Let’s Paint the Town

Heavily influenced by the underground music and proud Latin American culture of Los Angeles, Black Light King has found an intersection between graffiti and street art. At a young age, he discovered a love for art as an expression and at 15 discovered the power of neon. Black Light King is part of that movement, painting neon and blacklight commissioned masterpieces across building interiors, exteriors and painting live during underground happenings. You can find some of his most notable works across the many districts of Downtown LA. More incredible is Black Light’s ability to hide his identity while painting his murals behind the mask of a luchador. Black Light King says he wears a mask as a vehicle to transcend boundaries.

Creative Careers: Angel City Brewery Festival

Hagop Belian is a self-taught mixed media collage artist. His work is an exploration in the concept of synergy: the creation of a whole that is greater that the simple sum of its parts. The source materials of his work come from books and materials dated from the early 1500’s to 1800’s , and are retrieved from public domains and libraries from around the world. By constructing unlikely relationships between images, Hagop brings new meaning and purpose to the subject matter, thereby challenging society’s preconceived notions regarding race, gender, and culture.

Creative Careers: Angel City Brewery Festival

Davia King is an abstract expressionist artist who uses bright colors. By layering thin layers of acrylic ink and aerosol she captures a visual interpretation of creative energy. By allowing the composition to take on a life of its own rather than try to force a preexisting idea, each piece is unique and cannot be replicated twice exactly the same way. King then enrolls the public to act as her models as she captures each person in a blind contour style while creating a moment of connection. She is regularly live painting and collaborating with the public at different private and public events throughout the Los Angeles area where anyone present can become a part of her next piece.

Creative Careers: 4th St Bridge, Angel City Brewery Festival

John Cuevas lives and works in Palm Desert, Los Angeles and Oceano, California. In 2005 he attended the School of Architecture, California Polytechnic, Pomona. In 2007 he received a BFA from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA.

Exhibition: Spring Benefit and Art Auction

Creative Careers: Angel City Brewery Avocado Festival, 4th St Bridge Stairs

Leah Smithson is a Los Angeles based artist with a surrealistic nature to her work, mixing both traditional and new media (i.e. Virtual and Augmented Reality). She’s worked and exhibited throughout the US and abroad, including most recently a mural at the Apple Tower Theater in Downtown LA. Having moved around as a kid, her style comes from a patchwork of influences from classical painting to cyberpunk. She uses nature & portraiture to express the complexities of being human. As a muralist, her goal is to create little rabbit holes of experiences in the cityscape, providing moments of inspiration to remind us that our lives are about more than just surviving.

Exhibition: Spring Benefit and Art Auction

Creative Career: Angel City Brewery Festival

hero is a contemporary artists that creates socially charged images with his blend of mixed media and spray paint. While acquiring his degree in film, his schooling introduced him to notable artists from the 20th century. His passion for graffiti and street art took him to the alley ways and aqueducts in Los Angeles, where he was introduced to some of the most infamous graffiti artists. His vast influences have inspired him to focus on the process of creation and the evolution of self exploration. He has been known to create paintings using everything from smoke bombs to designer fabrics. Hero gained global notoriety when he created an 80’s based character “AlfPacino,” which was quickly printed, stenciled, and stickered by fans around the world.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

B-Luv brings a background in media and graphic design to his creations. While his art began as a personal catharsis after his wife was diagnosed with cancer, B-luv discovered that the therapeutic nature of art could not only help him, but anyone dealing with adversity in life and love by spreading the messages of Love and Peace…especially timely in today’s political and social climate. His work ranges from fun, to heartfelt, to political, to strange, but all carry with them the message of Love.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

Bunnie ‘Bonnie’ Reiss was raised with the wide-blue sky’s of Colorado. She was a tiny rebel with a large imagination, knowing at a young age that she quite didn’t fit in and the world was a much bigger place than the quiet suburban landscape that seemed to endlessly surround her. She eventually relocated to San Francisco and received her MFA from San Francisco Arts Institute. She grew into herself, found a community of artists that she would spend many years building, living and creating many things together. After traveling through France and across the US, she relocated to Los Angeles to pursue larger mural and installation-based projects. Her work is heavily influenced by her Eastern European background, with its tradition of folk art, bright colors, and community engagement. Her extensive travels have also added an extra layer of conversation, which makes her creations unique. Her brightly colored folk murals decorate many countries and can be found all over the world.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

Sara Sandoval is a spray paint stencil artist. Wanting to pursue art she looked into attending CalArts in 2010 only to discover she was undocumented in the process. Since DACA was not in place until 2012 her plans for after high school changed. She started studying street art online and watching videos on how to create multilayer stencils. Through self study she discovered her own style. At first she used her art as a way to create while escaping her feelings on being a undocumented, gay woman but eventually found her voice and created a series dedicated to essential migrant workers who are struggling to feed their families and keeping themselves safe.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

Instagram: @sarasandovalart

David Puck is a young British multi-disciplinary artist, working in traditional painting, makeup, digital, video content, and public murals. Their work primarily explores human experience and mental health, exploring areas of identity, narrative, psychology, sociology and philosophy. Their mission is to foster healthy, compassionate connection and understanding. They work closely with local communities and artists, often collaborating and creating community engagement. They are originally from the UK and work between there, Los Angeles, and travelling.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town, Angel City Brewery Heritage Festival

Instagram: @davidpuckartist

​​Jeremy Novy’s unique brand of street art is ripe with thoughtful social examinations. Novy has combatted a homophobic lack of representation with a celebration of gay iconography, bringing joviality and warmth to disused urban spaces. With a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, he curated the first major exhibition of its kind, “A History of Queer Street Art,” premiered in San Francisco in 2011 and later toured to Pop Up Gallery in Los Angeles and Yale University. Since graduating from Pecks School of the Arts, Novy’s art has been met with acclaim across the country.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

Instagram: @jeremynovy

Amy Smith is a self-taught contemporary artist always evolving. Her artwork includes murals, stencils, collage work, illustrations, digital graphic design, paint, and spray paint, all to create one-of-a-kind pieces that reflect both her passions and fury, juxtaposed through the lens of imagination. While some of my work is driven by political, social, and environmental injustice, most reflect my deeply-rooted optimism and belief in the power of the feminist spirit, unity and love. 

Exhibition: Spring Benefit and Art Auction, Rainbow Shift

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

Kar_Part is an LA native, mechanical engineer product designer turned street artist fueled by a growing frustration with socio-political, economic, and behavioral conditions. His series, ‘Totem Dolls’ begun in 2020 features a collection of dubious billionaires, fellow artists, and iconic historical figures. Covering a variety of styles and media, all of Kar_Part’s artworks begin on the streets before expanding to limited and open edition works on canvas and wood panel.

Creative Careers: Let’s Paint the Town

Instagram: @kar_part

I’m a self-taught artist and native Angeleno. In 1998, I started my career. In 2013, it took a sharp turn when I read a quote in an Alexander McQueen biography. He referred to himself, not as a black sheep, but as a ‘pink sheep.’ It was a magical moment, it felt personal. I was different, this was different. Even though I had no idea of what it meant, inspiration started flowing from every direction. I felt overwhelmed. I didn’t expect to be working on the streets, but I knew that SHEƎP belonged out and about. ‘e(we) are ALL Queer’ is the message behind SHEƎP. e(we) are all different. It’s a truth that connects us all. SHEƎP is for everyone.

Creative Career: Let’s Paint the Town

Instagram: @littlericky001