NCC art instructor completes ‘Viva La Vida!’ mural

ROCKY MOUNT — Nash Community College art instructor Georges Le Chevallier completed a commissioned mural project for the city of Washington (N.C.) this summer. The piece, titled “Viva La Vida!” was unveiled on July 16.

Le Chevallier makes clear that this project was about the community.

“I do not like actors,” said Le Chevallier. “To make a film or a TV series or a Broadway show, it takes a lot of people, yet we only talk about the actors. I don’t like that, and I don’t want to be an actor today; I’m not the man of the hour. This project took two years to happen, and it took a lot of people behind the scenes to make it happen. This was a group project and one that shows how art can affect a community.”

The mural spans more than 3,000 square feet and is located at the Bobby Andrews Recreation Center on East Seventh Street. A piece in The Washington Daily News described it as a “magnificent display of words, color and imagery which represents the Latinx community in Washington.”

The mural was made possible with support from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s Inclusive Public Art Initiative.

“The mural turned out fantastic, and we were able to have over 300 local students participate in helping put it together,” said Le Chevallier. “PBS NC filmed the whole process and is putting together a short documentary about it, and it should premiere soon.”

Washington is one of only 19 sites across the state that received the prestigious Public Art Initiative Grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to promote inclusive art.

Le Chevallier was born in Paris, France, to a French father and a Puerto Rican mother; however, he grew up in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He started his educational journey at the prestigious “Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando” in Madrid, where he studied painting. After this study, he earned his Associate of Arts degree from El Camino College in Torrance, California; a Bachelor of Fine Arts from California State University and a Master of Fine Arts from Hunter College in New York City.

His mixed-media paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally in distinguished galleries and museums worldwide, including the Painted Bride Art Center in Philadelphia, Green Hill in Greensboro, Central Gallery in Budapest and El Museo del Barrio in New York. Le Chevallier has also created multiple public art installations throughout the United States, Mexico, Hungary, Tanzania, France, Guatemala and Chile.

UPCOMING EXHIBITIONS

Georges Le Chevallier’s work will appear in the art exhibitions listed below.

• July 22 to Sept. 5 — Out of the Pines: Photographic Educators from North Carolina Colleges and Universities, Wilma W. Daniels Gallery at Cape Fear Community College, Wilmington.

• September — “Casa Azul of Greensboro’s Chronicles de Cocina: The Stories that We Tell Through Food,” African American Atelier Gallery, Greensboro.

• October — “You Don’t Look Puerto Rican,” Diamante Art and Cultural Center Gallery, Raleigh.

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