Sunday, June 8 2014 10am-5pm

Many of LA’s most influential graffiti and tattoo artists, including Juan Carlos Munoz Hernandez will covered the walls and floors of ESMoA to publicly launch their 21st century encounter with an artistic tradition: The Getty Graffiti Black Book.

In 2013 more than 150 of LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book and created the Getty Graffiti Black Book.

Street artists have used black books for decades to create a visual memory of drafts and to serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The extraordinary competition that occasionally arises among such artists can also lead to respect as rivals invite each other to “hit” their black books with original works. The contributing artists decided to give the Getty Black Book the title, LA Liber Amicorum, to capture the spirit of its transformation of rival ‘writing-crews’ into a Los Angeles Book of Friends.

ESMoA is the brainchild of Eva and Brian Sweeney – she an architect, he an entrepreneur, and together passionate collectors who have supported the arts through their Los Angeles/Berlin-based private art initiative artlab21 Foundation. Artlab21 Foundation is a non profit Public Benefit Corporation 501(c)(3). The specific purpose of artlab21 foundation is the promotion of education though art and appreciation of art.

January 2, 2013 - March 23, 2013

Bridging Homeboy Industries: Fabian Debora, Alex Kizu, and Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez 

Bridging Homeboy Industries featured the work of Fabian Debora, Alex Kizu, and Juan Carlos Muñoz Hernandez, three working artists who share roots in the East L.A. neighborhood of Boyle Heights, a close-knit community beset by poverty and violence. Though their paths and practices are unique, each has benefited from the services of Homeboy Industries, the largest gang intervention program in the nation. Founded as a jobs program by Father Gregory Boyle in 1992, Homeboy Industries continues to thrive as a network of successful businesses supported and run by former gang  members.