Both are major figures of the West Coast street art scene, and with the phenomenal success that both now devote a great deal of their time to charitable art projects. Currently featured in LA MOCA's Art in the Streets Exhibition, Kenny and Shepard have also been working on large scale public art murals in LA including Shepard's Obey Elephant on the side of the West Hollywood Library's Garage. And the best part?! Prints by both superstars are available through LittleCollector! We couldn't be prouder to be working with these exceptional and civic-minded artists.
The new public library in West Hollywood isn't expected to officially open until October, but at least one component of the complex is already garnering public attention: a new group of murals created by street artists Shepard Fairey, Retna and Kenny Scharf.
The outdoor murals are a joint project by the artists, the city of West Hollywood and the Museum of Contemporary Art. They can be found on the library's parking structure, near the corner of Melrose Avenue and San Vicente Boulevard, across from the Pacific Design Center.
Andrew Campbell, the city's cultural affairs administrator, said in an interview that officials had invited MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch to tour the library while it was under construction. He said Deitch saw the walls and thought they would make an ideal extension of the museum's "Art in the Streets" exhibition.
Fairey's large-scale mural features a peace dove next to an elephant, both rendered in his signature style. You can view more photos of the near-finished artwork on Fairey's website.
"Calm down taxpayers … I was not paid to do the mural and paid for my own supplies and labor," the artist wrote on his site.
Fairey's mural stands 70 feet by 106 feet. The street artist has also been commissioned to create indoor work for the library, along with artist David Wiseman.
On another part of the parking structure, Retna has created a textual mural that incorporates strangely encrypted blue writing, which is said to be quotations from Salman Rushdie. Scharf's mural, on yet another part of the building, features a colorful explosion of cartoon-like characters.
