As Dallas prepares to host World Cup matches this summer, the city has begun updating downtown public spaces with tournament-themed installations. That effort included painting over a large mural of swimming whales that had adorned two sides of a parking garage since the late 1990s.
The artist, who works under the single name Wyland, said in a statement that the artwork had “carried meaning for generations” and that its erasure without dialogue raised “serious questions about how we value public art, artists, and the communities these works were created to serve.” He described the mural’s destruction as “deeply disheartening.”
Katy Rose Cusick, a Dallas student, said she saw the mural almost every day on her way to school. “And then one day they were painting it over,” she said. “And it was just so incredibly shocking to me that that could happen so quickly.”
According to Dallas television station WFAA, students at a local high school have launched an online petition protesting the removal. Work to paint over the mural began this month, according to the Associated Press, making way for art tied to the World Cup matches scheduled for Dallas later this year.
The mural had been a familiar sight on the parking garage walls for roughly three decades, predating the city’s successful bid for the 2026 tournament.