{"id":193327,"date":"2025-09-02T05:30:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T05:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/193327\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T05:30:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T05:30:11","slug":"controversial-downtown-apopka-mural-painted-over-after-similarity-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/193327\/","title":{"rendered":"Controversial downtown Apopka mural painted over after similarity claims"},"content":{"rendered":"

APOPKA, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A mural in downtown Apopka <\/a>that had drawn criticism for its resemblance to another artist\u2019s work was completely painted over Monday morning. <\/p>\n

News 6 was there near the corner of Central Avenue and Main Street, near the Domino\u2019s Pizza, where workers covered the mural that was originally unveiled on Aug. 22 as part of the Main Street Apopka Downtown mural project. By mid-morning, the design was fully obscured by fresh paint.<\/p>\n

The action followed public complaints and an online backlash after an Iowa artist noted similarities between the Apopka mural and a piece she created in 2017. <\/p>\n

[VIDEO: Apopka mural draws backlash over resemblance to another artist\u2019s work]<\/b><\/p>\n

The Apopka artist credited with the mural, known as Ridge, told the media he worked from inspiration provided to him. He was not available for comment at the site, as his Instagram indicated he was at an undisclosed location working on another painting.<\/p>\n

As controversy grew, Apopka\u2019s Main Street Program faced increased scrutiny. In a statement provided to News 6, the City of Apopka said the program was \u201c…aimed to help encourage the revitalization and economic growth of downtown…\u201d and emphasized that \u201cno City of Apopka officials or staff had any involvement in the selection of the art or artist.\u201d The statement added that the city will review the situation with Main Street Apopka.<\/p>\n

[EXCLUSIVE: <\/b>Become a News 6 Insider (it\u2019s FREE)<\/b><\/a> | PINIT! <\/b>Share your photos<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n

The mural\u2019s removal leaves downtown residents and business owners awaiting the outcome of that review and any further action the city or Main Street organizers may take.<\/p>\n

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Copyright 2025 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOPKA, Fla. \u2013 A mural in downtown Apopka that had drawn criticism for its resemblance to another artist\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":193328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[107898,1037,648,1032,1033,171,13964,1036,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-193327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-apopka","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-arts","11":"tag-arts-and-design","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-mural","15":"tag-orange-county","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115133063160868543","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}