Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
This Artist Photographed Murals All Across Los Angeles
Ken Gonzales-Day, a multidisciplinary artist based out of Los Angeles, has created a city-spanning retrospective of L.A.'s quintessential murals and street art. In conjunction with Pacific Standard Time's LA/LA and the Skirball Cultural Center, the artist is presenting Surface Tension by Ken Gonzales-Day: Murals, Signs, and Mark-Making in LA, on display at the Skirball from October 6 to February 25. The exhibit will feature 140 new photographs of mural practices across L.A., displaying the city's rich history of public art and the how the intersections of race and class manifest in the "visual landscape of Los Angeles’s streets."
Gonzales-Day spent ten months crossing the city, charting murals from Venice Beach to Pacoima. In an interview with Madeleine Brand on KCRW's Press Play, he describes how, "[m]any of us have very romantic or simplistic ideas about what we're seeing when we see an image on a wall. And so I wanted to take the opportunity to look at all of the city, and to think of it as a kind of portrait of the city."
The "surface tension" of the show's title represents the tension of the surface area of the city itself; this city with "different needs and desires and failings and challenges," as he told Brand. Murals in Leimert Park focus on the history of Black Angelenos and the general Civil Rights Movement; Judy Baca's Great Wall is a seminal work of Chicano art in L.A.; murals downtown feature extensive art in the middle of homeless encampments or the hyper-gentrified Arts District. The question behind all murals is "who painted them, and why," which leads to a larger conversation about how different groups and identities experience Los Angeles.
"Accessible to everyone and often stumbled upon accidentally, murals reveal how art often stimulates conversation, bridges divides between people, and creates understanding,” said Robert Kirschner, Skirball Museum Director, in a statement sent to LAist. Gonzales-Day, in a statement about the show, said, "I witnessed memorials to those lost and to those who inspire, as well as the rage and political frustration of city residents, and even resistance to displacement. In a city of contested spaces, these are traces of its people: material celebrations and negotiations of the politics of place, often painted side by side."
Support for LAist comes from
Here's a map of the locations of every mural in the exhibit:
The exhibit itself will offer similar visual map aides to accompany the photographs, encouraging viewers to embark on their own mural-charting journey. Printed versions of the map will also be available to take away from the gallery. The exhibit is one of hundreds across Southern California as part of PST's LA/LA initiative, featuring the interplay between Latin American art and Los Angeles.
Surface Tension by Ken Gonzales-Day: Murals, Signs, and Mark-Making in LA is on display at the Skirball Cultural Center, located at 2701 N Sepulveda Blvd in Bel-Air. It is open 12 p.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, and 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
With less to prove than LA, the city is becoming a center of impressive culinary creativity. -
Nearly 470 sections of guardrailing were stolen in the last fiscal year in L.A. and Ventura counties.
-
Monarch butterflies are on a path to extinction, but there is a way to support them — and maybe see them in your own yard — by planting milkweed.
-
With California voters facing a decision on redistricting this November, Surf City is poised to join the brewing battle over Congressional voting districts.
-
The drug dealer, the last of five defendants to plead guilty to federal charges linked to the 'Friends' actor’s death, will face a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
-
The weather’s been a little different lately, with humidity, isolated rain and wind gusts throughout much of Southern California. What’s causing the late-summer bout of gray?
Best of LAist