Temporarily residing in DTLA's Chinatown district, Beyond The Streets boasts an art exposition unparalleled to any graffiti or street art showcase you've experienced before.
"BEYOND THE STREETS is the premier exhibition of graffiti, street art and beyond, celebrating the soaring heights to which the world’s most recognizable modern art movement has risen. BTS is a groundbreaking multimedia showcase of paintings, sculpture, photography, installations and more throughout 40,000+ sq ft of industrial indoor and outdoor space."
Upon entry to the parking lot, guests are greeted by a composition of the most prolific artist of all, Mother Nature. L.A.'s own Ron Finley aka "Gangsta Gardener," an activist that revolutionized guerilla horticulture in South Central by planting vegetables on his home's parkway, "transforms unused urban spaces into places of community and congregation." His efforts petitioning prompted the city to legalize curbside gardening. He continues hosting workshops and traveling to international regions explaining how to take back the soil.
From start to finish the labyrinth is dense with relic, sculptures, murals and history.
In "This Little Piggy Should Have Stayed Home," RISK suggests law enforcement's presence can be more detrimental than beneficial in certain neighborhoods.
Damien Hirst once referred to the shark as the worlds greatest predator and I thought, well if you ask someone in the hood what the worlds biggest predator was they may reply the Police. They cruise the hood like a shark cruises the ocean at the top of the food chain. They have all these rats out there chumming the water and they come scoop them up. They may even supposedly mistake your marker for a gun and shoot you for tagging a wall. They are the real predators. I thought it would be great to throw a cop in a glass tank of formaldehyde but that was too easy a concept so I decided to do a police car. A car is the opposite of a living being but in the case of a police car, equally as menacing... Of course the pig resonated with me because well... a cop is a so called pig. So I thought slicing the car like bacon was only appropriate. I say this in jest, I have many friends that are police I don't think all cops are our enemies but I also don't believe all cops are not our enemies...
"LA Hands" by OG Slick.
In Kenny Scharf's "Cosmic Cavern" discarded remnants covered in day-glo paint pop out like something in Avatar's Pandora. Originally dubbed "The Closet" in 1981, the artist lived with Keith Haring in NYC's East Village and encouraged their friends to leave their tags. The display includes artifacts from the original installation as well as additional antiquities he's collected over the years.
"There are over two million freight cars rolling around North America, and it takes a sustained multi-year effort for a graffiti writer to make his presence felt on this system from coast to coast. These G-scale model trains have been painted by some of America's most prolific freight train painters of the past 30 years. Their dedication to the culture of freight-train painting is undeniable: Most of these writers have painted over a thousand freight cars; some approach and exceed 5,000."
One of the culture's biggest documentarians, photographer Martha Cooper has a wall of iconic images captured in the 1970s & 80s.
Chris Pape aka FREEDOM's hallway leading into the warehouse.
A glimpse of the hangar space with the legendary Dogtown and Z-Boys photographer/artist C.R. Stecyk III getting interviewed in front of his installation.
The drawing room of HUSKMITNAVN redefined boundaries of pen and paper.
The world renowned Venice Pavilion recreated with prominent artists and Adidas, a monumental landmark in California since the 1960s in skateboarding and street art.
Get your tickets here before it closes July 6th.
