June 2008 Archives
From Diggriffic, here's a handy little video that'll walk you through how to make up a batch of glue that'll keep your stuff up on walls until the bomb drops - or the paint cans come out.
Of course, we disseminate this knowledge is for purely informational purposes. Because we all know that in Los Angeles, trying to do something like this can prove too be very dangerous if you end up being seen by someone who doesn't like what you're doing.
Wheat- Paste Posters - video powered by Metacafe
It's that simple!
Disturbing as the linked LA Times story is, it's the comments that made me really wonder about how long it's going to take for the graffiti issue to explode in LA. It's also amazing how few people get that the kind of gang graffiti that this guy got shot over has nothing to do with the kind of writing, art, and culture that we try to show on Lurker. It's not the same thing.
Click here for the LA Times comments on the Hollywood shooting.
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For some reason I thought that the beautiful Retna / Dame / Werc mural in Silver Lake "Por El Suelo" would be there for years. I thought it would still be there long after I left the neighborhood, and that kids would grow up walking past it from the time they were little to the time they were married with their own children.
Not quite.
I don't like to post pictures of the destruction of community art (unless it's done by the City of LA, in which case they need to be called out). I don't like to give the exposure to the vandals. But the defacing of this wall on Virgil is just shocking in its vileness.
Maybe the artists will try to fix this, though I can't imagine how difficult that would be. I know that it's a fact of life for street artists that their work may vanish right away - or stay visible for years - but that has to be really disappointing. At least it is to me, as a resident of the neighborhood.
Pictures of what the mural looked like before after the jump.
All photos by Mark Mauer
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Ahh, the K-Cars lot on Santa Monica... After it closed some nice pieces popped up that we posted here, like this one:
They got painted over and were replaced by these:
Now these are gone too. These shots were taken a few months ago. Last time I drove past the lot it was barren - no art, which I'm sure made someone happy. The lot was still empty, looked awful, the old abandoned music store that was next to it was falling down as well.
(Again, taken several months ago)
I don't even think the rabbit survived the latest scrubbing.
All photos by Mark Mauer
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Ghettogloss pretty much understands what's going on in the subconscious depths of an urban-dwelling 21st century human when it's 100 degrees outside. It's this:
(Photo by: Magda Wosinska Model:Jenny Mollen)
Or something like the above. They also sent the best press release of the week, beating the 6 pm cut-off by mere seconds:
Saturday afternoon, you are hung over with nothing to do.
You feel like being creative but it is too hot in the house to do shit.
You think--Wouldn't it be rad to sit in the shade, hang with your homies,
drink an ice-cold Bloody Mary, and do some life drawing...
And then you think-- Wouldn't it be even radder if you had some hot models
in couture lingerie with ape masks on to model for you.
And then you think--OMG, it could even get better if Shana Dambrot (editor from Flavorpill) chose your sketch to go in the October drawing show at Ghettogloss....
The phone rings and it's your friend from Cal Arts inviting you to join the Ghettogloss girls at this thing downtown they like to call the Bronx Zoo.
and you think to yourself...........
Holy shit, I love L.A.
Details after the jump - and info about their new show opening tomorrow
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Instead of cracking down on illegal commercial signage, the Department of Building and Safety is going after…murals?
“When I think of how to describe L.A., I think of the Thelonious Monk song,” says former City Councilman Michael Woo. “It’s an Ugly Beauty.”
Woo’s is an apt description of a city that currently faces two opposing aesthetic visions: that of Judith Baca and her fellow muralists who seek to protect public art, and that of corporate advertisers who look to fill L.A.’s skies with signage.
This Saturday, at the Morono Kiang Gallery located in downtown’s Bradbury Building, a panel of artists and politicians met to assess the (sorry) state of Los Angeles murals. The discussion included Baca, muralist and executive director of the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC); prominent L.A. muralists Yreina Cervantez and Man One; Pat Gomez, Arts Manager of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs; and Woo, a member of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission. Gallery owners Karon Morono Kiang and Eliot Kiang held the event to raise funds for the restoration of Eloy Torrez’s “Pope of Broadway,” a 70-foot mural painted on a building opposite the gallery that depicts screen legend Anthony Quinn.
(Photos by Anna Feuer)
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The faded mocha edifice that until last year housed CBS’s Columbia Square studios looks at first glance completely abandoned. On giant placards that once displayed pristine, smiling headshots of the KCBS news team, the local newscasters now sport spray-painted Marilyn Monroe wigs, Warhol style. On another billboard, hand-scrawled letters spelling “Life Is Beautiful” drip as if they had been painted in fresh blood.
Is it good old vandalism, or signs of life?
Click here to read the article by Shelley Leopold
Photos by Gregory Bojorquez
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A few days ago I remarked how strange it is that the same artists that are showing some beautiful work in local galleries like Ghettogloss are also throwing their stuff up around town on buildings, construction sites and walls. Gallery = thousands of dollars. Streets = anger of property owners and city and county employees trying to destroy it as fast as it goes up.
Ryan Graeff and Sharktoof have work up right now at Ghettogloss on Glendale in Silver Lake. Click here to see it. All around town though you can find their stuff along the 101, in Echo Park, Hollywood and beyond. More after the jump.
MBW is in the same boat. His art has been a permanent fixture along Melrose for years now, with his solo art show opening next week at the CBS building in Hollywood.
Photos by Mark Mauer
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Ryan Graeff, Sharktoof and Pingping at Ghettogloss
This is what's going on in Los Angeles right now: You drive to an art gallery having a show. On the way, you pass several buildings, traffic light boxes and walls covered in graffiti, paste-ups and murals that city officials or property owners do their best to obliterate as soon as they possibly can.
Once you're at the gallery, you see the same art by the same artists hanging on the walls, selling for thousands of dollars. Amazing. I"m not saying this is wrong or bad or commercialism overtaking a "purer" art form. I just think it's strange, but pretty cool too.
Shark Toof's cigarette and shark themed posters can be found across Echo Park, downtown, and Hollywood (The old LA Weekly building usually had a couple small ones on it on the bricks facing Sunset), and they've been getting colorful and more detailed even on the street. The ones currently showing at Ghettogloss though are really striking.
Sex ads on newsprint (possibly even old copies of the LA Weekly?) peak out underneath the images.
Ryan Graeff displayed several of his downtown L.A. freeway and skyline canvasses, like the two above. (More of Graeff's work after the jump).
And finally, a wall of Ping Ping's anime girl paintings, which as far as I know, don't typically end up painted on the sides of buildings or construction sites. Guilty pleasure indeed.
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After posting a couple of different Obama art pieces (Iron Man, Obey and Kofie'One), I said that I would happily post photos of pro-Clinton art if only I could find any around town.
Well, I didn't find one, but Andrew Sullivan did.
And uh, yeah - It's not exactly from a Clinton supporter.
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Mr Brainwash is on fire. His solo art show opens in just two weeks, and he's been pasting and painting his icons all over LA.
So which gallery is he showing at? None. Try the recently abandoned CBS TV studio in Hollywood on Sunset Blvd. MBW has been holed up there for weeks preparing for the show, which opens June 18. Here's just a small sample of some of the pieces up around town...
Check his website for details and updates at www.artshow2008.com. He will also be giving away 200 signed prints to people who attend. That's a hell of a lot better than the usual plastic glass of Charles Shaw.
This Billie Holiday painting off the north side of Melrose east of Fairfax is excellent. More after the jump.
All photos by Mark Mauer
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Slideshows
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Rock Photographer Bob Gruen Solo-Exhibit at Morrison Hotel
Never before seen images of The New York Dolls, The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Led Zeppelin, Kiss,... More>> -
Downtown Art Walk: Crewest Gallery Z-Boys and Vermin at the Bank
October's Downtown Art Walk featuring Crewest Gallery and Label Lab's "The Z-Boy Show -- Direct... More>> -
Cobrasnake: Runway Renegades and Femme Fatales (Some photos NSFW)
Fashion gets bold with in-your-face slogans, pistol-heeled stilettos and barely-there sheers.
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