Homegrown artist’s work dedicated as ‘West Chicago Art Trail’
Nearly six months after Giovanni Arellano’s outdoor murals started appearing in his hometown, West Chicago officials on Thursday dedicated the collection outside Gallery 200.
Three of his seven colorful 8-foot-by-12-foot murals, which depict plants and animals around a theme of the nearby Illinois Prairie Path, are installed at the gallery, 103 W. Washington St.
The murals now comprise the “West Chicago Art Trail.”
“It’s just an honor to be able to have artwork like this up in my community, to be able to share in a way that I have,” said “Gio” Arellano, 27, who creates art under the pseudonym “Fiendsco.”
“My thanks to the (West Chicago) Cultural Arts Commission, Dan Peck, everybody that’s been involved in my journey. I’m just truly grateful for everything that has happened ,” he said.
Peck, West Chicago’s manager of marketing and communications, coordinated the downtown beautification project and secured a 50% matching grant in 2023 through the DuPage Foundation JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund.
Peck met Arellano at his first Fiendsco exhibition in 2022 at the Mexican Cultural Center DuPage, located within Gallery 200.
There are three renderings on the Gallery 200 building showing an invasive feral cat and wild parsnip, a rusty patched bumblebee with leafy prairie clover, and a dragonfly and coneflower.
Meanwhile, four other murals by Arellano brighten Main Street buildings.
A Prairie Path scene unfolds on 225 Main St., a building owned by AT&T, thanks to an agreement with that company.
Two other murals — one of a monarch butterfly and athanasia and a second showing a hummingbird with bee balm — at 200 Main St.
Finally, a mural showing a cardinal and sunflower is high above the ground at 132 Main St.
Cutting a ribbon to dedicate the pieces, West Chicago Mayor Daniel Bovey thanked Arellano and the Cultural Arts Commission for the project, “intended to bring vitality and beauty to our community and throughout” the city’s downtown.
“We’re really excited to have Gio, a member of our community, be the one who has produced the works here,” Bovey said.
Cultural Arts Commission Chair Heidi Kuharich said there has been a “huge” response to Arellano’s murals.
“Everybody knows Gio. It’s so much color, it’s perfect for what we are. It’s been fun to see everybody recognize that (the murals) are out there, they’re glad to see something out, they’re loving that it’s Gio. It’s been real exciting,” she said.
The artist, who dedicated nine months to the project, wasn’t ready for a big speech.
“I’m just grateful,” Arellano said. “That’s all I’ve got to express. Just my gratitude. I’m filled with it.”