Exclusive: MOCA's "Art in the Streets" Artist Roll Call

Here's the line up for the upcoming exhibit at MOCA.  I can't wait to check out all the local and international urban/street/graffiti artists' artwork.  

retrieved from - LA Weekly Blogs

by - Shelley Leopold

Art in the Streets, The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA, photos by Gregory Bojorquez, courtesy of MOCA

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LA Weekly has the scoop on the much-anticipated artist list for the "Art in the Streets" exhibit at MOCA, which begins April 17. We can't wait. We figured you couldn't either.

Drumroll please...

ALEXIS ROSS
ANDRE
A-ONE
BARRY MCGEE
BEAR 167
BILL DANIEL
BILL RAY
BLADE
CHARLIE AHEARN
CHAZ BOJORQUEZ
COCO144
COST
CRAIG COSTELLO
CRAIG R. STECYK III
CRASH
DAN MURPHY
DASH SNOW
DAZE
DELTA
DEVIN FLYNN
DON LEICHT
DONDI
DRUGS
ED TEMPLETON
EINE
ERIK BRUNETTI
ESTEVAN ORIOL
FAB 5 FREDDY
FREEDOM
FUTURA
GORDON MATTA-CLARK
GUSMANO CESARETTI
HAZE
HENRY CHALFANT
HOWARD GRIBBLE
HUGH HOLLAND
INVADER
IRAK
IZ THE WIZ
JAMIE REID
JAMES PRIGOFF
JANE DICKSON
JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT
JOHN AHEARN
JOHN FEKNER
JON NAAR
JOSH LAZCANO
JR
KAWS
KEITH HARING
KENNY SCHARF
KIELY JENKINS
KOOR
LADY PINK
LARRY CLARK
LEE QUINONES
LOOMIT
MALCOLM MCLAREN
MARE 139
MARGARET KILGALLEN
MARK GONZALES
MARTHA COOPER
MISS VAN
MISTER CARTOON
MODE 2
NECKFACE
NOC
OS GEMEOS
PATTI ASTOR
PHASE 2
RAMMELLZEE
RETNA
REVOK
REVOLT
REVS
RISK
ROA
ROBBIE CONAL
RON ENGLISH
SABER
SHARP
SHEPARD FAIREY
SJK161
SNAKE 1
SPIKE JONZE
STELIOS
STEPHEN POWERS
STEVE GRODY
SWOON
TAKI 183
TEEN WITCH
TERRY RICHARDSON
TODD JAMES
TOXIC
TRACY 168
ZEPHYR

...plus one extra bonus artist.

The following artists will appear on the L.A. collaborative wall:

CHARLIE
CHUBBS
DREAM
FLAME
GREEN
MEAR ONE
OIL
PRIME
SER
SLICK
WISK

seze

I dig...

D*Face

Going Nowhere Fast

Corey Helford Gallery

Opening reception April 9, 2011 7:30 – 11:00 pm

seze

History of American Graffiti

Here's a great video that provides quality information and docmentaion of the history of american graffiti.  There will also be a textbook entitled, "The History of American Graffiti" available shortly.  I suggest picking up a copy.  This is a textbook that I would teach from if I had my dream of teaching graffiti/street/urban art to students. Watch the full video, it's worth it.  

Purp & Yellow

Here's a purp & yellow painting of Kobe Bryant that I painted yesterday.  It's prob around 8ft x 4ft, so it's not massive, but fills the space pretty good and leaves room to add to it.  This was an unexpected painting session, so I used what colors I had with me.  My instructions were to paint something in a "Laker theme" but I had one can each of the colors I used so I had to use my paint wisely.  Plus I had some time constraints so I had to fininsh this in a couple hours (no laggin' on this one).  I probably would have painted something different or put more detail into it if I had more paint and time, but in the end I was happy with it.

Other than that, there's not much to say about it, it's just a portrait.  My bad for the not so great pictures, the time of day wasn't helping and at the time I had to get going, so it is what it is.

seze

 

Active Rideshop Dressing Room Walls

I don't know about you but I've been in some dressing rooms that have ranged from excessively spacious to ridiculously cramped. Most contain nothing more than a seat, hook for some clothes and some mirrors.  I know there's not much needed for a dressing room to serve it's purpose but I always appreciate a dressing room that's unique for one reason or another.  And that's my hope for the Active dressing rooms. 

I've painted three dressing rooms at Active Rideshop in Riverside.  Dressing room #1 has taken on the theme of playing cards with cartoon-style King, Queen, Joker and Ace card portraits.  Dressing room #2 is a collage of random, freestyled charactersand text that for one reason or another were floating around my head and I had to paint them.  And my most recent addition, dressing room #3, the largest dressing room available, I just painted my name.  So I'll keep this short and sweet, and leave you with the pictures.  Maybe next time you're in the wonderful, world-famous Riverside, you can stop in and check out some art (removal of clothes optional).

Dressing Room #1

Dressing Room #2

Dressing Room #3

seze

Hey stickers! "It's time for a change"

Who doesn't like stickers? Whether it be stickers that those hardcore and dedicated "My child is the greatest at life" type shit (ha, I think that'll be one of my new stickers) that individuals stick on their bumpers and ride out til' they're sun-beaten and too cracked to even peel off.  Or maybe you prefer those clever street art stickers that come in every size, shape and color....either way, stickers are kinda noticiable and creative to a certain extent.  But now a days it seems that anyone and everyone has their own machine-made, personalized, customized, clever sticker.  Which is cool, but I'm gonna steal a quote from el presidente himself and say, "It's time for a change."
I've kinda always been a fan of quality > quantity, but that's just me.  And so I've decided to not invest my consistently decling savings in the perfect machine-made and cut sticker game.  But rather invest my creativity and time instead of money and keep my stickers homemade.  And that's my clever street art sticker slogan, "Keepin' it homemade."  Clever huh? haha.
So if you happen to run across one of my stickers, know that it's either going to be hand drawn or printed from my printer at home (I like to try and mess with digital imagery every once in a while).  No homemaking sticker kits here, all using stickers I've collected throughout the years and figuring out how to transform it into my sticker.  I'm gonna try and make these as often as possible but this shit takes time.  I may not be up on every block, but it will be worth examining and of course it'll be homemade.  Here's my first "keepin' it homemade" edition.  They're all one-off and I'll never draw two exactly the same so I think that makes them unique on some level.  I also have some new hand drawn stickers and digital stickers I printed up but I'll have to take pics and upload them another night, I'm too lazy to do all that right now.  But I will say I'll (try to) do a better job with this blog responsibility and continue to show what I'm working on or ideas I have floating around in my head.

seze

The Garage

Content: 

I chose the image of Jack Nicholson from the film, "The Shining"  because I have always appreciated Jack's films and for me he represents all of the films that have provided inspiration.  Also, I connect with Jack on a different level because he and I are both die hard Los Angeles Lakers fans.
Right next to his portrait, is my name, "seze" painted in the graffiti art style.  I chose to do this because graffiti art has always been a part of my life.  I also added half of Mickey Mouse's body with a spray paint cap for his face because Mickey Mouse is an iconic cartoon and I wanted to show that for me, graffiti art is just as iconic.  The words, "my riches never rust" that are being said by the Mickey Mouse character mean that with graffiti art, the riches you receive are not monetary.  The riches come in the form of paint and the experience you receive from spray painting.
The spiral face represents all of the unknown, unexpected and unintended sources of inspiration I have received.  I chose to paint him in grey tones because this unknown inspiration is a grey area to me.  It's an area that I have no reason for why I was inspired.
Right below that portrait are the letters, "SE" (initials for my name, seze) written in the old school graffiti lettering, paying tribute to all the inspiration I received through old school graffiti.
The half cartoon-style portrait of musician Sade represents all of the music I have received inspiration from.  I chose her because my family appreciates her music (especially my parents, and I wanted them to connect with something from this mural as well).  And on the other corner are made-up random cartoon-style characters that are not from a specific cartoon because too many cartoons have inspired me throughout my life and I couldn't choose just a few.

The location plays a major role in this mural because it's in my parents garage.  Living there for half my life, I wanted to pay tribute to the house by leaving a piece of my art and myself in a place I called home.


seze