FINALLY! Another "Special Art Post"! The last one was ages ago, so I thought it was about time to write a new one, and as I wanted this comeback to be special, I've chosen none other than master of desaster, king of graffiti, legend of the aerosol and one who's pretty high on my neverending list of favourite artists - RISK!
In a career spanning 27 years, RISK has impacted the evolution of graffiti as an art form in Los Angeles and worldwide. RISK gained major notoriety for his unique style and pushed the limits of graffiti further than any writer in L.A. had before: He was one of the first writers in Southern California to paint freight trains, and he pioneered writing on “heavens,” or freeway overpasses. At the peak of his career he took graffiti from the streets and into the gallery with the launch of the Third Rail series of art shows, and later parlayed the name into the first authentic line of graffiti-inspired clothing. ...
LOS ANGELES—To the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, Revok is a renowned artist whose bright, sprawling work is worthy of display in its latest exhibit. To the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Revok is Jason Williams, also known as inmate No. 2714221. Last month, Mr. Williams was sentenced to 180 days in county jail as a result of a probation violation from a graffiti incident, just days after the opening of a major museum exhibit dedicated to "street art" that features his work. Unable to post his $320,000 bail, Mr. Williams sat in jail for four days before the sentencing. It may be illegal on the street, but inside the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, a new exhibit celebrates the history of graffiti, featuring work by artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey. WSJ's Tammy Audi reports. Law-enforcement officials around the country are prosecuting graffiti artists with harsher sentences than ever, pushing for felony charges, real prison time and restitution payments as they seek to wipe graffiti from the streets. At the same time, the art world and corporations are embracing the form like never before. "You can make a case that graffiti and street art is the most influential art movement since the great innovations of the '60s," says Jeffrey Deitch, director of the L.A. museum, known as MOCA. "Before this show, no American museum had ever done an ambitious historical exhibition."...Work by artists Revok and Rime is part of an exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles. The artist known as Revok is in an L.A. jail on charges related to a graffiti incident.
Left, LA II, right, Revok. (images via dnainfo.com & ballerstatus.com)
Police have received complaints from downtown dwellers about an increase in vandalism they think is related to MOCA's upcoming "Art in the Streets" show at the Geffen Contemporary.
It's not clear to us if residents and business owners have a problem with some of the clearly related murals that have gone up in the area or some of the tagging that has followed. But either way, it's all illegal, the LAPD's Jack Richter tells the Weekly.
Come again?
Yeah, even a mural that's going up on the actual Geffen in Little Tokyo would be verboten under city rules.
...
