Art in the Streets Exhibit at the Los Angeles MOCA

This weekend I attended the Art in the Streets museum exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in downtown Los Angeles. It was written that this was the very first major US museum display of street art and graffiti art. The obvious problem with that statement is the fact that the idea of a street art exhibition inside the whitewashed walls of a sanctioned museum is somewhat of an oxymoron. Although the display was vast and educational on the motif of graffiti and street art (and I am a fan of several of the artists), I feel like the whole thing sort of cheapened the essense of the anarchist graffiti artist. I don't think the founders and originators of the movement would have ever imagined such a spectacle. At the end of the exhibit, the old fat white security guard making sure the line to the gift shop didn't get disorderly was the metaphorical nail in the coffin for the street art movement.

Anyway, I put together a collage of my walk through the exhibit:

Art in the Streets @ MOCA

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in downtown Los Angeles is featuring the first major US museum exhibition of street art and graffiti art. The show is called Art in the Streets and focuses on the evolution of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to what it is today. Although paintings, mixed media sculptures, and interactive installations are featured from 50 well known street artists from New York, Los Angeles, London, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo; the main focus of the show is the role Los Angeles plays in the movement.

Most notably, a special section of the show is dedicated to the art related to the locals only Dogtown skate and surf movement out of Venice Beach and Santa Monica.

Art in the Streets runs from 04.17.11 until 08.08.11 and is located here.

Referenced from: OBEY

The Album Cover Art of Shepard Fairey Opening

Over the years, Shepard Fairey has been involved with the design of a wide variety of album cover art. Additionally, the Obey frontman often uses music as a theme for his artwork. To celebrate all of this, the Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica is currently featuring a show called Revolutions - The Album Cover Art of Shepard Fairey.

The show opening was March 12th, and I had the chance to attend. The focal point of the show was a large cluster of small framed screen prints, featuring the album covers Shepard created, on the back wall of the gallery. The show also boasted DJ sets by Dan the Automator and Shepard Fairey himself. The show runs until April 23rd and below are a few pictures from the event.

Street Art Pop Up Shop Opening

Echo Park is the new home to the Street Art Pop Up Store in Los Angeles. The store aims to combine a gallery space featuring street artist work with a storefront containing painting supplies, collectibles, posters, and apparel. The shop is located on Sunset Boulevard next to the Short Stop.

This street art headquarters had its opening event on March 4th. I discovered the event listing on Shepard Fairey's website. The intimate space received an excellent turnout with an eclectic mix of people. The show featured work from, and the gallery will continue to feature work from, several respected street artists such as Shepard Fairey, Bigfoot, D*Face, Dick Chicken, Ron English, Homo Riot, Philip Lumbang, Skullphone, Sweet Toof, Underwater Pirates, Eyesore, London Police, and Vampires One Day (to name a few).

Below are a few photos from the event.

The address of the shop is 1461 1/2 West Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90026 and is open from noon to 7pm daily. Check it out.

Banksy in Los Angeles

Banksy is the notorious and unidentified British street artist that created the recent film Exit Through the Gift Shop. Arguably, Banksy is most notable for risking his life to tag the Palestinian side of Israel's West Bank barrier.

Exit Through the Gift Shop has been nominated for an Academy Award and because his identity is hidden, he cannot use conventional methods to promote himself. Instead, he has created a graffiti campaign throughout the city of Los Angeles for this weekend's Academy Awards.

I noticed one of these recent pieces on my way home from work. It is located on Washington Street just south of downtown Los Angeles near the warehouse district. The piece seems to be a commentary on the housing crisis and the massive amount of foreclosures that have occurred and continue to transpire. It depicts a house drawn in crayon by a little girl being boarded up. I snapped the pictures below of the piece.

Brewery Art Walk

 

Entrance to the Brewery Art Lofts

This past weekend I attended the Brewery Art Walk near Chinatown. My coworker was showing his paintings and the event received a great deal of publicity on KCRW. The Brewery is a community of artist lofts and galleries inside of an old Pabst Blue Ribbon brewery just outside of downtown Los Angeles. The colony mainly contains artists but also houses dance studios, designers, architects, photographers and other professionally creative people. Tenants have to pursue their creative interests in order to live and work in the loft community. The compound also has its own restaurant and bar with a great selection of micro brewed beers. The art walk had a very decent turnout with a good energy to it.

Two Brewery buildings connected by a catwalk

Peter Dalton is an Industrial Design coworker of mine at Sunscope. He studied Illustration at the Art Center College of Design. Peter became interested in product design after noticing that his paintings in school had a product and architectural aesthetic to them. After his senior show in college, he was asked to hang one of his 8 foot paintings in the admissions office at Art Center. It still hangs there to this day next to a Jeff Koons piece. 

Peter's painting influences include realists Charles Sheeler and Edward Hopper. He described the inspiration for the paintings he showed as the beauty of utility and isolation. 

Peter next to his painting

Signage at the entrance to Peter's gallery space

Another artist that stands out at the Art Walk is Lana Gomez. Her mixed media pieces have incredible texture to them. I enjoy the color palettes of her paintings and the use of white space in some of them. Lana's paintings are very organic and spontaneous. I also enjoy her usage of texture to create contrast. She has been featured in In Style magazine and the LA Times.

I first met Rhett Johnson on the Venice Beach boardwalk several months ago. He had recently moved to LA from Chicago and was making street art inspired pieces on the boardwalk. It was cool to see him again at the Brewery Art Walk and catch up. He told me that he recently displayed his artwork with Shepard Fairey at an event at the Shangri La hotel in Santa Monica. Rhett is an incredibly nice guy with a magnetic positive attitude. He mentioned that he started making art growing up at his family's hardware store in Chicago with paint pens and spray paint. His style is very light hearted and fun with good use of color and imagery. He can be reached at 312-731-8477.

Rhett working with paint pens