The Must-See Group Show of L.A. Culture-Defining Artists Head to Miami during Art Basel. CALIFORNIA LOCOS, represented by Coagula Curatorial’s Mat Gleason, brings over 50 years of Southern California art culture to Context Miami December 2-7, 2014. The traveling show, which premiered with positive press and curious crowds in Los Angeles earlier this year, features the work of legendary artists Chaz Bojorquez, Dave Tourjé, John Van Hamersveld, Norton Wisdom and Gary Wong: artists who are deeply rooted in the Southern California landscape, each having been influenced and inspired by the surf, skate, punk rock, and the barrio culture that is Los Angeles.
CALIFORNIA LOCOS focuses specifically on these five because of the impact they had on Los Angeles through the 80’s and 90’s. Dave Tourjé describes that time period as, “20 years of chaos. It was fractal, it was broken pieces – and it produced the first truly native generation of LA artists who were influenced by the edgy SoCal subcultures of Surf, Skate, Street and Punk.”
As art critic Shana Nys Dambrot says, “Understanding the LOCOS legacy is not about who influenced them, so much as it is about who they went on to influence.” The ripples of their visual styles across the world are impossible to deny, and after a stellar critical reception in Los Angeles, the CALIFORNIA LOCOS are coming to Miami’s international Art Basel to take their rightful place at the art table.