Posted on
2014-09-08
BLADE is considered “The King of Graffiti” because by 1980, after painting 5,000 wildly creative trains, he stopped counting. Known and loved by the graffiti community, BLADE is not a myth but a crowned head visionary who has painted a rich collection of artwork on the street and on canvas.
BLADE’s first solo show in Los Angeles, this exhibit features new large-scale spray paint and paint marker artworks on canvas and NYC subway maps. Inspired by his own characters, letters, colors, and abstract imagery from some of his own subway train masterpieces from the 1970’s, the collection of artwork is a throwback to his innovative style that influenced generations of contemporary artists all over the world. Titles like “METALLIC MADNESS” and “METEROIC RAINBOW ” are reminiscent of the silver spray paint and metal trains that BLADE painted fiercely. His gifted perception for color and letter style are not just nostalgic but defining for the golden era of subway art. In “JOINT MAN ,” BLADE paints a character he originally created in 1976, at age 19, on an IRT Train. These new paintings are a look at the past fused with BLADE’s ever-future imagination of today.
Exhibition runs through to September 13th, 2014
The Seventh Letter Store & Gallery
346 N. Fairfax Ave
Los Angeles
CA 90036
theseventhletter.com