Located on Winston St @ MaIn St. in Downtown Los Angeles, the mural commemorates Crewest Gallery's 10 year anniversary by honoring a local homeless artist known simply as "The Artist" by locals.
Timelapse video of the making of the mural:
Lamont or the "Downtown Artist At Large" (as he prefers to be called) has been a friend of the gallery since we moved to Downtown in 2006. He's had his trials and tribulations but through it all he continues drawing and painting on the streets of LA.
Here's a little video interview I did with the Artist so you can get to know his story:
The Britweek Art Battle took place last nite in DTLA and guess who one 1st place?!
The battle consisted of painting on two surfaces. The first a piece of furniture (coffee tables) designed by world renown Christopher Guy and the second a sleek car hood provided by Jaguar.
We prepped and painted most of the aerosol components before the event and then had 2 hours to rock the art out.
To celebrate the BritWeek T4C Artists Competition Closing Ceremony, BritWeek will host Art Battle LA, paying homage to the 2012 Summer Games' theme on sustainability and its overall spirit of unified competition across borders.
This special event night will feature a live Art Battle between four notorious names in the London and Los Angeles street and graffiti art scenes. Two UK artists (EINE & INKIE) and two LA artists (MAN ONE & MEAR ONE) will go head to head in the spirit of unified competition. Battle grounds will be held at the historic arts district core of Downtown Los Angeles. Audience members will have the opportunity to view the Art Battle live throughout the evening. Art Battle participants have been set forth the challenge to paint one-of-a-kind designs onto recycled furniture pieces by globally acclaimed furniture designer Christopher Guy, who will preside at the Battle. All proceeds will go towards supporting Hollywood Arts.
As some of you may know, I am a big supporter of the HeArt Project, an organization that connects professional artists with continuation high school students from around LA. I lead a 12 week workshop residency program every Spring where I work with about 15 young participants from the LA area to produce visual art.
This year the HeArt Project teamed up with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to produce an art piece on a stand up piano for a city wide project called "Play Me I'm Yours". My students and I were given the honor to produce this piece of art on a piano (one of only 30 city wide) to represent the HeArt Project and Los Angeles in this global campaign bringing art and music to public spaces.
The piano we created was painted with acrylic, spray paint, and even stickers.
The students put their own flair into it including 2 characters reflecting music and youth culture.
The majority of the piano was painted in a colorful mosaic of abstraction and color.
To show the youth's own take on ownership, "Hello My Name Is" stickers were adhered to the top of the piano reflecting names and words of their choosing.
Over the weekend, muralist and graffiti artist Man One tweeted out an image of César E. Chávez to note the civil rights leader's birthday on March 31. The detail came from a mural he painted that, by design, was not intended to last beyond the construction phase for the Gold Line Eastside Extension.
Looking back, it was a memorable piece -- though unfortunately temporary.
"The Four Pillars" commission was announced by Metro in April 2006, recalls Man One, aka Alex Poli. "I picked four pillars of community who were people who passed away and meant something to me."
The four sections featured Sister Karen Bocalerro, founder of Self-Help Graphics in "Faith;" slain journalist Ruben Salazar in "History," César E. Chávez in "Trabajo" (work); and Man One's grandfather Miguel Arenas, Sr., appearing in the panel "Familia" (Family).
The urban street lettering on the 20-foot high panels was the usual non-readable application, touted by Metro as an urban art style that makes the mural "relevant to the youth who viewed the walls on a daily basis." The four portraits were less an abstraction, and more pop graphic art. With animated colors, the figures watched over the corner like they belonged to the neighborhood. The simple lines allowed the faces to be visually read from across the street or from inside a moving car -- or aboard a Metro bus.
"I paint portraits the way I fill in my graff letters . . .with bold colors and odd shapes," Man One explained over the weekend. "I never use black and white."
When the Gold Line Eastside Extension neared completion, the plywood fences were removed and the portraits were salvaged by Man One. The panels that made César E. Chávez were donated to the Social Public Art and Resource Center (SPARC), and the image of Sister Karen Boccalero was sent to Self-Help Graphics. Man One still has the portraits of Salazar and of his grandfather.
Ten Years Running
"The Four Pillars" was just one project in a prolific decade for Man One. The year the mural was completed, he opened the doors to his downtown Los Angeles gallery, Crewest Gallery,originally founded in Alhambra in 2002. In May, Crewest will celebrate its tenth anniversary by mounting an exhibition aptly named "Mission: Accomplished."
After graduating with a B.A. in Fine Arts from Loyola Marymount University, he built a body of work before going through traditional channels to exhibit it. Gallery directors told him graff did not belong in their spaces, recalls Man One, now 41. "All the shows I had were in alternative spaces."
"I know this stuff is legit and will sell," he recalls telling himself and others.
Back then, some may have wondered how much aerosol fumes did he accidentally sniff when he thought of opening a gallery to showcase works from a collective of rotating street artists -- sometimes placing his own work aside -- to redefine graff art as a legitimate form of fine art with its own richness and complexity.
Ten years later, that is still the mission for the gallery that was founded to help street artists make a one-name moniker for themselves -- and even introduced a few to the art world. (Australia's Dabs & Myla had their first U.S. showings at Crewest).
Crewest is also one of the few downtown art spaces left from the first wave of galleries in the middle of the last decade, and Man One recently came to terms with Canadian Building ownership for a new lease -- plus securing the alley wall so it can be used for a revolving mural.
He has not lost his street bite. He recently completed a self-commissioned piece, "Graffiti Spirit Over City Hall," showing City Hall being raided by an unidentified figure with a spray can, a personal statement about graffiti artists who "forced themselves" into the current mural moratorium discussions about what is public art.
Former Member of the Underground
Man One being well-known as an artist almost conflicts with his street nature, that like other graffiti artists, prefer to keep an underground image and identity.
"I am surprised how many people recognize me. It's kinda weird and happens a lot of places," said Poli. "When I started doing graffiti, you didn't tell anyone who you were. It was a secret community. That changed big time over the years."
Yet, he doesn't rely on being known to move forward. He will seek out art enclaves in other cities and visit galleries and introduce himself with no presumption he's known. But fans of street artists do, and even if they don't recognize him right away, they know the name Man One.
That includes gallery owners now eager to get some street art on their walls.
In April 2012, Crewest will open "Sinerlandia" and "Painted Beauty," two small solo shows that debut Siner and Michael Pizarro, respectively. Opening reception is Saturday, April 7 from 7 to 10 p.m. It runs through through April 29.
"Mission Accomplished" showcases works from artists who have appeared at Crewest in the last decade. In the front room, a micro-solo show, "A Decade of Graffiti Spirits," features new visual directions from Man One himself. It opens Saturday, May 5, from 7 to 10 p.m. It runs through May 27.
Above: César E. Chávez in "Trabajo" from "The Four Pillars." (2006) at E. First and Soto street. Photo Courtesy of Man One.
Below: Man One painting "Graffiti Spirit Over City Hall" in March, 2012.
Who would've thought that one night I'd be chillin' with two of the greatest musical legends of our time: Sly Stone and George Clinton! Check out the little promo vid first..
Great meeting and hanging with Sly and chillin' once again with Dr. Funkenstein himself George Clinton.
Side by side crackin' jokes and painting Sly's RV or the "Old School Bus" as its now been dubbed.
I rocked the spray painted letters and Overton Loyd rocked the caricatures and George just painted whatever was on his mind!
We also painted the other side:
It was a crazy all nite freestyle paint session right smack in the hood. I don't think you can script this. Epic!
