Dark Progressivism: LA Art Documentary Nearing Completion

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Screenshot 2014-07-10 12.18.12

Los Angeles sets global trend. Our art is exploding around the world. And can show your support for our city and its art through supporting the final stages of production on the LA art documentary Dark Progressivism: On Rupture and Rebellion.

A few months ago, I began working as an associate producer on Dark Progressivism: On Rupture and Rebellion, and Cartwheel Art agreed to be a media sponsor because the film is LA-centric and focuses on graffiti, murals and the artists who make them.  Now the film, directed by Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre and James Yi is almost done and there’s an IndieGoGo campaign up to finish the film (Yes, this is a a not-subtle suggestion to donate to a groundbreaking film which celebrates a vibrant native Los Angeles art style. And just to be clear: All funds go to the production–Cindy and Cartwheel Art have generously donated space and time as media sponsor).

Dark Progressivism, a term coined by director d’Ebre, began on the streets of LA–born in the dark decades of the 80s and 90s: Crack, gang wars, police suppression and scandals, riots, earthquakes–it was a really messed up time. really, really messed up. And in that time artists like Defer, Saber, Germs, Prime, Cryptik, Defer, Big Sleeps, Gajin Fujita Patrick Martinez, Chuey Quintanar and many others found a way to express their anger and frustration: Art.

Murals, graffiti, and tattooing–these arts were how artists expressed themselves. The style draws on lettering and calligraphic styles, embraces the clash of cultural symbols, and celebrates the triumph of progressing out of the darkness while still recognizing the roots of conflict. And now from the blood on the streets to the art on museum walls, in Dark Progressivism: On Rupture and Rebellion, Los Angeles artists share their experiences with inner city violence and their use of creativity as a form of redemption.

And it rocks. Hard. Beautiful, brutal, brave, bold. Like the City of Angels.

Writer/director d’Ebre’s concept of Dark Progressivism as an art genre so inspired Alex Defer Kizu who was curating a wall at El Segundo Museum of Art’s “Scratch” (open through September 21) that he and fellow artists Big Sleeps, Cryptik, Gajin Fujita, Kopey, Patrick Martinez, and Prime incorporated the phrase throughout the mural and titled it Dark Progressivism.

The IndieGoGo campaign has perks at every donor level: Stickers, signed postcards, posters, DVDs of the finished film, downloads for the new Prayers CD Gothic Summer (the Cholo goth band has tracks featured in the film), Rodrigo Ribera d’Ebre’s new novel A Grave Situation, and tickets to the premier screening.

Check out the trailer here, and I hope you’re as excited as we at Cartwheel Art are and that you’ll want to participate in the completion of this important documentary.

Top: Dark Progressivism at El Segundo Museum of Art

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