Save the Date: April 17 “Dark Progressivism” LA Sneak Peek, World Art Day
Cartwheel Art celebrates Los Angeles’ place as an international art city on April 17 as part of World Art Day. Now in its fourth year, World Art Day is a global event that promotes awareness of creative activity worldwide. And while World Art Day is officially April 15, in LA we love a party, so in here it’s become a World Art Weekend!
Our city, a newcomer to the art world by comparison to European cities and even New York, Chicago or Denver, has nonetheless produced many world class artists and art movements over the past century, delivering its own styles of both decorative and visual arts ranging from Malibu and Catalina pottery and the works of Ray and Charles Eames, plein air and woodblock prints to Light & Space and Pop Surrealism.
While these style were developing, another art form was growing in the city’s underground, based in graffiti and tattooing, and forged by prejudice, oppression and violence. Join us April 17 at The Container Yard in the Downtown LA Arts District, when Cartwheel Art presents the film Dark Progressivism in its first Los Angeles screening, a warm up to its festival debut at the Newport Beach Film Festival later in April.
Dark Progressivism is a riveting inside look at Los Angeles, its history of graffiti and tattoos, influence of street gangs on these arts, and the social conditions experienced during a specific time period, from late 1980s onward to the present.
The film features artists like Big Sleeps, Defer, Heaven and Prime whose work is on display at The Container Yard and on murals throughout the DTLA Arts District. The film screening will be preceded by a tour of these murals and there will be a discussion with the film’s writer/director Rodrigo Ribera D’Ebre afterwards.
As the media sponsor for Dark Progressivism and to celebrate World Arts Day, Cartwheel Art presents two tours centering around the DTLA Arts District and the artists in the film. You can tour The Container Yard and see the film as one option; take a walking tour of the Arts District with a stop for a craft beer tasting at Angel City Brewery, and learn about graffiti from graffiti historian and author Steve Grody who is featured in the film as option two; or immerse yourself completely with both options as a combo tour and package. Ticket prices range from $15 to $35 depending on your choice of tours. For more details, check out the Cartwheel Art Tour page. Additional programmed events for World Art day LA, can be found on Cartwheel Art Magazine Save the Date here.
