Art offers a powerful way to process our emotions. When words fail, images and the act of creation can be a salve—not just for the artist, but their viewers as well. Grief, anger, and helplessness are potent emotions gripping the United States as the country reckons with the killings of peaceful civilians at the hands of masked ICE officers. Minneapolis residents and legal observers Renee Good and Alex Pretti were shot multiple times and killed by these officers. In videos captured on the scene, it was clear both Good and Pretti were of no threat to ICE—yet they lost their lives.
As people throughout the country grapple with the loss and mourn Good and Pretti, creatives have used their talents to honor them. The Seattle-based street artist known as Topsy recently produced a public piece featuring Pretti, who was a Veterans Administration (VA) nurse, dressed in scrubs and helping Lady Justice stand up. It’s a powerful image, one that uses symbolism to express the man’s care and compassion.
“My art often uses violence, or irony, to convey its message,” they tell My Modern Met. This is evident in another street art piece by Topsy that preceded the Pretti painting. “For instance, my piece inspired by Renee Good (the execution of liberty). With the clearest video footage being from behind her car, the public was spared having to witness her murder. And in Renee’s case, I didn’t want the public to overlook just how violent her death was, or what it meant that someone exercising their constitutional rights was killed for it.”
Topsy took a different approach when it came to Pretti. “With Alex Pretti, watching his graphic execution from multiple angles and still seeing half the country cheer it on—it made me sick,” they say. “I wanted to make something that honored how Alex lived his life and highlighted the selflessness of his final moments without involving violence at all. Painting Alex as an ICU nurse, using his strength to uplift a downtrodden justice, felt both sad and hopeful to me. Right now, Justice is down, but she’s not out. She needs help from people like Alex, who are willing to risk their lives to lift her up because they believe in her.”
Topsy’s work has become a public vigil in Seattle. “Visitors have left notes, flowers, and flameless candles,” they explain. “I placed my art of Alex near Seattle’s downtown hospitals because I knew how deeply his murder affected healthcare workers, and it moves me that people have used it as a space to mourn.”
Street art has a democratizing aspect; you don’t need to visit a gallery to interact with it. You can find it while walking home or in your local park—but that doesn’t mean it stays up for long. “The People have the final say in street art,” Topsy concludes. “None of my art is done with permission, so its life is usually very short. Alex’s piece could have been covered quickly, and the building owners have the right to do that, but it has stayed. And I think that, more than anything, is an indication of how deeply it has affected people.”
A Seattle-based street artist known as Topsy recently painted a tribute to Alex Pretti, a VA nurse who was shot and killed by ICE.
The work comes after another powerful piece by Topsy, inspired by the killing of Renee Good.
