Mysterious Case of the Downtown L.A. Sunbathers Solved!

Categories: Arts News

sunbather mom.jpg
Facebook
Mama sunbather, now in some federal trash chute somewhere.
An anonymous tipster (who we would totally bear-hug if he weren't so damn anonymous) has lifted the veil on yesterday's big street-art mystery: Who planted three paper-mache sunbathers in the abandoned lot at 1st and Broadway?

Curbed LA, the Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly and LA Observed all joined in on the hunt, speaking with stunned passersby and county employees...

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Trayvon Martin Gets the Shepard Fairey Treatment in Ebony Magazine

trayvon martin shepard fairey.jpg
obeygiant.com
To appear in this week's copy of Ebony.
It was only a matter of time before L.A. street artist (turned international graphic-design star and Obama portraiteer) Shepard Fairey took on Trayvon.

We're actually surprised it didn't happen sooner. Though there remains the sporadic rally cry for the young black Florida teen's murderer to be brought to justice, including a star-studded protest in L.A. last month, the news event is largely in the tail curve of its Internet popularity. Perhaps that's why Ebony Magazine tries to revive the cause in this week's issue:

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L.A. Artist Installs Paper-Mache Sunbathers on Downtown Dirt Plot Abandoned Since 2007

Categories: Arts News

la street art sunbathers curbed.jpg
Curbed LA
A long way from Malibu.
Update, Thursday, 3 p.m.: "Mysterious Case of the Downtown L.A. Sunbathers, Solved!"

Here's one way to comment on long-neglected construction blight: Put some paper-mache on it!

Perhaps frustrated, like the rest of us, that it has taken the federal government five years (and counting) to figure out what they're doing with the plot of dirt at 1st and Broadway, an unidentified street artist has installed three lifelike sunbathers in the dust. And voila...

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Otto Jensen, Legendary 101-Year-Old Burbank Photographer, Killed While Crossing Street

Categories: Arts News, Death

otto jensen burbank.jpg
ESNEWS
The great Otto Jensen.
Updated on Page 2: Jensen, a former Danish boxer, meets Manny Pacquiao.

A living piece of Burbank history was killed while crossing Olive Avenue around 8:15 p.m. last night.

Otto Jensen, who was still running his nearby photography studio at the ripe age of 101 years old, has shot everything from family portraits to boxing and Hollywood greats during his long and storied career. Jensen's studio, a staple on Olive, has been open since 1952.

In a video interview with ESNEWS last year, he said he smoked two cigars a day...

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'Sons of Anarchy' Pisses off L.A. Street Artists by Allegedly Painting Over New Downtown Mural

Categories: Arts News

downtown mural before.jpg
@Saber via Twitter
She was a beauty.
Updated at the bottom: Sons of Anarchy producer Kurt Sutter says his show had nothing to do with the take-down. Our headline has been revised to reflect this claim.

Someone just painted over a mural that went up at Willow and Santa Fe in downtown Los Angeles only one-and-a-half months ago.

It was painted by street artists Zes, Push and UGLAR on the side of a building adjacent to the graffiti-themed LALA Gallery, apparently in celebration of the gallery's opening.

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L.A. Animal Shelter Is Selling iPad Art Created by Cats (and People Are Buying It)

Categories: Arts News

cattery 4.jpg
spcaLA
LOL?
So there's this iPad app called "Paint for Cats."

Here's how it works: A little mouse scampers across the screen, prompting your cat (whom you must coerce into sitting still in front of your iPad) to take a whack at it. When paw hits iPad, the mouse makes a little squeak (incentives!) and a splotch of color shows up. And so on and so on, until you have a full screen of cat art.

A non-profit animal shelter in L.A. called the Society of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (spcaLA) has taken this tomfoolery to the next level:

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New California Bill Would Let 'Car Enthusiasts' Buy Out-of-Print License Plates for $50

Categories: Arts News

california blue.jpg
Wikipedia
Oh, this old thing?
A hipster's dream ride, realized by the California State Legislature!

Assemblyman Mike Gatto -- who appropriately represents L.A., car capital of California -- has proposed a rather petty bill to revive those fugly classic old license plates from the '50s, '60s and '70s.

"Car enthusiasts" could choose between...

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Levitated Mass Expected to Draw Party People, Crowds to L.A. County Museum Tonight

Categories: Arts News

c-monster levitated mass.JPG
C-Monster
So you thought the party was at Drai's or maybe Los Globos tonight. Noooo. The rager of the century is happening right in the streets of the Miracle Mile.

Levitated Mass, that rock of ages that's headed to the L.A. County Museum of Art, is scheduld to reach its destination in the wee hours. And LACMA officials are, frankly, preparing for an impromptu street party. Really.

LACMA spokeswoman Miranda Carroll tells us:

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VIDEO: Marriage Proposal at the LACMA Rock Employs Record Number of Terrible Rock Puns

Categories: Arts News

lacma rock riverside.jpg
Eat your heart out, Kim Kardashian.
So we know we said we'd never mention the $10 million, 340-ton LACMA rock ever again -- unless maybe it rolled off its "oversized load" truck and crushed a Prius -- but we at the Weekly have a strict policy on covering every L.A. marriage proposal ever caught on tape.

And this one is special. Ramone Vasquez' big question-pop to his girlfriend Maria yesterday may not be the most romantic proposal in the history of our romcom capital...

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We're Going to Have to Hear About the LACMA Rock for Another 2 Weeks

Categories: Arts News

lacma rock riverside.jpg
LACMA Rock in its natural habitat.
It's only Day Two in the $10 million cross-county journey of the LACMA rock, and already we never want to hear the words "LACMA rock" ever again.

What makes this particular boulder so special is that artist Michael Heizer chose it as the 340-ton centerpiece of his long-time-coming LACMA exhibit, "Levitated Mass." At first, everyone was complaining that the museum was slacking on the setup of Heizer's piece. But now that the rock has begun its two-week roll across Los Angeles...

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Shepard Fairey Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy After He Manufactured Evidence in 'Hope' Civil Court Battle With Associated Press

Categories: Arts News

hope fairey.JPG
Hope this is legal.
Shepard Fairey dug a dumb hole for himself when he tried to cover up and change evidence in his civil court battle with Associated Press over the image he used for his iconic "Hope" poster.

That dispute appeared to us to end in a draw, but because the L.A. street artist destroyed documents and manufactured evidence, he could see six months behind bars.

The U.S. Attorney in New York today announced that ...

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Shepard Fairey Guests on The Simpsons for Episode on Bart's Graffiti-Art Obsession

Categories: Arts News

shepard fairey bart simpson.JPG
Fox / obeygiant.com
Shepard Fairey and Bart Simpson.
Forget Law & Order. It's The Simpsons that's ripped from the headlines.

The show will ride the Art in the Streets zeitgeist that has hipsters popping into galleries and cops popping graffiti creators. The March 4 episode mocks the Banksy documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop; it's called Exit Through the Kwik-E-Mart.

It will feature none other than L.A.'s street-art laureate, Shepard Fairey, along with ...

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Shepard Fairey, Saber to Discuss L.A. City Mural Ordinance at Public Panel Discussion

Categories: Arts News

Thumbnail image for shepard fairey.JPG
Shepard Fairey.
An unprecedented meeting of street artists and political artists will happen tonight in downtown L.A. Expected to attend: Shepard Fairey and Saber.

Los Angeles, of course, is a graffiti art hot spot and a onetime mural capital of the world. But a city law against public murals made putting one up illegal. Not good if you're trying to impress the rest of the planet, for example, during last year's groundbreaking Art in the Streets exhibition at MOCA.

And so City Councilman Jose Huizar is trying to bring back the legality of the mural:

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Pabst Blue Ribbon Celebrates Tagger Who Writes 'Pabst' All Over Los Angeles

Categories: Arts News

pabst tweet.jpg
@PabstBlueRibbon via Twitter
What a dream come true, for a major corporation trying to market its product to the cool kids:

A prolific Los Angeles tagger, apparently from the SPV graffiti crew, has chosen "Pabst" as his (or her) moniker.

Yay for hipster vandals! "The Pabst tagger is our No. 1 most wanted," tweeted the official Pabst Blue Ribbon account last week with photo evidence (right) ...

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Ron Paul's Beverly Hills Street Art Removed

Categories: Arts News

ronpaul2012 net ron paul art.JPG
ronpaul2012.net
Ron Paul vs. Rodeo.
Ron Paul, the ultra-right candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, didn't get too much time in the sun here on the ultra-left coast.

Well, at least a pop-art poster of his likeness didn't.

Though some of his libertarian views might be sympatico with the feelings of the rich of Beverly Hills (and we could certainly see the conservative Beverly Hills Courier embracing him), the artwork celebrating the Texas congressman was too much to survive the rough streets of 90210:


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Occupy L.A. Photos by Ted Soqui, Photog Behind Shepard Fairey's TIME Art, to Show at Gallery Where Cover Protester Sarah Mason Works

time cover protester shepard fairey original photo ted soqui 2.jpg
Ted Soqui
This photo of Sarah Mason inspired Shepard Fairey's TIME cover.
The Robert Berman Gallery in Santa Monica saw the show of the century fall into its lap this winter.

Sarah Mason, who works at the gallery, was catapulted into accidental fame when a photo of her at an Occupy L.A. protest -- snapped by LA Weekly photographer Ted Soqui -- was reworked by graphic artist Shepard Fairey for the cover of TIME Magazine.

Gallery owner Robert Berman says he's been showing and selling Fairey's work, including the Obama HOPE line, for "many, many years." And when TIME's "Person of the Year" issue dropped...

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LACMA Is Having Boulder Problems

Categories: Arts News

levitated mass boulder.jpg
LACMA
"Coming soon." Sort of.
The New York Times finally made a correct assumption about Los Angeles today, in the scathing "340-Ton Sculpture Versus Immovable Bureaucracy."

Writer Adam NaGourney blames the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's delay in moving the centerpiece of a new installation from Riverside to its West L.A. campus on "the bureaucratic tangle that is greater Los Angeles in the 21st century."

Word up, Adam NaGourney. This time, though...

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Pepper-Spraying Cops 'Occupied' by Hot Models in L.A. Fashion Shoot by Tyler Shields

pepper spraying cop model tyler shields.jpg
Tyler Shields
OWS porn.
Update: Tyler Shields says a cop who saw the photos told him, "I guess if I had to be mased, I wouldn't mind being mased by those girls." Full interview with the photographer at the bottom.

After the Occupy Wall Street raids, and especially one pepper-spraying incident at UC Davis, cops around the country are getting flak in many forms: Anonymous leaks. Twitter wars. Brutality blogs. Christmas sweaters. Memes for days. Actual punishment (sort of).

It's official: "Fuck the po-lice" is making a comeback! And on any topic so totally trending, you can expect L.A. photographer Tyler Shields to throw in his two cents, a la bloody Lindsay Lohan at the onset of the vampire craze.

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Venice Boardwalk Sees Ban on Selling of Cheap Sunglasses, Other Trinkets

Categories: Arts News

sunglasses lesley choa.JPG
Lesley Choa
Those cheesy sunglasses sold on the Venice Boardwalk? No more. At least not on the actual walkway and adjacent green spaces. (At least not if the LAPD is on the case).

After years of seeing the famed boardwalk turn into a circus of trinket sales, the L.A. City Council today voted unanimously (as it always does) to approve a law banning the sales of clothing, jewelry, toys, sunglasses, oils, incense, perfume, crystals and anything else that doesn't have a free-speech or religious-rights element.

You can still sell ...

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L.A. Mural Ordinance Hopes to Lift Ban on Street Art: Public-Comment Draft in Full

Categories: Arts News

barbara black north hollywood street art.jpg
NoHo Communications Group
North Hollywood resident Barbara Black was fined $336 for hiring students to decorate this fence.
For months, the L.A. Department of City Planning has been teasing street artists with announcements of a new ordinance that would lift the current ban on all pre-approved murals on private property in Los Angeles.

And it's about time: Our urban sprawl was once considered by many -- including local celebrity Saber -- to be the "mural capital of the world."

So where on Earth is this thing?

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