Shepard Fairey.

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:

@PabstBlueRibbon via Twitter

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) ...

ronpaul2012.net

Ron Paul vs. Rodeo.

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:

Ted Soqui

This photo of Sarah Mason inspired Shepard Fairey's TIME cover.

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...

LACMA

"Coming soon." Sort of.

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...

Tyler Shields

OWS porn.

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.

Lesley Choa

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 ...

NoHo Communications Group

North Hollywood resident Barbara Black was fined $336 for hiring students to decorate this fence.

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?

obeygiant.com

Full-sized version below.

Originally posted November 18 at 3:50 p.m.

Here we go again. L.A. street artist Shepard Fairey has released a second original design for the Occupy Wall Street movement -- and this time, instead of playing it safe with a wistful scene out of an Angela Davis documentary, he's given his own (in)famous HOPE poster from Obama's first election campaign a rebellious makeover.

pixiecanfly via Tumblr

Investigators believe that Dickey and the teen girl belong to a prolific tagging crew...

Patrick Range McDonald

Homo Riot, street artist

"I wanted to be like a terrorist," said Homo Riot, who took his art to the streets in earnest days after anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 was passed in California in November, 2008. "I wanted to react that way. Just 'Homo Riot' is saying something."

Nearly three years later, Homo Riot is still pushing the envelope with defiant, politically charged art that riles homophobes and has been featured in two recent gallery shows in L.A. The other night, we rode with the artist in his Nissan SUV to watch him work.

CBSLA via LAist

Bad art, objectively.

But back in early September, California Institute of the Arts officials did a pretty crafty job quarantining the aftermath of multiple scary attacks against black student Sasha Swedlund to a simple all-campus memo. Spraying racist messages is a "hate crime" and a "clear breach of CalArts' harassment policy," the Office of the President warned students, faculty and staff. Other than that, though...

Viacom (Please don't sue me?)

Scaredy cat.

It is also fabled that a devious Redditer uploaded the film in full, from VHS to YouTube, just last August. Wikipedia confirms! Wikipedia also says, "Director Peter Lauer has said he was surprised and flattered by the attention his film had gotten." However...

theoccupationparty.com

A West Coast legend does his part.

Yup. This just happened. Right after receiving the victorious news from New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg that Occupy Wall Street doesn't have to move out of Zuccotti Park after all, protest organizers learned they'd been blessed with a Shepard Fairey original.

From Ed Ruscha's "Standard Editions."

Well, good -- 'cause we don't wanna be.

Just as the Wall Street Journal completely missed the point, earlier this year, in assuming the tacky (yet quarantined) influx of moneyed developments into the L.A. Live area somehow signaled a wannabe "Manhattanization" downtown (WTF)...

downtownartwalk.org

Artwalkian democracy.

The price for Art Walk's velvet rope so to speak isn't that bad considering that City Hall actually waived about $25,000 in fees for all the extra cops it takes to patrol the thing, Art Walk executive director Joe Moller tells the Weekly.

The toll was a long time coming:

Los Angeles City Planning - Code Studies via Facebook

"Shepard Fairey sticker bombs City Hall," writes the department.

Uh-oh -- the fight between muralists and the L.A political machine just went mainstream!

Los Angeles' biggest and best-known street artist, Echo Park resident Shepard Fairey, has sticker-bombed the Department of City Planning in apparent solidarity with SABER, who protested the recent crackdown on graffiti by skywriting over City Hall on Monday. Among the skywritten messages was a sign that Fairey might be on board:

L.A. Taco

Obey the politicians: See our billboard blight, buy our products. Screw beauty. Forget art.

This is the same Los Angeles City Council that is expected to create "sign districts" in unsuspecting communities like Studio City and Koreatown -- allowing a sea of huge, crass commercial billboards on the streets. But public art? Murals by budding artists? Bad. Billboards? Good. How sad and bush league, for a great city.