Yepes has painted over 800,000 square feet of murals. He has painted eloquent, social, historical, and sacred images onto the facades of everything from churches, hospitals, guitars, and freeway overpasses, to movies and album covers. His 1988 album cover for Los Lobos titled “La Pistola y El Corazon” has won numerous awards, and is in many museum collections.
In 1992, George Yepes founded the Academia de Arte Yepes, a free mural painting academy through which Yepes (the sole teacher and funder) has taught over 2,000 students, for free, from the low-income neighborhoods of Los Angeles. Merging science, technology, and mathematics to gain a quality education and real-world applicable skills is not a new concept. In 1993, twenty years before the STEAM Program took form in schools nationally, George Yepes and the Academia de Arte Yepes had already began to produce a series of ten Science and Space murals with (NASA) The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Beginning in 1993, to generate renewed interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, and to cultivate and inspire the next generation of explorers; George Yepes and the Academia de Arte Yepes, in partnership with NASA, the European Space Agency, and the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana: established and implemented a fourteen-year National Educational Model titled: “The Marriage of Art, Science, and Technology”.
Photo Caption: La Pistola y El Corazon ©1988 G.Yepes
Los Lobos Album Cover, 1988 Warner Bros.Records
Ricardo and Harriett Romo donated the Yepes art to St. Philip’s. Read more about this collection on the article-A Latino Art Gallery Opens at San Antonio HBCU Campus.
