Opens November 19th @ Known Gallery, Los Angeles
(below) A preview video of Pose’s show shot and edited by the suave and sophisticated Noah Banks.
POSE – Whitewash at Known Gallery, Los Angeles from LRG on Vimeo.
(below) A preview video of KC Ortiz’s show shot and edited by Ortiz.
KC Ortiz – White Wash at Known Gallery, Los Angeles from Known Gallery on Vimeo.
Don’t miss this one.
THIS SATURDAY AT KNOWN GALLERY
DAZE – The Grey Scale
The Grey Scale Paintings
Walking along what seemed like an endless series of tracks my senses became accustomed to the dark labrythiniun tunnels that lay below. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and my ears acclimated to the endless series of subtle noises. Dripping water, the squeal of rats chasing each other, the release of train compressors, the clicking of the tracks as a train approached the next station, then, all at once, the roar of a passing train echoing through the tunnel, and then, silence.
This new series of works entitled “The Grey Scale” is an exploration into the context in which many of my subway works were created. Walls layered with years of tags and signatures, gravel floors covered in dust and debris, flickering lights, and the gleam of sharp steel tracks piercing the darkness are all portrayed in the context of subterranean tunnels that lead to nowhere. This is a world in which we are encouraged to stay away from the light at the end of the tunnel. These new works call to mind some of the layered complexity of Rauschenberg’s early black paintings or perhaps the subtlety of Cy Twombly’s blackboard paintings. Others yet clearly show references to the gritty urban landscapes of the New York ash can school: John Sloan, William Glackens, Robert Henri, and later most of all, Reginald Marsh. These artists chose, as I do, the streets as their primary source of inspiration. The paintings are a kind of hybrid that draws from the vocabulary of both the graffiti world and urban realism.
Opens: October 15, 2011 | 8-11pm
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Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
310-860-6263
THIS SATURDAY AT KNOWN GALLERY
HowNosm – Achtung!
Achtung!
The staid cleanliness of a single-colored surface is a disturbing testament to society’s uniformity and the pressure society places on one to conform. Such a surface, standing alone and dull, cries out for attention. Answering its call ‹ and recognizing its potential ‹ HowNosm bless the surface with confidence, courage, action, vitality and just a touch of the world’s inevitable darkness and death, transforming it into a truer reflection of both the world around it and their own varied lives. ACHTUNG! is a collection of pieces that resemble broken mirrors, each filled with messages that are, by turns, sharp-edged, blurred and fast-changing. They serve as a reminder of the need to, and the dangers of failing to, walk alertly through this life.
Opens: October 15, 2011 | 8-11pm
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Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
310-860-6263
Statement from the Artist:
9.19.2011
End Mural Moratorium. Art Is Not A Crime…
The reason I hired five jet planes to sky write over City Hall and downtown Los Angeles is to bring awareness to how ridiculous a moratorium on public art is.
The city states that all public murals are signage, effectively banning art from the walls of Los Angeles. And it is removed at the taxpayers’ expense. Money is given to private graffiti removal companies, who have broken onto private property to paint murals beige. The owners of small businesses where murals have been painted have been harassed and threatened with fines if they do not remove the artwork. Police officers raid homes and places of work, intimidating artists and building owners. During this time of economic crisis, “mural signs” are an easy target for the city to extract money. This moratorium is a clear violation of the first amendment right to free speech and enforcement for these unreasonable laws is a complete waste of taxpayer funds.
To put things in perspective I recently visited the beautiful set of murals inside the Terminal Annex Building on Alameda. This mural was painted in 1941-44 and was funded by the “Works Progress Administration” (WPA). Murals are just a part of the legacy of a national program that put the country to work during the Great Depression.
Fast-forward to the Great Recession, taxpayer money is now used to obliterate all traces of the artwork my generation have created. I believe this is city-funded censorship pushed by lawmakers with personal vendettas. Potential jail time is more probable for us than the opportunity of creating an artistic legacy for the next generation. In a city that used to proudly call itself the “Mural Capitol Of The World,” the officials who enforce this ban should be ashamed to call themselves “Angelinos.”
Art Is Not A Crime… End Mural Moratorium.
– SABER
Below photos housed from The Hundreds…
Another video documenting our time in Detroit preparing for the Revok / Rime / Roids Perseverance art show. This video by Noah Banks focuses on Roids and I, painting abandoned walls and pulling all nighters in the studio.
At the end of this video is a clip of me on a mushroom trip in a vuala moment… “Everything goes with dungarees!” (jeans), aka everything goes with blue. With brush, hands, a broom and a drill bit, I spent that night painting with devilish enthusiasm…
Find out more at:
KnownGallery.com
GregLamarche.com
Introducing the third of four Fall 2011 Tee drops that will be coming out over the next month. These items will be available here on our online store and at one of our authorized dealers across the globe.
Tools of The Trade ( Artwork by Revok)
Brotherhood of Vandals (Artwork by Eklips)
Thieves Theme (Artwork by Rime)
Jealous (Artwork by Revok)
Blocks (Artwork by Revok)
Art Is War (Artwork by Revok)
Reyes Fill (Artwork by Reyes & Eklips)
Break The Law (Artwork by Revok)
Click Clack (Artwork by Rime)
Available now HERE
Find out more at TheSeventhLetter.com
This video covers our process of running around, hanging out and creating art work in the city of Detroit. All work made was thrown in a truck and is on it’s way to Los Angeles. Be sure to check out the finished work at Known Gallery on August 20th.
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
It’s been some time since the completion of the odd “Only Time Will Tell” wall we completed in Downtown LA. Vans The Omega put together this well paced video documenting the whole process. Big ups sexy Tranny JC!
Dysfunctional points of interest:
* Coked up Charlie Bronson Yeti saying “AAAAARRRGGGHHHH” to a timid young chick
* Santa says yes to 4LOKO
* Jesus turning tranny was unintentional. The legs were on the wall first. Intended to come randomly from behind the “Will” piece. Later I sketched up Jesus chillin’ at the beach. Revok said I sketched it too small and too far over to the left. I ended up buffing the first Jesus sketch out and painted it larger and more to the right. It took us a good two hours before we connected the possibility that the legs could be Jesus’s. Tired and late as fuck we laughed about it and embraced the idea… Fuckin’ Tranny Jesus!
Painted with: Vans Omega (Australia), Score (Germany), Dabs & Myla (Australia), Revok, Deus (New Zealand), Askew (New Zealand) & Witnes
Letters by: ONLY (VANS), TIME (SCORE), WILL (REVOK), TELL (ASKEW)
Click image below to view large…
Another “what the fuck are we doing?” wall. Painted in Hollywood with How, Nosm, Dabs & Myla-
While finishing the “Bring Beef Lose Teef” production up in San Francisco, I got a call from Roger Gastman asking if I would be able to paint a BLADE tribute on the side of the MOCA museum and have it done within a day and a half. This whole project was a last minute decision to cover up the half ass buff job the museum put over the internet sensationalized KATSU extinguisher tag.
photo: © Martha Cooper
I wondered if KATSU had not done the tag, would they still have done a tribute for BLADE? If so I felt they should have planned it better. With the deadline so tight I had doubts on anyone doing a proper job for one of the most innovative writers in graffiti history.
Blade in Scandinavia, in front of a revamp of his 1980 wholecar
After some back an forth agreeing on terms, I jumped in the car on Tuesday afternoon, driving 6 hours straight and arriving at 11pm that night. Knowing I had roughly 34 hours to complete the job before Thursdays press conference, I decided to do everything with fat caps and with an updated treatment.
FREEDOM was the one who took on the task of designing the layout of the BLADE wall. He arranged BLADE’s characters from past trains across the top of a remodeled version of BLADE’s 1980 wholecar…
photo: © Martha Cooper
When I showed up to the museum Roger Gastman had arranged for FREEDOM’s sketch to be projected on the wall. RISK, DAME & CON were there carefully marking it up…
photo: © Martha Cooper
The hope was to save on time in getting the proportions right. Using projectors has been something that I have frowned on and even thought of as cheating. Mid way through this process I took over and loosely sketched in the missing areas. I did not want to depend too heavily on the first sketch and had plans to make changes in the painting process.
On my trips up and down on the lift, I used the FREEDOM sketch and a copy of BLADE’s train in SUBWAY ART as a reference. I reworked the shapes of each letter, giving the piece an updated look. I particularly enjoyed reworking the “A” and “D”. The first painting session lasted from 12am Wednesday up until 8:30 am. The only reason I stopped is because the lift I was using ran out of gas. In that time I managed to finish off the letters and the bottom half of the wall (CON painted in the lower cityscape)…
After a few hours rest and some around the town bullshitting, I returned to the wall and started painting again around 6:30 pm. The goal was to paint straight until done. All I had to do was paint 6 giant characters!
While painting the characters I added in some “Joe isms”, giving some more exaggerated looks, hands, patterns, and even decided to turn BLADE’s “party time” character into a drippy slice of pizza. I stopped looking at the references about 1/3 through and just relied on whatever I thought worked.
By 9am the next morning, everyone started to arrive for the press conference. I was just about done when the rental company came down to take back their lifts. Fucking around after the all-nighter, I decided to add in some fish and a COMET throw up in the lower right corner. Tired but satisfied I felt the job was accomplished.
photo: © Martha Cooper
BLADE thanking me for painting the tribute…
photo: © Martha Cooper
photo: © Steve Grody
Went out to the car, changed my shirt and shoes and caught the start of the press conference…
photo: © Jaime Rojo
Just after the press conference I was introduced to TAKI 183 and started chatting to him about graffiti’s evolution and areas of New Jersey. He told me that he only painted graffiti for two years and was unaware of much of what was going on in graffiti worldwide. I took him over to show him what I had painted for BLADE. He praised what I did then asked if the pole was part of the painting? I told him it was up for grabs…
TAKI 183 posing in front of a quick tag…
photo: © Martha Cooper
Much on my character style comes from copying color comic strips from the back of Sunday newspapers. Being influenced by Jim Davis and the Garfield comic strip as a kid, I jumped at the chance to add something to The Hundreds, Garfield show.
detail…
Lasagna and mixed drinks…
With Jim Davis…
Photos: Jae Bueno
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