There’s an energy to Sergio Martinez’s work that immediately feels alive. Better known as “Checkos,” the Ventura County based artist creates large scale murals filled with movement, pride, color, and community presence. His work doesn’t just exist inside public spaces, it becomes part of the people who live around it.
Although he has been creating art professionally for the last four to five years, Sergio’s connection to art started much earlier. Some of his earliest memories are tied directly to drawing, creativity, and artistic expression. That lifelong connection eventually led him toward spray paint, mural work, and large public installations where scale and visibility became part of the storytelling itself.
For Sergio, murals are about freedom. The size, the process, and the interaction with public spaces allow him to create work that feels immediate and accessible to entire communities at once. Rather than making art only for galleries or private spaces, he brings it directly into neighborhoods, schools, and city walls where people encounter it naturally in their everyday lives.
Community sits at the center of much of his work. Many of his murals are inspired by local stories, school mascots, cultural heritage, and the people surrounding the spaces he paints in. His goal is not simply decoration, but elevation: creating artwork that reflects pride, identity, and shared experience back onto the communities themselves.
That sense of connection is what gives the work its impact. His murals often feel celebratory without losing authenticity. There’s pride in them, but also accessibility. They are designed for people to recognize themselves in the work, whether through cultural symbolism, familiar imagery, or the emotional energy carried through the paintings themselves.
What makes public art unique is that it becomes part of people's daily lives. A mural isn't something viewed for a few minutes inside a gallery and then left behind. It becomes part of a neighborhood's identity, a landmark people pass every day, and a backdrop to countless personal memories. That's what makes Checkos' work so effective. His murals feel welcoming and familiar, celebrating culture and community in a way that invites people to stop, look closer, and feel a sense of belonging within the stories being told.
As Sergio Martinez continues expanding his public art practice, Checkos is helping shape a growing contemporary mural movement rooted in culture, storytelling, and community visibility. His work transforms walls into spaces of connection, pride, and shared experience.
Follow Sergio Martinez “Checkos” and explore more of his work on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/checkos_
