[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wyland-ocean-life-dallas-mural.jpeg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tA giant mural by conservationist artist Robert Wyland has been painted over in Dallas to make way for a mural promoting FIFA, the international soccer federation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe destroyed piece was one of 100 \u201cwhaling wall\u201d murals that the artist has painted from Osaka to Detroit, and from Sydney to New York. Whaling Wall 1<\/em> appears alongside the Pacific Coast Highway and was dedicated in 1981; number 100 was painted outside Wyland\u2019s own studio building in 1996.<\/p>\n \n\tThe Dallas mural, Ocean Life <\/em>(1999), is number 82, and it covered two sides of the Texas Utilities Building. The larger portion, measuring 164 by 82 feet, depicted endangered whales and dolphins swimming in the ocean. Crews started painting over that section of the mural last week, and CBS News<\/em> shot photos of the larger side of the mural, almost completely painted over. A smaller panel on an adjacent side, measuring 50 by 78 feet, remains visible, says CBS<\/em>.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThis mural was created as a message of hope, conservation, and respect for our oceans,\u201d\u00a0Wyland said in a statement to CBS<\/em>. \u201cIt was a gift to the people of Dallas and a reminder that protecting our oceans is a responsibility we all share. To see an important public artwork with that kind of meaning treated as disposable is deeply painful.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAccording to a local Fox affiliate, \u201cDallas says Wyland had been asked\u201d for permission to paint over the mural. \u201cThat\u2019s a lie with a capital L,\u201d the artist told Fox.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThey picked the wrong artist,\u201d said Wyland in a phone call to ARTnews<\/em>, adding that he\u2019s confident the artwork is protected under the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) of 1990. \u201cIt\u2019s protected under VARA if anything is. I\u2019m willing to take these people on and really set a precedent. I can\u2019t save the wall but I can try to save and protect other artists. I\u2019ve hired a local law firm that specializes in artists\u2019 rights and VARA.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cI think it\u2019s clear that what happened in Dallas goes far beyond the loss of a mural,\u201d said Steve Creech, president of the Wyland Foundation, in an email. \u201cThis was a significant public artwork. It\u2019s everything that our foundation stands for. And for the arts community, they should know that this is part of a global conservation movement that has spent decades using art to connect people to the importance of protecting our oceans and clean water. The Whaling Walls were never intended to be simply decorative\u2014they were created to inspire environmental awareness, civic pride, and a sense of shared responsibility for the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tMany locals are unhappy about the mural\u2019s disappearance, including Dallas-based art adviser Adam Green. \u201cFor many of us who grew up in Dallas, the mural became a familiar part of the city\u2019s public art landscape,\u201d he told ARTnews<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s right by the city\u2019s aquarium, which always felt fitting, and I remember seeing it on school trips whenever we visited the aquarium or other cultural sites downtown. Seeing it painted over is incredibly disappointing because it wasn\u2019t just a mural, it was a recognizable and meaningful piece of public art.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe owner of the building is Toronto-based Slate Asset Management. CBS<\/em> says Slate \u201callowed the North Texas FIFA World Cup Organizing Committee to cover the mural.\u201d The company declined to comment on the record. The North Texas FIFA organization, which CBS<\/em> quotes saying the new design will be by a local artist and \u201cwon\u2019t be an ad,\u201d did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cDallas is scheduled to host nine World Cup 2026 matches this year\u2014more than any other host city,\u201d writes Dallas Magazine<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWe look forward to unveiling a new piece that captures the current historical moment and reflects the energy, unity, and global spirit surrounding the World Cup 2026 this summer,\u201d said FIFA in a statement to Fox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/artist-outraged-conservationist-mural-dallas-fifa-promo-1234785846\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/wyland-ocean-life-dallas-mural.jpeg?w=1024″] A giant mural by conservationist artist Robert Wyland has been painted over in Dallas to make way for a mural promoting FIFA, the international soccer federation.\u00a0 The destroyed piece was one of 100 \u201cwhaling wall\u201d murals that the artist has painted from Osaka to Detroit, and from Sydney to New York. Whaling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1941962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1941962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1941962\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1941962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1941962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1941962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}