In 2023 the West Claremont Center for Music and the Arts and artist Alberto Villalobos began to conceptualize the creation of a mural to grace the performance space of the Claremont Creative Center. The mural, currently in progress will be completed in June 2025. A sound installation by Luis Villalobos will be composed to accompany the art work.

“The mural I'm currently working on features a trio of musicians—drums, upright bass, and violin—performing amidst a surreal, war-torn landscape, where bombs rain down from the sky, symbolizing the chaos and devastation of conflict. The earthy color palette, achieved through a blend of watercolors, acrylics, and markers, creates a vivid contrast between the delicate beauty of music and the harshness of war. As the piece extends downward, the imagery grows darker, representing the gradual erosion of life and hope in a world where profit is prioritized over human well-being. At the heart of the composition, a large human heart is positioned in front of the kick drum, symbolizing the thread of life that persists through the rhythm of music, even in the face of destruction. The mural conveys the powerful idea that music, as a universal language, holds us together in times of crisis.” - Alberto Villalobos

About the artist

Born in Xalapa, Veracruz, Mexico, Alberto has been active in music and visual arts since childhood. An exceptional violinist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and composer, he is one third of the Grammy-winning Villalobos Brothers performing group. As a visual artist he is active in a variety of mediums and has studied art through a number of classes and workshops, including courses in drawing and painting at the University of Veracruz while studying for his bachelor’s degree in violin. He has painted large format murals in Mexico, including one that depicted animals in danger of extinction.

His first solo exhibition, “Murals, Music, and Masks of Mexico” was in 2007 at El Taller Latino American in New York City. His second major solo show “Hombres de Arcilla / Men of Clay” was in 2017 at The Point in the Bronx. This multi-disciplinary work was a musical arrangement and a collection of 43 clay masks created to protest the vanishing of 43 students from the Raul Isidro Burgos school in Mexico in 2014. The lines for this exhibition grew so long that the taco stand ran out of food.

Artwork Support Fund and Humanity Mural