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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Opening under cover of night somewhere in Paris, four stories beneath la rue, a secret subterranean gallery in a sealed tunnel appears suddenly. While activity on the street overhead is hectic and dense with cars, trucks and pedestrians, the dry dust is ankle-high here in this darkened silent morgue, its cool dank air now permeated with fresh aerosol. The Underbelly has been here, and if you discover this curated collection of Street Art and graffiti in the chilled dim light, you are officially lost. And lucky……..

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Source Magazine- SABER

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!

On Saturday, November 19, graffiti artist POSE and photojournalist KC Ortiz will unveil Whitewash, their second exhibition at Known Gallery, and their most cohesive to date.

For POSE, Whitewash references society’s attempt to eradicate graffiti and stifle human expression. “Shortly after I started writing graffiti, Chicago took an extremely hard-line stance on its eradication, outlawing the sale of spraypaint and implementing Mayor Dayley’s Graffiti Blasters program,” POSE explains.

With this exhibition, POSE will recall a time before the buff. “I am digging into my fondest childhood memories of riding the train and seeing all the colors, letters and cartoon characters along the lines. Making these paintings has been an incredibly rich process, and it makes me thankful that no city official can eradicate my memories.”

POSE will show 15 new works in the main gallery. The work is rendered in his signature style—aggressive, hand-painted collages of pop-culture icons and ephemera—but feature deeper abstractions and new mediums. “I have six paintings on Plexiglass that were kind of an experiment,” POSE explains. “I wanted to be challenged by a new medium and process.”

For KC, Whitewash is about the people and places he photographs. “Much of the work I do covers those who have been ‘whitewashed,’ so to speak, by history and policy,” KC notes. “Specifically, the work I will be exhibiting is from West Papua and Burma. You won’t find either of those ‘nations’ on the map, as both have been essentially ‘whitewashed’ away. Burma has been renamed Myanmar by its ruling junta in order to establish the fantasy of a unified nation, and West Papua has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963 after a very controversial handover from the Dutch that was orchestrated by the United States.”

In the project room, KC will show 12 photographs of West Papua and Burma’s armed struggles. “The struggles are unified in their nature under the theme of resistance, the victimhood of whitewashing by the world at large, the beauty of their people, and the strength of the human spirit and dignity,” KC notes.

About the artists:

POSE
Hailing from The Windy City, POSE has made an indelible mark on a multitude of cities around the globe. Best known for his progressive letter style and technical precision, POSE is an influential contributor to the contemporary graffiti movement, and his work has appeared in numerous magazines, books and films. POSE grew up a half block from the CTA’s elevated train line, and started sneaking out to practice graffiti there in 1992. Coming of age during the golden era of Chicago graffiti, POSE put in endless work on the streets. His prolific output led him to become a local legend, and the city’s most internationally recognized graffiti artist. In addition to his achievements in graffiti, POSE set out to conquer every medium visual art has to offer—both on and off the streets. His artistic exploration led him to become a jack of all creative trades, with successful endeavors in the commercial and fine art worlds. POSE currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. He is a member of the acclaimed West Coast artist collective The Seventh Letter, as well as a founder of his own Chicago based design and art firm We Are Supervision. He has traveled internationally on his own and with The Seventh Letter, specifically to showcase his skills as one of the best graffiti artists out there. Almost two decades into his artistic career, POSE shows no signs of slowing down.

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KC Ortiz is an award-winning, self taught photojournalist with a split base between his hometown of Chicago, Illinois and Western Thailand. Ortiz’s work focuses on the world’s forgotten and overlooked people and issues. He has covered conflict throughout Southeast Asia, focusing on the human suffering and the policies that enable conflict, as well as humanitarian issues throughout the world. The aim of his photography is to bring awareness to the masses of those that are suffering most, often times completely unseen by the majority. His work has appeared in A-Magasinet, Global Post, Juxtapoz, Newsweek, Time, The Wall Street Journal, and many other publications across the globe. Ortiz’s work has been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries including The Newseum, The Corcoran, The Frontline Club, Known Gallery, Rivera and Rivera Gallery, Guerrero Gallery, and others. In 2011, Ortiz’s work was recognized with a first place award from the prestigious Pictures of The Year International.

POSE & KC Ortiz | Whitewash

Opening Reception Saturday, November 19, 2011 from 8‑11pm
On View November 19 – December 10, 2011

Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
T: 310-860-6263

KNOWN GALLERY

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KC ORTIZ

REVOK / TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY / VICIOUS GALLERY / DEC. 3RD from WWW.REVOK1.COM on Vimeo.

Shot And Edited By NOAH BANKS

Under pressure from artists, the council is revising a 2002 law banning murals on most private property to legalize the city’s best-known works and some more recent pieces.

By Richard Winton

From the aging homages to Chicano history on the Eastside to Shepard Fairey’s towering “Peace Goddess” watching over downtown, Los Angeles has earned a reputation as the street mural capital of the world.

But for nearly a decade, much of this artwork has been done illicitly.

City ordinances make it illegal to create murals on the vast majority of private properties. Officials estimate that more than 300 murals have been painted over in the last several years, a fact that has frustrated artists as well as property owners who commission the murals.

“The mural capital of the world is no more,” said the artist Saber, who had a mural covered up by a city-contracted graffiti work crew earlier this year. “They buff beautiful pieces, harass property owners and threaten us like we are in street gangs.”…………………….CONTINUE READING HERE

Its October 14, 2011, day 28 of #OccupyWallstreet. America is rocked. The world is watching, the media is manipulating, people are energized. Citizens have come together to express their frustration with corruption through this robust and peaceful protest movement.

Occupy Wall Street is the first real protest movement of my generation. Satellite movements have sprung up in every major city across the country including Los Angeles.  Making art is the best way I know how to participate and what a better way then to create a huge American Flag that breaks up into 64 individual protest signs laid on the South East lawn of City Hall. The slogans written on each sign were grabbed from the related Twitter hash tag topics on #OccupyWallstreet #OccupyLA. With the frustrations of the 99% mounting, Pandora’s Box has been thrust open. Complacency is no longer an option…………

Photography By Saber And Jon Lake

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