(Berlin) Wall Project - Berlin to Los Angeles

Berlin/L.A. Wall, 2009 (credit: Wende Museum)

The Berlin Wall fell in November 9th, 1989. Twenty years later, on November 8th, 2009 a section was permanently resurrected on Wilshire Blvd. in Los Angeles by Los Angeles' Wende Museum. Watch the documentary below to hear from Germans what happened in their country.

Fast forward to to 2012  Driving along Wilshire near LACMA and it's easy to forget that the Wall installation is the largest piece of the Berlin Wall outside of Germany. These 10 sections of the Wall are nearly 40-foot long, but are easily blocked by food trucks lined up opposite the LACMA.

During a visit to the LACMA "Through the Mic series," I had a chance to walk around the Wall. On the street side, you see sections of wall painted by different artists. None of them instantly recognizable to me.
On the opposite side, the Wall reveals three other artists. All of whom are world-renowned street artists: Herakut (Germany), Retna (Los Angeles) and DFace (London.) And overshadowing the Wall is a glass-fronted building with a new installation from Retna. To see it at night, glowing from the lights, is memerizing.

Wall Project and Retna building, 5900 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles

The Wende Museum
Open to the public Monday - Thursday by appointment only from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. (except on holidays). To schedule an appointment, call 310-216-1600 x305 or e-mail ccuevaswolf@wendemuseum.org.

The Museum is open without appointment on Fridays from 10 A.M. to 5 P.M. and a tour of the Museum’s vault is offered every Friday at 3 P.M. Admission is free.

Group Visits
For visits by groups of ten or larger please call to arrange an appointment: 310-216-1600 x305

5741 Buckingham Parkway, Suite E
Culver City, CA. 90230

Retna billboards in Los Angeles

Driving around Los Angeles you are dwarfed by advertising billboards sat high in the sun bleached sky. But, at night these geometric shapes look alien and odd, artificially lit up on a black backdrop.

What's the message? Four billboards caught my eye around Beverly Blvd. and Wilshire Blvd. in Mid-City. What were they advertising? To the casual observer, nothing special, except may be another clothing brand trying to get its 15 minutes of fame. But to art lovers, a series of Retna artworks were being revealed. To what end, I'm not sure.

(credit: pictures 2,3,4 Sunny Phono)

LA's West Coast Artist group show

Mirror Gallery, 2012

When I first arrived in Los Angeles I noticed some graffiti crew affiliations clearly marked in the graffiti stronghold of Melrose Avenue alleys.

They would read "CBS," "Seventh Letter"...but I didn't realize how many of my favorite artists were down with West Coast Artists, aka WCA...Cartoon, Cre8, Make, Mear, Kofie, Retna.

Once exception is Risk. At his Robert Bergman show in 2008 he dedicated one whole wall to his history with West Coast Artists crew, including the world graffiti championship trophy won in Bridlington, England in 1989! If you ever see Inkie from the UK - go ask him about that battle.

Risk solo show, Robert Bergman Gallery, 2008

Last Saturday's group show at The Mirror Films Gallery showed how strong the crew's ties are. Read this LA Weekly blog for a short, but interesting read up on the crew and the show.

For great info on the artists featured in the show check out Mirror's store. You can also see if anyone has bid for your favorite pieces...$10,000 for a Risk mixed media installation, anyone?

Snap, snap  Here are a selection of pictures I took from the opening night of the WCA show in Chinatown (which has had an injection of cool recently!)

West Coast Artists group show runs until July 10th, 2012.

Mirror Gallery, 963 Chung King Road, Chinatown.
Open Mon-Fri noon to 6 p.m., or by appointment

One of my favorite LA artists, Retna, opens his next show this weekend.

Rather than New York or London, this time his work has migrated to the luxury resort, Costa Careyes, Mexico, between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo.

Viejas del mercado's atmospheric video conjures a dark and urbanesque image of Retna's "Time Traveler" exhibition. Unusally, this time Viejas del mercado actually feature the artist in the trailer.


RETNA: Time Traveler from viejas del mercado on Vimeo.


Beyond luxury  What you will actually get if you arrive at Costa Careyes is a bright, airy coastal resort art gallery with a outdoor cinema and performance space. And, it's a big if, considering the accommodation comes at the price of a Retna painting! The ocean front villa is $,7000/night. The castle is $5,000/night. There's a single one bedroom villa for a bargain $320/night! All with free wifi ;)

"Time Traveler" is described as a "site-specific project" and is certainly the first urban art (graffiti) has been allowed near the idyllic Careyes property! Bravo RETNA! For once, I think claims that his work "transcends time and space, creating a global visual language," can be believed. Even in dense pieces, Retna let's his letters breathe as they demand their own space to be legible. And there's a discipline to his letter form that is ancient and primitive, much like the coastline of Careyes.

Hopefully, Retna will sell out this exhibition. VIP guests at Costa Careyes include Bill Gates, Seal and Heidi Klum, Simon le Bon and Quentin Tarantino.

Art Careyes Gallery, Plaza Caballeros del Sol, Pueblo, Careyes

Preview on Sunday, April 22, 2012
6-8pm

Opening Tuesday, April 24, 2012
6-8pm.

For fans, Retna will be present at both events.

If you are interested in the lifestyles of the rich and famous, read this Departures article about the Mexican Riviera.

2 in 1 Openings: LA Freewalls Inside and LALA Arts

This Saturday in Los Angeles, Daniel Lahoda kicks open the doors of LALA Arts with a special group show.

What's special is that Lahoda - in a continuation of his "LA Freewalls" mural activism and advocacy - brings LA's mural artists indoors to paint in his LALA Arts space. Read more about LA Freewalls here at KCET and watch the video below.


LA FREEWALLS from Jason Wawro on Vimeo.

This show brings 28 of some of the most recognizable mural artists under one roof. There are a few names I'm not familiar and then there are some of my favorites: INSA all the way from London Town, Dabs and Myla, Kofie, Risk, Craola, Retna and from the old skool, Daze.

Lady Aiko
Anthony Lister
Askew One
Augustine Kofie
Becca
Cern One
Christopher Brand
Craola
Cryptik
Cyrcle
Dabs and Myla
Dan Witz
Daze
Evan Skredestu
How and Nosm
Insa
Jaybo Monk
JR
Kid Zoom
Kim West
Ludo
Pepper
Poesia
Push
Retna
Ripo
Risk
Roa
Ron English
Saber
Swoon
Zeser

The show opens Saturday April 21st, 2012 7-10pm

LALA Arts
1335 Willow St, Los Angeles, CA 90013
www.lalaarts.com

#Retna herds art fans into London's Old Dairy

Today is a great day for art. First it's Fab 5 Freddy's show tonight in New York, but 5 hours ahead of East Coast time is Retna's London show.

As part of Retna's "Hallelujah World Tour," he (and his backers) have moved his ultra-successful show from New York to London's The Old Dairy in Russell Square.

This huge 9,500 sq. ft. venue is set in the Bloomsbury neighborhood which is better known for the British Museum and London University's School of Oriental and African Studies than graffiti art from the streets of Los Angeles.

This exhibition is Retna's first solo show in the UK and possibly Europe opens tonight, Weds 8th June and runs through 27 June 2011. The video below shows you a bit of what you can expect..!

The Old Dairy, 7 Wakefield St, London, WC1N 1PB
9 June – 27 June 2011
Preview: Wednesday 8 June 2011, 6-9pm

To read about Retna's earlier shows in LA take a look in my archives or click here. Retna's blog has had a revamp of late too...

"Since making his debut in the mid-1990s, RETNA has participated in over 30 international exhibitions with countless works in the public realm. Yielding an unmistakable aesthetic that integrates appropriated contemporary photography, graffiti, traditional painting and a unique glyphic style, he has emerged as one of the most prolific street artists in the contemporary art world.

An integral fixture in the Los Angeles art scene since an early age, the transcendent nature of RETNA’s work has allowed him to seamlessly transverse from the unregulated urban landscape to institution galleries across the globe. Merging couture with street culture, the spiritual with the sensual, and fluidity with grit, his paintings provide an exceptional lense through which we view contemporary culture.


Recent projects have included participation in the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles "Art In The Streets" exhibition curated by Jeffrey Deitch; Museum of Pasadena, California, “Street Cred: Graffiti Art from Concrete to Canvas”; Solo exhibition with Valmorbida in New York City;  a solo exhibition, “Silver Lining”, during Art Basel Miami Beach as part of Primary Flight, the World’s Largest Street Level Mural Installation (2010); a solo exhibition, “Desaturated”, at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles (2010); a mural for the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse in Miami, FL (2009); and “Vox Humana”, a survey of legendary street artists by L.A. Art Machine at the Los Angeles Art Show (2010)."

Edition One Hundred pop-up store, April 13-14th #ArtInTheStreets

Edition One Hundred is an online art store that sells one thing very well - high quality, limited edition art prints. Only 100 of these exclusive art prints are ever printed and each one is authenticated by a certificate.

Founded in June 2010 by Los Angeles resident, Cat Jimenez, Edition One Hundred’s mission is combine art and charity “to restore the economic power to the artists and the collectors themselves, while giving a percentage of all sales to charitable causes greater than ourselves.” And in the short time Edition One Hundred has been online it has released prints by well-established and unknown artists, such as, B+ (of Mochilla fame), Augustine Kofie, Estevan Oriol, Miles Regis, Katie Shapiro, and Tasya van Ree.

L.A. Fingers, Estevan Oriol

 What makes this print store different to say, Pictures on Walls, is that each print is part of a curated, two month exhibition and Edition One Hundred donates 10% of the proceeds of the sale to the artist’s chosen charity.

Art in the Streets To celebrate the urban art exhibition at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) Edition One Hundred has organized a pop-up show curated by Yesenia Cordona and featuring artists in the MOCA show (Estevan Oriol, RETNA and Martha Cooper).

"The Door is Round and Open" can be seen on April 13-14, 2011 at Edgar Varela Fine Arts Gallery, 727 S. Spring Street, Los Angeles CA 90014.

www.editiononehundred.com/

Future in her Eyes, Retna

Retna kicks off his "Hallelujah World Tour" Feb 10th in New York City

L.A.'s graffiti artist Retna is following up his sold out "Silver Lining" solo show at Miami Basel with a world tour of 35 new pieces!

The "Retna Hallelujah World Tour" opens February 10th in a 16,000 square foot exhibition space in a warehouse district near New York's SoHo (560 Washington Street between West Houston and Spring Street.)

Read the credits The plane tickets and paint have been paid for by major movers and shakers of the art world. I'd never heard of Andy Valmorbida and his business partner Vladimir Restoin Roitfeld until now! ;)
 

RETNA: Hallelujah World Tour from viejas del mercado on Vimeo.

Retna mural spotted in Los Angeles, Dec 2010

Retna hoarding, LA 2010

L.A.'s Retna goes old skool with one-off monotype prints

Rivera & Rivera has shown Retna's work in the recent past in its downtown Los Angeles gallery. But, this time it has stepped up the game with something unique and limited.

Imagine Retna's lettering and brushwork painted onto glass and then "pressed" to paper. This is monotyping which dates back to the 17th century! With monotyping only a single print - a monotype - is produced because most of the ink is removed during the initial pressing. Anyone who's seen Claudio Stickar, (who has worked for Frank Gehry, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg) will be able to vouch for how good these prints will be.

"RETNA really needs no introduction. He's fresh off an explosive 15-page feature and cover of September's Juxtapoz magazine with a glowing introduction by MOCA's new director- Jeffrey Deitch. Last week, RETNA finished a commission at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan towers alongside of Kenny Scharf and Shepard Fairey, and, this week, he's in Detroit painting alongside of Richard Colman for the Juxtapoz x Power House restoration project. RETNA is also slated for a solo show at Primary Flight during Art Basel Miami. Needless to say, he's staying quite busy ahead of his participation in the 2011 MOCA exhibit (See recent Financial Times coverage here)." Rivera & Rivera

Raid the piggy bank If you have $1,800 spare you can get your hands on one of these monotypes at 1200 PST tomorrow, Friday 22nd October.

Just head over to Rivera & Rivera. The price covers taxes and insured second day shipping within the continental United States. All orders are fulfilled from Los Angeles, California

LA's new Montana (graffiti) paint store...Ma'claim and Risk

Although the new Montana store has been open for a couple of months last night was the official "opening."

Montana sounds American, but I was told it's German, so it was no surprise some of the German graffiti crew were in the house. Parked outside was a truck called the "Mobile Mural Lab." And painted on the right panel was Ma'claim's (Akut, Tasso, Case, Rusk) photorealistic work. On the left panel was Risk's piece.

Ma'claim, Germany

Risk, WCA Los Angeles

 LA's Graff O.G.s I don't know many of the graffiti names in LA, but I did recognize Slick and Risk.

Pic borrowed from Slick's blog

 Live and Direct Supported by LA Art Machine, Ma'claim will be painting live today at the Gothe-Institut Los Angeles which is the German cultural center that hosted another hip hop event this year, the screening of Florian Gaag's Whole Train film. There's also a panel discussion with Retna and Tom Kummer (who I don't know much about.) Read more about Ma'claim at their blog.

"AKUT, TASSO, CASE and RUSK a.k.a. MA’CLAIM have managed to paint their way up to the very top of the international Graffiti scene in no time.  The crew from the former GDR has breathed fresh air into the world of graffiti writing due to their peerless workmanship of a mix of classic graffiti and photorealism.

Their extraordinary productions have set new impulses within the scene. Ma’Claim have attracted an international fan community and are an inspirational source for other graffiti artists. 

Individual members Case and Akut ( one half of the duo "Herakut") already had solo exhibitions at renown galleries in Los Angeles, this is their first visit and collaboration in Los Angeles with the crew." Goethe-Institut

On the move Although there's no website yet you can read about the Mobile Mural Lab here.

"Providing communities with visual space...Free of charge...No permit required."

Retna "Unsaturated" @ New Image Art, LA

Retna's latest show at New Image Art in West Hollywood was missing El Mac's unique photo realistic portraits (although the man himself was in attendance.)  "Desaturated" is Retna's solo show and brings together mainly large, poster-sized black and white prints of Latinas in various states of undress that are repetitively daubed on in Retna's characteristic lettering to create a provocative, yet vintage-looking set of artworks.

I thought the show was a departure from his earlier work, in that these paintings are monochrome and figurative. On opening night, I didn't study the artwork hard enough to see what the message was, but you know there is one. May be it is "I don't get out of bed for less than five-grand," the average price of a Retna painting at the show. ;)

"Retna traverses between the galleries and streets with ease. Retna is a member of the Art Work Rebels and Mad Society Kings Art Groups. In December 2007, he contributed to a large-scale mural project with El Mac and Reyes called "La Reina del Sur" at Miami's Primary Flight during Art Basel. His most recent projects include an exhibition titled "Vagos Y Reinas" at Robert Berman Gallery and a mural called "Seeing Signs" at the Margulies Warehouse for Primary Flight." New Image Art

Mid-City Arts: Painting "On a Sunday afternoon"

A slew of West Coast (LA, SD) and East Coast (Miami) graffiti writers are congregating at Mid-City Arts this weekend for "On A Sunday Afternoon."

Some of the artists were due to paint as early as Friday with a live mural installation by Retna and a closing reception on Sunday March 7 from 2pm-8pm.

Not sure how those plans will work out since as I write it's raining cats and dogs in LA.

Axis (Los Angeles)
BooksIIII (Miami)
Dabs & Myla (Australia)
Jim Darling (Los Angeles)
Kofie (Los Angeles)
Kopye (Los Angeles)
Mear (Los Angeles)
Retna (Los Angeles)
Risk (Los Angeles)
Skem (Miami)

Slow (Miami)
Surge (San Diego)
Thelus (Los Angeles)
Typoe (Miami)

Location:
Mid-City Arts
5111 W. Pico Blvd.
Los Angeles Ca. 90019
(310) 694-3460

"Manifest Equality" Lady Justice graffiti time-lapse for Oscar season

El Mac, Retna & Kofie: JUSTICE Mural for Manifest Equality- Time lapse: from Augustine Kofie on Vimeo.

"...we painted day and night using imported spray paint and 3 scissor lifts to create the 20 x 100 foot semi-grayscale mural located in the parking lot of the former Pic-n-save/Big Lots." Kofie

Hollywood and Vine The huge mural was commissioned by Yosi Sergant as part of "ManifestEquality.com" to raise awareness of civil rights issues of Proposition 8. The timing of the show will ride the Academy Awards media-fest as the "Oscars" roll into town this Sunday and will hopefully attract a few industry-types and celebs to help challenge the Prop.

"Los Angeles is one of the epicenters of creativity in the world," Sergant says, "And with the Academy Awards approaching, it seemed like an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the heightened energy and attention and start a conversation of substance."

Manifest Equality is a temporary art show running through the weekend exhibiting "hundreds of well-known and emerging names, including street artists Robbie Conal, Swoon and Shepard Fairey, and illustrative painters Barry McGee, Gary Baseman and Elizabeth McGrath ." Even L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa got involved as he helped choose five artworks from over 1,000 entries to the Manifest Equality art contest.

Sergant is best remembered for his work in creating the grassroots "Manifest Hope" art shows and involvement in the "Hope" poster images done by Shepard Fairey.

"Street Legal" - Catch LA's finest before the show closes!

The rain and general dreariness kept me away from the LA Art Show even though LA's most talented street artists 'come art gallery converts were painting live as part of FADA's (Fine Art Dealers Association) "VOX HUMANA.". Lame I know! So instead of sharing my pics, I've found some great ones from Mr. Satoe.

Redemption But, to represent I'm planning to head downtown to see the closing show entitled, "Street Legal", featuring Mear One, Kofie, Retna and El Mac this coming Weds 3rd March. May be see you at the Rivera & Rivera gallery. If not check back for photos.

LA Art Show reprise Until this year, the LA Art Show had never shown any street art! Surprising, when you consider the number of Californian graffiti and street artists (yes, I'm going to lump them together ;) ) who have become household names locally and internationally. In my own random order (with credibility or verification given): Obey, Seventh Letter/AWR/MSK ( Revok, Retna, Saber, Push, Rime, Zes and many, many more), El Mac, Buff Monster, Mr. Brainwash, Shark Toof etc.

Bryson Strauss, curator of VOX HUMANA, compares Mear One, Kofie, Retna and El Mac timeliness to art world celebrities. “Shepard Fairey and Banksy show at art fairs like Art Basel, but they’ve already been validated and vindicated and selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars. It’s easy to hang [their work] on your wall and say, ‘Now, I’m cool and I’m hip.’”

Kim Martindale, producer of the Los Angeles Art Show, added that VOX HUMANA offers street artists credibility and takes the illegal tarnish off of street art. “Graffiti art is part of that latest movement,” says Martindale. “It’s kind of gone through a transition from where people had pushed it aside and said, ‘Let’s not even look at it. That’s an evil thing for our society.’”

For some fans of street art, VOX HUMANA might be the beginning of the end. This fear seemed best expressed by LA Art Show visitor Marta Avellaneda from Galeria del Paseo in Montevideo, Uruguay, "...They’re muralists, but muralists on canvas. To me,...the fact that...a street performer...becomes part of an art collection -- it loses its feeling.”

I'm sure that the artists disagree. I heard that the exposure from VOX HUMANA got Mear One, Retna, El Mac and Kofie representation to go to Art Basel in Europe. One irony that wasn't lost on me was LA
Convention Center prohibits the use of aerosol paint. That meant Mear One painted with a brush and El Mac’s - the middle-aged woman - was painted in advance of Retna's live letter painting.

The Human Voice I discovered that VOX HUMANA is Latin for “the human voice” and came from David Bayles and Ted Orland's 2001 book, Art & Fear: Observations on the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking. It's gained a cult-following as an artist's survival guide exploring the way art gets made, the reasons it doesn't get made, and the nature of the difficulties that cause so many artists to give up along the way.

"To all viewers but yourself, what matters is the product: the finished artwork. To you, and you along, what matters is the process."

LA Art Show showcases graffiti art talent

This year, the LA Art Show will have live art by some of Los Angeles' legendary street artists, including Kofie, Retna, El Mac, and Mear One. The event is called Vox Humana and it will run from January 20-24, at the LA Convention Center.

“This is a coup for us because while there is a lot of heat around street art right now, this is the first time I can remember that a top-tier Art Fair has actually sanctioned, promoted, and made happen a big live art performance like this,” says Bryson Strauss, Director of L.A. Art Machine. “And it's FADA, which is just crazy-cool.”

The artists will be set up during the art show at the main entrance facing Figueroa. El Mac and Retna will collaborate on a 12 x 24 foot canvas, while Mear One and Kofie will work independently on 12 x 12 foot canvases.

(All the spray paint is sponsored by 33third and canvases are underwritten by Lucius Hudson.) More info can be found here. Let's hope the torrential rain in LA won't keep folks away...

To coincide with the LA Art Show Rivera & Rivera gallery downtown is exhibiting "Street Legal," a show featuring other works by El Mac, Kofie, Mear One and Retna. Opens on January 22nd, 2010.

Mid-City Arts hosted Retna and El Mac

I didn't get to see Retna and El Mac paint, but I was there early and watched Kofie and Codak put up their collaborative piece. Here's Kofie's time-lapse video of him painting a character from his sketch book.

Mid City Arts Backwall: Live art time lapse from Augustine Kofie on Vimeo.

Canvas presents...graffiti goodness

Don't sleep else you'll miss a dope show featuring LA's AWR/MSK graffiti crew at Canvas in my 'hood.

Since I collected my Retna signed print today from the post office I decided that, even though this is months old, I still wanted to blog about it otherwise it disappears without a trace!

MSK X AWR Art Show at Canvas LA from Carl Stoeber on Vimeo.

The “Send Lawyers, Guns and Money” show featured work from Revok, Retna, Augor, and Pose. If you don't know these writers you may know them better as the bombers that 'customized' Takashi Murakami's MoCA exhibition billboard. Murakami-san loved it so much that he got it shipped back to Japan for his personal collection!

Before
After

Here is a slide show from the all-around-town Amayzun. Check out her art blog.

Retna and Mac murals in LA

Near my apartment are these amazing graffiti murals that incorporate a flawless, photo quality image of a girl's face. I know that Retna from the Seventh Letter crew does them, but I didn't know about his collaborator, El Mac (The Mac). Check out his blog here.

LA's Seventh Letter: Retna mural, Hollywood

Ever heard of musician Manu Chao before? If you can read Retna's alphabet you will see verses of Chao's lyrics for 'Por El Suelo' in the backdrop. A little bit of Spanish would help ;) See below for a great Manu Chao tribute music video.

Interview with Retna and the other artists "Dame , Werc, and Myself (Marquis) did a mural...I had recently been listening to Manu's songs and had felt the deep passion in them and found them inspiring and wanted to write the lyric on the wall. Due to the nature of the style only the first verse was written across the wall and with other motifs along with it. In the end we listened to his song and enjoyed having the inspiration that it gave and i think it was a small way to say thank you".