MID CITY ARTS PRESENTS:
MIAMI GRAFFITI – Street Art Exhibit, Installation & Book Signing

Mid-City Arts continues to bring the best of street art to Los Angeles with its latest show honoring the Miami graffiti scene. “Miami Graffiti” opens July 11, 7pm – 9pm and will be on view through July 26^th.

Rapidly becoming one of the United States’ top graffiti destinations, Miami, Florida is home to a deep well of talented artists driven by a fiercely competitive graffiti scene.  Miami’s profile has risen thanks to the city’s role as host to the famed “Art Basel” and most recently “Primary Flight.” “Primary Flight” is the internationally acclaimed, site-specific, street level mural installation that takes place during Art Basel. Artists that have graced the Primary Flight walls include Crome, MSG, Typoe as well as Blek Le Rat, Retna, El Mac, David Choe, Revok and many others.

Miami Graffiti by photographers Jim and Karla Murray is the first book to capture Miami’s graffiti scene. Documenting 20+ years of graffiti art and history along with Miami’s most notorious crews and writers, Miami Graffiti is a detailed presentation of South Florida’s past, present, and future of graffiti.

Mid City Arts’ “Miami Graffiti” show is a celebration of the release of Jim and Karla Murray’s book – they will be on hand to sign books –  and a showcase of some of Florida’s finest street artists from the MSG, TCP, SH and THC crews. Artists from these crews are coming out to Los Angeles and will be displaying their work in the gallery as well as customizing the gallery’s back yard space. Featured artists include Crome, Typoe, Acme, Enve, Murder, Afex, Kemo, Cynic, Gere, Flojoe and others. The show is curated by “Slow”.

The MSG crew formed in 1994 by a group of kids bonded through their shared street backgrounds and love of graffiti. Now, 14 years later, MSG has evolved into a creative collective that has expanded into everything from graphic design and fine art, to retail and product design, and everything in between. South Florida’s Crome is one that region’s graffiti pioneers. Crome’s work is an amalgam of sex, color, crime and fun. Drawing inspiration from Miami’s clashing of tropical South Beach & seedy underbelly of Downtown Districts, he creates images that reflect the dichotomy between the beauty, style and color of the former, while balancing it with the images of prostitution; drive bys and drugs of the latter. Crome is multifaceted and multi-dimensional.  He’s an artist with a dark past and a bright future making his mark on the vanilla, superficial Miami art scene.

Mid-City Arts was established in September 2009 as an extension of the store 33third – LA’s premier source of street art supplies, streetwear apparel, and related books and magazines. The gallery was established with the purpose of showcasing local, national, and international artwork by up and coming and established artists with a focus on (but not limited to) graffiti / street / urban art. Recent shows have included work by Chaka, Retna and El Mac. Mid-City Arts offers a show space that interacts with other artists and events that surround the 33third Los Angeles location. The gallery’s artwork is available to view by the active customer base of 33third, which includes graffiti artists and fans of graffiti art. Mid-City Arts is open Monday through Sunday 12-8PM. For more information, visit: www.midcity-arts.com
Mid-City Arts is located at: 5111 W. Pico Blvd. Los Angeles Ca. 90019

CONTACT:

Lucy Beer | Elemental Consulting

Purchase Graffiti Street Art Supplies Online @ 33third.com

Purchase street art supplies online @ 33third.com

RETNA & THE MAC at Mid-City Arts Opening Teaser from 33third Los Angeles on Vimeo.

What: RETNA & The MAC  Gallery Show Opening and Live Painting

Where: Mid-City Arts –  5111 West Pico Blvd.  Los Angeles, CA 90019

When: Sunday June 7, 2009 12-6 PM –  ALL AGES

——————————————————————————————

http://www.juxtapoz.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6145&Itemid=50

We love Retna ( Juxtapoz #78) and Mac for their larger than life collaborations, so we’re more than hyped on a live painting event and exhibit opening featuring two of Los Angeles’ most respected graffiti artists: Retna and The Mac. The opening event takes place Sunday June 7th 12pm – 6pm at 33Third in LA. The art exhibit will be on display in the adjoining Mid-City Arts gallery.

The new exhibit from Retna and The Mac will featured a large-scale indoor mural installation in addition to smaller pieces. Retna says that the show “will be representative of the remembrance of growing up as a youth.” They will aim to re-enact “the trials & triumphs of pursuing an art form that you have all this passion for, but yet angers all these people. Just kind of showing the 2 different sides to it.”

This is a topic near and dear to the artists’ hearts, echoing sentiments shared by many of today’s successful artists who have transitioned from graffiti to legitimate street art. “This is where we came from. We came from being these street kids. We wanted to show that you can keep going,” explains Retna. “It’s a beautiful thing to be a part of a culture like this that has spread throughout the world and this would be our way of giving back to an area, a city, a community that was the beginning of my career (Mid-City Area of Los Angeles). Those blocks and corners were where I was given the opportunity to do my art and was shown a lot of support by the community. Communities like these are where we come from and it feels good to give something back to the future generation of kids doing this.”

About The Artists:

Since first creating a name for himself in the early 1990s, Retna has become an “eternal broadcaster” of sorts, shining a light to the kinetic urban soul of Los Angeles. His work merges photography with graffiti style and paint, time with color, couture with street culture, the spiritual with the sensual, and fluidity with grit. Retna traverses between the galleries and streets with ease. In addition to being aligned with the Art Work Rebels and Mad Society Kings Art Groups, he is a member of the internationally exclusive art collective, The Seventh Letter, whose influence on contemporary street art encompasses the globe.

The Mac began painting graffiti in the mid 90s and since then he has been commissioned to produce murals around the world, exhibited in museums, and his work has graced the cover of numerous publications. Mac has gained increasing notoriety for his almost photorealistic depictions of both ordinary people and ethereal women, in a style that is uniquely his own. Mac’s intricate brushwork styles have also gained attention, while some of his murals have become mini-landmarks. Elements, themes and techniques of classic art are often incorporated into a modern context in Mac’s artwork, usually with an emphasis on the human face and figure.

Need Graffiti Art Supplies? Purchase Graffiti Supplies @ 33third.com

La Mancha Art Group Presents "5 Excursions of Love in Los Angeles"

This valentines day we are proud to bring in the La Mancha Art Group for a special group show with a central theme of 5 different artists interpretting Love within the City of Los Angeles.

Opening February 14 7PM