When Caesar Perez puts a person in his murals, he wants the face to be recognizable.
“I want to make sure whoever I put on is someone you would see in that neighborhood,” Perez says. “I like to have people who are not just a face.”
When Perez, a lifelong Chicagoan who is half-Mexican and half-Cuban, plotted his three-story mural at Montrose and Kedzie avenues in Albany Park, he was inspired by an old friend, a Mexican artist who lived nearby.
Now, her face gazes down from a brick building, set against a black background and surrounded by flowers in shades of orange, yellow, blue, green and purple. Water appears to ripple from a drop landing on top of her head.
“She’s got a really great look, and I’ve always wanted to paint her,” says Perez, who was pleased that people told him they recognized her.
Perez, 44, lives and works in Pilsen. His studio is an old storefront that once housed a video rental store. He also goes by the name Czr Prz.
The mural, which he painted last year, was Perez’s second in Albany Park. His first, a red-winged blackbird on the side of Surge coffee bar and billiards, was commissioned as part of a series of murals in various cities inspired by the Catan board game.
That one, done in 2021, draws on the other subject Perez says he feels passionate about painting: nature. The red-winged blackbird mural was so popular that the North River Commission Board, a partner on the first mural, asked him to paint another mural down the street.
Perez says he has been creating art since he was a kid and painting murals since he was a teenager. He’s done some graffiti art but says that’s not his style: “I consider what I do fine art.”
Perez says he starts with a base coat, then uses acrylic paint, then finishes his detailing with spray paint, with lots of bright pinks and purples.
It’s “a whole look I’m trying to get, where it’s almost retro colors,” says Perez, whose work has a wide range of influences, including folklorico storytelling, art history, graphic novels and graffiti.
The North River Commission Board’s Ron Duplack says Perez’s work “illustrates the energy, excitement and color of life within our community.”