South Chicago artist tells story of steel mills, drugs, gangs in first major retrospective

Roman Villarreal stands among his art now on display at Intuit. Born in 1950, the self-taught sculptor and painter has been practicing full-time since the steel mills closed in the ’70s. “Since I was a little kid, my mother said I was a shaper,” Villarreal said of his path to becoming an artist. (Anthony Vazquez/Sun-Times)

Walk inside the Intuit gallery, and one of the first paintings you notice is “Brothers,” by Roman Villarreal.

Completed by the South Chicago artist in 2021, it shows him at age 19, hanging out.