Clement Hanami, Goonsquad Garage , 2016 By Pancho Lipschitz What happens when a Japanese American kid grows up in East L.A. in the ’70s? It sounds like the set-up for sit com on the El Rey network but it’s really the story of Clement Hanami’s life. We sat down for beers in Little Tokyo to talk about his journey from East L.A. to UCLA, coming home again to design the art for the East L.A. Civic Center Metro station and how he learned about the true meaning of art by being a roadie for Los Illegals. PL: Did you always think of yourself as an artist? CH: My father was a photographer and my mother was a seamstress but they both dabbled in artistic things. My dad was a poet on the weekends. He would do this thing called senryu. It’s like a haiku but haiku deals with nature and senryu deals with ironies in life. Like a Seinfeld episode. My mother used to paint. So I grew up in a house that was very creative. Do you remember when you started to take art seriously? Growing up Asia...

Organized as a collaboration between three well-known LA non-profit arts organizations that include socially and politically engaged art as an integral part of their focus, 43: From Ayotzinapa to Ferguson opened at Self Help Graphics & Art on May 12th.  The milestone exhibition, an effort to underscore a parallel between the reasons for the rise of the #blacklivesmatter movement in the U.S. and the disappearance of 43 politically active students from La Escuela Normal Rural Raúl Isidro Burgos in Ayotzinapa, Mexico, featured work by artists from throughout the world. “We wanted to bring artists from both the African-American and Chicano-Mexicano communities together over the idea that excessively aggressive policing in places like Ferguson, New York, Texas, the Bay Area, is part of a larger problem,” says co-curator Jimmy O’Balles. Raised in both LA’s East Side and Monrovia before being sent to Vietnam, O’Balles founded the Monrovia Latino Heritage Society and has organiz...

Urban Renewa l, 2016, Mixed Media on Canvas, 96"x 41" The Latino Art Museum opens an exhibition featuring the work of renowned artist Jesús Toro Martínez this week. The show, Jesús Toro Martínez: NOT TRADITIONAL , a collection of 100 paintings and drawings will be on view through July 30th.  The exhibit presents Martínez’s newest works on canvas, wood and paper.  An artist reception will be held today from 4 p.m. - 9 p.m. as part of the monthly Pomona Art Walk.   “I’m thrilled to have my work exhibited in such a prestigious  and rapidly growing institution. It’s an honor to have been invited to have a one-man show by the world-class staff at the Latino Art Museum in Pomona,” said Martinez. “I love to paint visual expressions that change the viewer’s opinion by using unconventional organic materials.  It’s rewarding to see individuals appreciate my art and their interest in technique and purpose.  I am grateful to have been included as part of the...

From Staff Reports MAS ACA , the self-published, hard-cover edition of photographs by East LA-raised and Boyle Heights-based Rafael Cárdenas, will be released with an official book-signing and exhibition on July 8, 2016 at Espacio 1839, a long-standing gallery, bookstore and artisan boutique located at 1839 E. First St. The powerful and highly anticipated collection, made possible in large part through crowd-funding support, is the artist’s first-ever foray into the realm of high-gloss, coffee table quality publication and represents a survey of his photographic work from 2010 to 2015. The book release and accompanying exhibition of photographs will be preceded by an informal plática from 5p.m. to 7p.m. at Primera Taza, the eclectic, home-grown Boyle Heights café located across the street from Espacio 1839 and now co-owned by Chuy Tovar and Angel Orozco.  During the coffee house discussion, Cárdenas will share the story of how the book came together and describe his non-trad...