Courtesy of UGLAR. Click image to view large.

Balancing elements of local heritage with commentary on the process of large-scale, public works-style painting, UGLAR recently utilized techniques of fine art and street art to pay tribute to L.A.’s three greatest contemporary muralists, Willy Herron III, Kent Twitchell, and Chaz Bojorquez, with a massive mural just north of Chinatown called “Painting the Painters.”

Roughly 20 feet high and 100 feet long, the piece features several crewmembers depicted in the process of painting it (anchoring its left side is a larger-than-life Sergio Diaz, and spaced throughout are life-sized representations of Jose. A. Lopez and Evan Skrederstu), as well as a color-chart chameleon whose scales reflect every hue in the piece, and Tlaloc, the Aztec rain deity. It’s a piece that honors those that came before while commenting on the process of mural-painting, and could only have sprung up on the streets of L.A.

Location: 1726 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012.

Sergio Diaz (L), Willy Herron III (R), and Christopher Brand touching up a tentacle.

Kent Twitchell

Chaz (In Progress)

Tlaloc and the Chameleon

Photos by Ryan Gattis unless otherwise stated

Each time we visit Bushwick, surprises await.  It’s always fun to come upon an artist at work, and this time we met one painting on the streets for the first time.  Daniel Gausman, who recently made the move from the Midwest to Brooklyn, NY, draws his inspiration from “geometry, quilting and color.”  Still in progress, his huge mural on Varet Street is a homage to all three.  Seeking larger walls than his local apartment can provide and at home interacting with passersby, Daniel is likely to grace more NYC walls with his talents.

Daniel Gausman @ work on his mural, photo by Lois Stavsky

Close-up of wall in progress, photo by Tara Murray

Whenever we visit  the Hunts Point section of the South Bronx, we either come across How&Nosm walls that we’ve never seen or we rediscover details on some of their murals we’ve come to love.  Today was no exception.  Here’s a sampling of what we saw:

Photos by Lois Stavsky & Tara Murray

As RJ mentioned earlier, the members of the Brooklyn-based Faile are the latest artists to hit the wall at Bowery and Houston.  These images were captured this afternoon:

Photos by Dani Mozeson

Tristan Eaton

How & Nosm close-up

How & Nosm

Photos by Lois Stavsky

Disasters is the theme of a collaged mural currently underway in the hallway of the FUSE Gallery in the East Village. 26-year-old Lorenzo Masnah has been collecting, enlarging and painting over and on newspaper and magazine images of global disasters, tragedies and human rights violations for years. His politically-infused work has been published in zines and books and exhibited in a variety of gallery and alternative setting in New York City, LA and in his native Bogota, where, along with Stinkfish, he is a founding member of the APC (Animal Planet Collective). Lorenzo’s newest work will be the subject of an exhibit at FUSE Gallery next year. In the meantime, this mural is definitely worth checking out – if you’re anywhere in the vicinity of 93 2^nd Avenue between 5^th and 6^th Streets in NYC’s East Village.

Close-up of mural underway in hallway @ FUSE Gallery, photo by Lorenzo

Lorenzo's iconic Third World Pirate alongside Stinkfish in Bogota, Colombia, photo by Lois Stavsky

Lorenzo as Third World Pirate in the East Village, photo by Lenny Collado

Although I haven’t yet made it to New Zealand or Australia, they’ve come to me — thanks to 5Pointz, Long Island City’s graffiti Mecca. Last year, it introduced me to the masterful photorealistic murals created by New Zealand’s Owen Dippie and, more recently, to Australia’s Beastman’s wondrous geometric designs.

Owen Dippie aka OD does Nas; completed in fall, 2010 and still up @ 5Pointz, photo by Lois Stavsky

Owen Dippie, Martha Cooper & Futura in Chelsea shoolyard, 2010, photo by Lois Stavsky

Beastman @ 5Pointz, spring 2011, photo by Naomi Shore

Beastman, close-up, photo by Dani Reyes Mozeson

In Chelsea

Meeting of Styles @ 5Pointz

New @ 5Pointz

With MTK in the East Village

Photos by Lois Stavsky

Herakut’s been getting around. This past week they were among a group of  a dozen artists — largely local — participating in the CASTRO Street Project at Tel Aviv’s Jaffa Port. Leora Cheshin — a Jerusalem-based photographer — shared these two photos with me:

Photos by Leora Cheshin