ST. GEORGE, Utah — Italian artist Giuseppe Percivati, known professionally as Pepe Gaka, is finishing what will be southern Utah's tallest mural in downtown St. George.
The name "Gaka" means painter in Japanese, a moniker he chose when he lived in Japan.
The massive artwork, which celebrates music and nature, stands 30 feet at its highest point and covers 7,000 square feet of a parking structure shared by the Advenire Hotel and City View Apartments.
"I don't like to cut corners. I don't like to take shortcuts," said Gaka. "I don't know, maybe it's because I'm Italian, but it just doesn't feel right to me."
Gaka is no stranger to large-scale projects. In 2019, he painted what was then the world's tallest mural in Karachi, Pakistan, measuring 287 feet. That record was broken three years later by a mural in Calgary that stands 24 feet taller, though Gaka notes that work was completed by four artists rather than one.
"Compared to that, this is easy," Gaka said.
While impressive, the St. George mural won't claim the title of Utah's tallest. That distinction belongs to an 82-foot-high mural unveiled earlier this month at the new Astra Tower in Salt Lake City.
The artist's daily work atop a crane has been drawing attention from residents.
"Oh, I think it looks great. I love the flowers, so it feels a little deserted. I'm interested to see what the connection is with the musicians in it," said Samantha Parker, a St. George resident. "It's beautiful. It's fun to see Saint George doing these things."
Gaka's artistic vision stems from his upbringing in northern Italy with a father who was both a farmer and pianist, cultivating his love for nature and music.
"I don't want to paint a building on a building," Gaka said. "I always want in the mural to have something that we don't have in the city or we don't have enough, which is flowers and nature."
The project began taking shape in January 2024 when Gaka was approached by the city and property owners. After more than a year finalizing the design, he began painting on March 12, working six days a week for 12 hours daily.
A unique feature of the mural is the integration of images depicting musicians from the St. George-based Southwest Symphony.
"I thought it would be really nice for me to sort of celebrate them. And, you know, this is actually people living in St. George," Gaka said.
"I love the idea that they come and they see, you know, the family, the son, the daughter, they say, look, this is me. And the daughters say, you know, this is my dad, or this is my uncle, this is my auntie, this is my mom. So, and you know, like even in 50 years, people would be able to say, you know, she was my grandmother."
