Image: Elmhurst Art Museum, New York
Elmhurst Art Museum is presenting 'Sentrock: The Boy Who Wanted to Fly', a multimedia exhibition built around new work by Joseph Perez, the Pilsen-based street artist known as Sentrock. The museum describes the project as the artist’s first solo museum show and says it reveals, for the first time, the origin story of his Bird City Saint character, which appears in more than 20 prominent murals in Chicago and other cities.
The exhibition opened on Sept. 9, 2022, and ran through Feb. 12, 2023, at Elmhurst Art Museum. The museum said the show was extended to Feb. 12 due to popular demand. Its exhibition page framed the presentation as part of the institution’s 25th anniversary year and said the project would culminate the museum’s fall programming with Sentrock’s work on view across numerous galleries.
Sentrock, whose given name is Joseph Perez, is a self-taught street artist whose practice developed from graffiti writing into highly stylized public mural work. On the museum’s exhibition page, he described street art as a gesture of compassion for his community and a powerful form of expression shaped by his Mexican American background, upbringing, and history. The museum said he views his signature bird mask as a symbol of personal expression, strength, and hope.
At the center of the exhibition is the Bird City Saint, a recurring figure that Sentrock described as a young boy seeking freedom and finding his voice. NBC Chicago reported that the character is a little boy wearing a superhero-like bird mask, while Sentrock said the figure is about a young boy wanting to find freedom and find his wings. CBS Chicago also noted that the artist linked the character to ideas of freedom and to his own experience discovering graffiti as a teenager.
The exhibition combined several media to expand that story. According to the museum, Sentrock presented a new signature mural in the galleries, along with animated video projections, a ten-foot-tall sculpture, a life-size birdhouse installation, paintings, and works on paper. The museum said these works reveal narratives about the Bird City Saint character and its origins in the artist’s biography, while exploring the dreams of a boy living in an urban environment, the importance of his Mexican-American community, and the reason the boy wears a bird mask.
The museum’s exhibition materials also placed the project within Sentrock’s wider public practice. It said his murals have been commissioned by institutions and organizations including the City of Chicago, Chicago Design Museum, Chicago Public Libraries, National Geographic, and Chicago Fire, and that more than 20 of his murals appear throughout Chicago and in cities including Detroit, Miami, New York, Phoenix, and Los Angeles. NBC Chicago said he had at least 15 murals in Pilsen and other neighborhoods at the time of its report. The museum also said Sentrock gives back through educational and mentor projects with local youth, food and clothing drives, and other community efforts.
Elmhurst Art Museum said dedicated programming accompanied the exhibition, including a celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, family day workshops, a conversation with the artist, and a pop-up shop with limited-edition merchandise. The museum identified Wintrust and its Development and Programming Committees as sponsors of the project.
