For a city with a moratorium on murals, the art form managed to be in the public eye in 2011. Street art took its place alongside traditional works, vintage works were restored, policy and enforcement were being questioned–all while ordinances that stopped new mural works from going up on private walls were being reviewed.

If you are not saddled with year-end list fatigue, here’s a timeline of some mural stories from the year.

Read more: KCET Departures

L.A.’s murals are believed to outnumber those in every other city in the world with numbers ranging in thousands. With influence from the punk, hip hop, and skate scene a new street culture was born that fueled a new generation of artists. Artists like SABER, SWOON, KID ZOOM, ROA, HOW & NOSM, KOFIE, D*FACE, CR, RIPO, INSA, BECCA, Thank You X, LADY AIKO, JR, and Shepard Fairey having all tattooed L.A. with murals that redefine the word “graffiti.”

Read more: Frank 151

A proposed new ordinance would allow artists to create murals legally on private property across Los Angeles as long as the property owners agree. If approved, the ordinance would end a controversial prohibition on murals that has left city officials and artists grappling over what is legal……….

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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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Please join us for a very special evening at Known Gallery with LA City Planner, Tanner Blackman for an update and group discussion on LA’s potential New Mural Ordinance.

Immediately following Tanner’s update, we will be discussing public art, murals, and community expectations for the new draft ordinance to be presented to City Council for approval.The discussion will feature Isabel Rojas Williams, Executive Director the Mural Conservancy of LA and Daniel Lahoda as Founder of the LA Freewalls Project. The discussion will be moderated by Piper Severance, Manager of SaberOne Studios.

This discussion is imperative to anyone who is working in the streets, or interested in Public Art. Please come and make your voice heard!

For the artist Saber, participation in the democratic process has always been complicated. He’s an international graffiti legend, holding the world record for the largest graffiti piece, done along the LA river in 1997. Despite its place in the history books, the city of Los Angeles spent a whopping $837,000 to paint over it in 2009. Now Saber is approaching public art laws from a different angle, spearheading an effort to reform Los Angeles’ mural policies…………THE REST.

By Andrew Reilly

DON’T MISS THIS ONE!!

@KnownGallery

After prominent public interventions in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, you’ve probably got the memo that no place is too far to travel for the urban collective known as TrustoCorp. Check out their latest project poking fun at our secret guilty pleasure – the tabloid magazines. Similar to their hilarious NYC rebranding campaign, they’ve gone into magazine stands, bookstores and pharmacies throughout Hollywood, Manhattan, Williamsburg, LAX and JFK to drop copies of these little artistic interventions for the unsuspecting public.

Graffiti is Graffiti, StreetArt is StreetArt but what is in this show is ART. The reason these works were even in the museum is because the art work speaks for itself. All of this hype centered around the idea that “StreetArt” only belongs in the streets and that this museum show has some how disrupted this code is a limited argument. Its only the named label of “Street” art that seems to cause conflict.  Graffiti and StreetArt are an act of a public artistic display but the idea that it only belongs outdoors falls short of the bigger picture that this art has greater merits than it being on someones walls. To prove that point I started this blog off with Chaz Bojorquez’s Graffiti Mandala as a perfect example of a timeless hand painted masterpiece. Graffiti/StreetArt label or not nobody can deny the crafted ability of this piece yet again proving the fact that its all about the work. We Graffiti artists just happen to come from painting ART In The Streets…..

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