LA vs WAR

I dropped by the Firehouse today right after it opened the doors to the current exhibit: LA VS WAR. I wanted to get a good look at the art before there were tons of people standing around in front of it.

Walking into the space was like having the culmination of all wheat paste street art that I have seen in the last few years right in front of my face, clean, undamaged, and signed by the artist. Having been a big fan of many of these artists and the whole idea in general, my feeling is that these guys achieve a social role that most graffiti artists never seem aware of. They get out on the street and take huge risks to get their art and message in public sight; but where most graffiti artists are happy just to get a stylized version of their tag up, wheat-pasters take it to the next level and say something the rest of us can relate to. In an environment where eye-space is sold to whatever company can pay enough to stick their ads up, this art competes by subverting the messages stuck up by the powers that be, and refusing to exchange capital in order to be heard.

There are also some paintings and sculptures in the show, but the posters are the stars; and this is a great collection of them. The organizers of this event have made it possible for you to talk to some artists and even get a peice of their work put on a shirt or something else for you to take home. There is a screen-printing space set up, as well as a place for spray stenciling run the by Hit+Run artist network.

Check out the Universal Peace Altar, which is a memorial to all the lives lost in the Iraq War, created by Ofelia Esparza and Shrine.

Posters are for sale, as well as books, and the Firehouse is taking donations.

DJ’s will be playing for the next three days, and all of the artists running the spray and silkscreen booths are on rotation, so check out the schedule to see what’s up. la.cityzine will be doing some follow up posts of the next two days, so be sure to check back for that.