Art in the Streets

Jo in front of Loomit's mural

Swoon

Mural by Blu at Moca


Went to Moca and saw the "Art in the Streets" exhibition with the Art Club on Saturday. Really impressive! My favorites were works by Swoon, Banksy, Fairhey, and Boroquez. Plus, I loved the ice cream truck and car.

Unfortunately, the mural above done by Blu, was not there....the mural was deemed to be insensitive to the community and was painted over immediately after Blu finished it! This little incident happened right before the opening of the show....how ironic!

2006 spherical sculpture by Chinese artist-activist Ai Weiwei.

This modern sculpture is made out of Huanghuall wood, which Weiwei uses to blend old and new together. According to the LA Times (4/19/11), LACMA has just purchased this piece for $400,000 at an annual MOCA fundraising event. Also, the museum has plans to show another of his sculptures "Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads" this fall.

As Jessica was talking about last class, Ai Weiwei is the artist that the Chinese government has taken into custody for subversive activities. His location or status are currently unknown.

"Art in the Streets" @ MOCA

Our field trip to MOCA is coming up in a few days...

The LA Times had an article on 4/20/11... Seems the LAPD has noticed an uptick in tagging activity and vandalism in the Little Tokyo area, adjacent to the MOCA "Art in the Streets" exhibit that just opened on Sunday. They are attributing the increase of graffiti to the theory that out-of-towners are coming in and putting up their own street art pieces outside the Geffen. Last Friday, two French nationals were detained...they had buckets of grout and pieces of tile on them. The LAPD believes one of them may have been the Space Invader artist, featured on the "Exit Through the Gift Shop"movie.

If you are attending this event Friday, keep your eyes open as you drive up, to see if you can spot any interesting street art on the areas outside of the gallery!

reALIze sculpture by Michael Kalish

This display was set up at Staples Center and just ended it's run last week.

Very cool.....looking at it from various angles it just looks like 1300 punching bags randomly hanging from scaffolding, but standing from a certain point you see the above picture!

http://www.youtube.com/user/realizeali#p/a/f/0/TjGAfJZDDmQ