Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez, a Mexican-born, Texas-raised visual artist, had his exhibition closed at the University of North Texas in Denton just days after it opened in February.
The show, titled “Ni De Aquí, Ni De Allá — Neither from Here Nor from There,” explored Quiñonez’s dual cultural identity as someone born in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and raised in East Dallas.
Before arriving at UNT, the exhibition had completed a successful run at Boston University in Massachusetts, drawing significant attention for its commentary on Latino identity in America.
Central to the show was Quiñonez’s “I.C.E. Scream” series, featuring large, brightly colored resin sculptures shaped like traditional Mexican paletas, the popsicles sold by street vendors known as paleteros.
“They’re in the shape of a Mexican paleta, which is a Mexican popsicle that you would see the paleteros pushing around in their little carts,” Quiñonez said during a recent interview at his studio in Queens, New York.
Each sculpture contains an object encapsulated inside, including handcuffs, replica firearms, and old rosaries, giving the cheerful-looking works a sharply political undertone.
The popsicle sticks carry a parody of the official U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement seal, stamped with text reading “U.S. Inhumane and Cruelty Enforcement,” a pointed reference to immigration enforcement policies.
Quiñonez’s work has been exhibited at major cultural venues, including The Shed in New York City, where curator Deja Belardo praised its resonance with audiences.
“We immediately saw the value of Victor’s work and being responsive to what was happening around us,” Belardo said, adding that the artist was “wanting to tell a story about immigrants and their labor, and all of the work that they do in the shadows.”
UNT did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but text messages obtained through a public records request by independent arts journalist Adam Schrader revealed internal deliberations between UNT President Harrison Keller and then-Provost Michael McPherson.
McPherson, who stepped down from his provost role in May to become a senior advisor to Keller, texted that removing the entire exhibition would be “easier to manage any barking from our friends in Austin.”
Austin is the seat of the Texas state legislature, and the reference underscored how political pressure from state officials factored into the university’s decision-making.
Schrader, founder of the site Urgent Matter, noted that the closure reflects a broader national trend of universities retreating from diversity, equity, and inclusion commitments.
“It comes after a lot of discourse politically around diversity, equity and inclusion at universities and just free speech in general at universities, art displays, at campuses from Florida to Texas and across the nation,” Schrader said.
Schrader was also careful to draw a distinction about the nature of the censorship, noting that no politicians directly ordered the show’s removal, and that the self-censorship itself is what makes the story significant.
“It’s not like they were directly censored,” Schrader said. “There were no politicians that directly came and said, ‘You cannot have this show.'”
The White House has withheld billions from federally-funded universities whose diversity and inclusion policies conflict with the Trump administration’s directives, and Texas passed legislation in 2023 abolishing DEI programs at state-funded colleges including UNT.
Jenny Yanez, a UNT student who graduated in May and alerted Quiñonez to the shutdown via social media, said the atmosphere within the arts program deteriorated noticeably in her final months at the university.
“I feel like everyone is acting like they’re walking on eggshells and they feel very nervous as artists,” Yanez said, noting that faculty members who wrote an open letter protesting the closure declined to sign their names.
Yanez also described widespread student frustration over what she characterized as a lack of transparency, saying her peers felt that the administration “want our money, but you won’t give us answers.”
In protest, graduating UNT seniors abandoned the traditional on-campus graduation show, choosing instead to display their work at independent venues across Denton and Dallas.
Quiñonez’s exhibition is scheduled to open at the University of California, Santa Cruz in September, continuing its national tour despite the controversy in Texas.
