Newsletter

I.C.U. teamed with SPARC to save the
Venice Pavilion, above, as a space for
graffiti murals, and is working to raise
the money needed to maintain that.

Surrounded by used furniture stores, various and sundry repair shops and a smattering of media stores, the I.C.U. (In Creative Unity) Art Gallery is a storefront space located in the Mid City area at 5113 Pico Boulevard. Ots present location marks another spot on a road that began ten years ago as a result of the L.A. riots, when Stash Maleski and a crew of underground artists, conscious of graffiti’s bad name, decide to do something to take the “illegality” out of urban and underground art even as Maleski recognized graffiti’s long historical tradition.

At this moment the gallery is exhibiting “Come Un-Paused, First Issue,” featuring well-known urban street artists such as Robbie Conal, Man One, Evolve, Mear One and Relic, as well as emerging and young artists from the community who have yet to gain the kind of fame of the aforementioned.

Sponsored by Common Cause, this particular show was organized to call attention to immediate social and political issues with participation from groups including the ACLU, Sweatshop Watch and FACTS (Families to Amend California’s RThree Stikes). The works reflect the poignant social and political agenda which is at the heart of urban street art. Along with examples like Conal’s iconic and ironic stenciled poster statements, many of the works include vivid colors, a delicate sensibility in the draftsmanship, collage and above all, graffiti.

But the driving force behind the gallery could be its open air graffiti courtyard in the back, on whose walls graffiti artists of all ages are invited to come and tag: it is a visual realization of Maleski’s response to freeway mural tagging, an outlet to legally do the kind of art that these students seek to create. What was and continues to be needed, he reasons, is a focused space to do public art. The result has been a ten year campaign to provide more legal walls and venues for doing art.

This ongoing process includes actively advocating spaces like skateboard parks and playgrounds and sites for graffiti murals through the Department of Parks and Recs and the City Council; one of the first venues for I.C.U. support was the Venice Pavilion. Threatened with destruction, I.C.U. and SPARC actively advocated retaining the space for graffiti murals and restoring what had been whitewashed. I.C.U. has committed to maintaining the space and is looking to raise $50,000 for that purpose.

Richardson Family Park at 27th Street and Budlong, not far from the current gallery, underwent a transformation from a vacant lot to a park under the guidance to artists Man One and Asylum. Seeking the cooperation of local gang members, they sought ideas and sketches which were produced by the community youth. The park features a mural they painted based on those sketches.

The economic support, however, comes from Maleski’s daring approach, which recognizes that artists should and need to be paid for what they do without resorting to a 9-5 compromise. I.C.U. has actively sought commissions from the media industry and from the corporate world. Coalitions and crews of artists have produced backdrops for MTV music videos, sets for film studios such as Sony, and scenery for the Peter Sellars/John Adams 1995 opera “I Was Looking at the Ceiling and Then I Saw the Sky,” based on the L.A. earthquake. The cities of Beverly Hills and Los Angeles have commissioned construction decorated barricades (eg., Geary’s, Christie’s, Lladró, and the CRA barricade downtown).

These endeavors encourage, above all, a sense of confidence along with self-expression. Be it ephemeral or permanent, the art made by the I.C.U. crews is being seen, and it is contributing to a contemporary aesthetic of both popular and public art.

Very much a part of the enterprise component of the operation is their a sense of wanting to do right, to make graffiti and its artists legal and legitmate. I.C.U.’s initiative in recognizing that illegal graffiti gives the art a bad name has led them to work with the Mural Conservancy’s retoration projects under conservator Nathan Zakheim.

Maleski has dedicated his life during these ten years to realizing these objectives. Seeing the positive potential in addressing the problem and finding creative solutions beyond grants and donations, he envisions all sorts of possibilities for I.C.U., including freeway murals under their own name, and mural/graffiti projects in Europe and elsewhere. It is an unusual and extraordinary commitment for an art historian trained at UCLA, and who at one time envisioned curating shows within museum walls. He has chosen instead the great endless walls of this city and beyond as the spatial dimensions in which to encourage artmaking.

STASH MALESKI AND I.C.U. ART

CITY REQUIRES CAD APPROVAL
ON ALL L.A. AREA MURALS

STASH MALESKI AND I.C.U. ART

CITY REQUIRES CAD APPROVAL ON ALL L.A. AREA MURALS

CITY REQUIRES CAD APPROVAL
ON ALL L.A. AREA MURALS