SABER / BEAUTIFICATION
Opens: July 28, 2012 | 8-11pm
Runs: July 28 – August 11, 2012
Known Gallery
441 North Fairfax Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
info@knowngallery.com
Among the thousands of people who make up the graffiti community around the world, there are few names that carry the same legendary quality as SABER. Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, SABER was raised by creative parents and discovered his passion for art at an early age. At 13, his cousins introduced him to graffiti when they took him to see the spray paint-covered Belmont Tunnel. From that moment on, he was hooked. After honing his skills on local walls, SABER joined MSK, and was later inducted into legendary piecing crew AWR.
SABER was already a fixture in the Los Angeles graffiti scene by 1997 when he completed the largest graffiti piece ever created. His piece on the sloping cement bank of the Los Angeles River was nearly the size of a professional football field, and took 97 gallons of paint and 35 nights to complete. In a famous photograph—taken by his father just after it was finished—SABER stands on the piece and appears as a tiny speck amid a giant blaze of color. It catapulted SABER to legend status in the graffiti world.
SABER began exhibiting in his fine art in 2002. His monograph, SABER: MAD SOCIETY, complete with stories of his graffiti misadventures, was released by Gingko Press in 2007 and is now in its second printing. In October 2010, SABER released a video in which the year’s heated debate about health care was spray painted over the American flag. While some saw it as desecration, SABER advocated for health care reform in the video, revealing that he had epilepsy and was un-insurable. This work led SABER to create a large group of American flag paintings called the Tarnished series.
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening:1. Grand Opening of "TALKING...& OTHER BANANA SKINS / UNARTIG2. Footprint by The Krank3. Six ...
Heading out to Nevada today to check out a mural on the plains that honors a cattle rancher and a freight-jumping graff legend cowboy as well. You may not think they have much in common but have you e...
It’s a brave and intricate undertaking, receiving someone’s painted canvas into your studio and then determining how you will alter it by painting over someone else’s work. Graffiti writers spend yea...
Street artist Pejac is raising funds for NGOs that provide services to war-torn populations, with a new auction of his latest print entitled So Far, So Close. Senseless loss comes from war, and ar...
“Let’s see…Champagne Moet and Campari are selling well, Vagisil we’re very low on. Brooklyn Lager we’ve had to re-stock,” Store Manager Jo Brooks ticks off the hot sales of the day here in Manhattan’s...