When Caesar Perez paints a person in his murals, he wants it to be someone those walking by might recognize.
“I am very about representation,” Perez says. “I want to make sure whoever I put on is someone you would see in that neighborhood. I like to have people who are not just a face.”
As a lifelong Chicagoan who is half Mexican and half Cuban, accurately painting the face of the neighborhood is important to him. So when Perez plotted his three-story mural on Montrose at Kedzie Avenues in Albany Park, he was inspired by an old friend and Mexican artist who lived nearby in Albany Park. Now, her face gazes down from the side of a brick building, on a black background surrounded by flowers in shades of orange, yellow, blue, green and purple. Water appears to ripple out from a drop landing on top of her head.
Not only does she represent the neighborhood, “she’s got a really great look and I’ve always wanted to paint her,” he said. After he finished, a lot of people commented that 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 artist name Czr Prz.
The mural on Montrose and Kedzie, completed about a year ago, is 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. He finished that mural in 2021 and it draws on the other subject he’s 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 return and paint another mural just down the street.
Perez says he has been creating art since he was a kid and painting murals since he was a teenager, he said. While he has done some graffiti art, that’s not his style: “I consider what I do fine art.”
He likes to keep his paintings colorful, with lots of bright pinks and purples. Perez said he starts with a base coat, then uses acrylic paint, then finishes his detailing with spray paint.
It’s “a whole look I’m trying to get where it’s almost retro colors,” he said.
Folklorico storytelling, art history, graphic novels and graffiti all influence his work.
For the North River Commission Board, Perez’s mural was exactly what they wanted.
“The mural is a product of NRC’s work with community stakeholders to identify and highlight the diverse ethnic and cultural heritage within the Albany Park area,” says Ron Duplack, our Art and Culture Vice President with the North River Commission Board. “In this instance, we had the pleasure of working with Czr Prz, a nationally recognized contemporary urban artist with deep roots in Chicago and its Latino-Caribbean diaspora. The mural illustrates the energy, excitement and color of life within our community.”