BEHIND THESE WALLS

Featuring works by Wayne Healy, Elliot Pinkney and Kent Twitchell

Curated by / Concept Engineer: Ronald Lopez

December 2, 2006 - January 6, 2007

Opening Reception December 2, 2006 6:00 - 10:00 pm

Conversation with the Artists, Moderated by Pat Gomez 

Thursday, December 21, 2006 at 7:00 - 8:30 pm

at 

Self-Help Graphics and Art

(BIOS BELOW)

Self-Help Graphics and Art Gallery presents a unique art show, curated by Ronald Lopez, called “Behind these Walls”.  “Behind these Walls” is an attempt to capture the private works of three Los Angeles-based public artists, Wayne Healy, Elliot Pinkney and Kent Twitchell.  These artists are as diverse as the city and their rich and powerful styles have added to the Los Angeles urban landscape.  Please join us as we go behind the street walls painted by these prolific and versatile artists and display their personal works in our gallery during the month of December.  Gallery Hours are Tuesday - Friday, 10am - 5pm and Saturday10am - 2pm.  Self-Help Graphics and Art is located at 3802 Cesar E. Chavez Avenue, Los Angeles.  

Statement:

“Behind these Walls” is an art show displaying the private works of three Los Angeles muralists, Wayne Healy, Elliot Pinkney and Kent Twitchell.  Each of the artists has exemplified an extraordinary career in the public art scene and in the gallery scene.  However, they have never been together under one roof exhibiting their personal artworks.  This is an opportunity for the public to take a look behind the walls of the “street studio” and into the private works of these artists.  Each of them has added color, history and beauty to the urban landscape of the city of Los Angeles for over 25 years.  Combined they have added immensely to the number of murals in the city, which has catapulted Los Angeles to having more murals than any other city in the world.  Each artist has contributed his own unique outlook.  Thus, “Behind these Walls” is a microcosm of the cultural diversity found in the city of Los Angeles.  According to American Art Historian Marilyn Stokstad, Wayne Healy has been attributed to helping create the Chicano art movement.  Mr. Healy later, with an old friend, founded the infamous East Los Streetscapers.  Elliot Pinkney, the oldest of the three, is an African American who has dealt with African American pride and the importance of understanding the differences between cultures.  Between 1977 and 1978, Mr. Pinkney was given an opportunity to turn the streets of Compton into his studio. Via a generous grant from the California Arts Council, he was able to complete 8 murals in that time period.  Kent Twitchell, a Caucasian American, is a prolific muralist that has created over 75 portraits of artists and celebrities from Los Angeles, adding to the Angelinos pride.  Mr. Twitchell has also been actively involved in the creation of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles and serves on its board.  A very interesting common denominator for these artists has been the aviation industry.  While Mr. Healy was a mechanical engineer for Hughes aircraft for over 20 years, Mr. Pinkey and Mr. Twitchell both served in the U.S. Air Force, Mr. Twitchell as an illustrator.     

ARTIST BIOS:

Wayne Healy

Healy (born in 1946) grew up in East Los Angeles and, in the third grade, collaborated on a dinosaur mural with his future partner David Botello. In 1975, shortly after the two ran into each other after many years, Healy and Botello co-founded what became the mural team known as East Los Streetscapers. In 1992, Healy and artist Roberto Delgado were awarded a grant by the Joint Spanish/U.S. Committee for Educational and Cultural Cooperation to paint murals in Barcelona, Spain.

East Los Streetscapers
In 1977 David Botello and Healy founded Los Dos Streetscapers. Shortly thereafter other artists, such as George Yepes and Rudy Calderon, began working with them.  It was then they changed their name to East Los Streetscapers. However, while other artists have come and gone, Botello and Healy remain the core of the team. In addition to their many local murals, they have done projects in Houston, St. Louis, Bellingham, Washington, as well as San Jose and Santa Maria, California.

Elliot Pinkney

A native of Georgia, Pinkney (born in 1934) moved to Southern California after serving in the U.S. Air Force. He earned a B.A. at Woodbury College. A poet and sculptor as well as a painter, he has lived in the community of Compton for 20 years. In the early 1970s Mr. Pinkney was active at an innovative community arts school called Compton Communicative Arts Academy. During 1977 and 1978 the walls of Compton were his studio. Funded by a special grant from the California Arts Council, he completed eight murals. Their underlying themes were African-American pride and the importance of understanding between different cultures. All but three are gone.  

Kent Twitchell   

Twitchell (born in 1942) specializes in larger-than-life hyper-realist portraits of people, often celebrities and artists. Born in Michigan, he studied art at East Los Angeles College (AA, 1968), California State University, Los Angeles (BA, 1972), and Otis Art Institute (MFA, 1977). During the mid-1960s, Mr. Twitchell was an Air Force illustrator stationed in London, England. He was active in the creation of the Mural Conservancy of Los Angeles and serves on its advisory board. In 1989 Twitchell did a 35-foot tall mural in Philadelphia of basketball legend Julius Erving.

In 1992 Mr. Twitchell won a major victory for the cause of legal protection of murals as public art when a court awarded him damages for the destruction of his mural The Freeway Lady. Shortly after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, when his studio was destroyed, Twitchell moved to northern California for ten years.

This prolific artist has completed over 75 portraits of prominent artists and celebrities and completed one of his largest commissions – a nine-story portrait of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra - which towers over the Los Angeles Harbor Freeway.  His other projects include the Freeway Lady, the Jim Morphesis, Lita Albuquerue, the LA Marathon Mural at the base of Elysian Park at Stadium Way, a portrait of artist Ed Ruscha in Los Angeles and the Holy Trinity with the Virgin at the former Otis Campus. Anyone traveling around Los Angeles can hardly miss the mark Kent has made on the urban landscape.

ABOUT THE CURATOR / CONCEPT ENGINEER: Ronald Lopez

Ronald Lopez was born in 1974, the eldest of four, in East Los Angeles.  He has worked in the public art arena for over ten years creating murals in Los Angeles and has helped to implement art programming for the City of Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Center, and the City of Istanbul, Turkey.  Mr. Lopez currently curates art shows in LA and Istanbul and represents artists.  As founder and executive director of Aden Art Center, established in Istanbul in 2002, he created a national program including art workshops for young artists, an emerging artist program to help new artists show their work, an international program including an artist-in-residence component, participation in local festivals.  As an artist, Mr. Lopez has completed numerous murals and art commissions; in 2005, his social art project entitled “Does Religion Kill?” was held in conjunction with the 9^th Istanbul Biennial.  He is currently reviving the project at 18^th Street Arts Center in Santa Monica.  Mr. Lopez serves as consultant to help improve the artist-in-residence program at 18^th Street Arts Center and recently received a grant from the City of Santa Monica to create art workshops for youth.   

For more info, please contact 

Self Help Graphics at 323.881.6444 or info@selfhelpgraphics.com

and/or

Ronald Lopez at 626.675.3643 or ronald@adenstudio.org

Behind these Walls