Taggers’ Paradise

Second Street Jazz

From the street to the canvas, Crewest strives to make graffiti into an accepted art form.

by Eric Dzinski

Crewest aims to elevate graffiti art for patrons and taggers alike

Whatever you imagine a graffiti art gallery to look like, Crewest isn’t it. For one thing, it’s clean. The walls aren’t exposed brick or cinderblock, nor are they covered in spray paint and magic marker. That’s all on canvasses, thoughtfully arranged and artfully lit. The façade is inviting tempered glass, displaying large works by artist George Yepes. The floors are concrete, but they're polished and sealed. It’s nothing like being on the street. If you didn’t know better, you would almost think that graffiti is a legitimate art form.

Bringing people to that conclusion is a major motivation for gallery owner Alex Poli, Jr., who creates street art under the name Man One. “When you mention graffiti, I think they have something else in their head,” says Man. “There’s this connotation of what graffiti is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be grungy and dirty and ugly.”

Man says that displaying graffiti art in a modern downtown gallery helps people get over these preconceptions and see the art behind the vandalism. “The same artists that did a wall you see on the way to work every morning, now you see that same artist’s work in a gallery and you’re able to see it on a whole new level.”

And it seems to be working. Since relocating to Winston Street from a much smaller space in Alhmabra in 2006, Crewest has become a hit in the burgeoning Downtown art scene. “During the Art Walks, we used to experience maybe 50 to 60 people a night,” says Man. ”Now we’re seeing 1,200 to 1,500 people within a three-hour period.”

Art lovers at each Art Walk tell Man that Crewest features the most unique pieces of all the galleries, and while that doesn’t always translate into sales, he says he is very pleased about the positive exposure. “The purpose of the gallery has been to educate people on what graffiti art is, what street art is all about.”

When I visited the gallery in November, the street art was about skulls. Over a hundred human skulls that lined the walls and crowded the display tables were painted, sculpted, and decorated for the gallery’s seventh annual Top of the Dome show, which stretches Dia de los Muertos out for a whole mes. Canvasses also incorporated the skull theme, including an imposing black and white piece called Los Avenues, after the notorious L.A. gang. According to artist Chaz Bojorquez’s statement, “To Latino people, the skulls’ representation is not about death, but about rebirth, tracing back to ancient tradition from our Aztec heritage.”

Crewest shows are typically built around such themes. Sometimes this means highlighting a solo artist while other shows focus on particular subjects or media that include dozens of individual artists. Among the latter was a collection of painted soccer balls for this summer’s World Cup, or The Sharpie Show II, which runs through the month of December. In either case, Man One looks for originality in concept and execution, rather than obsessing over an artist’s pedigree. “If the art speaks to me, then I start investigating the rest of it,” says Man. ”I get two to three emails a day asking to display at the gallery. Ninety percent of it I say no.”

That surge in interest is encouraging to Man One, who wants Crewest to be a place where taggers and vandals can be exposed to the more artistic (and respectable) side of graffiti. “People are gonna do graffiti anyways,” he says. “There’s nothing we can do about that. But now we have this gallery where artists can sell their work and become known and make a living.”

The tours that Crewest regularly offers to youth groups and high school art classes gets kids excited about the artistic possibilities of graffiti. Some have even said they can’t wait to have their own galleries, which is a far cry from Man One’s youth. “There really wasn’t a place like this where I could go and learn from other artists. The closest thing was Belmont Tunnel.”

When I asked if graffiti art is taken more seriously now than his days hanging out in the (now-sealed) subway tunnel, Man says, “I get called by really big companies and clients, to do really big projects in graffiti style, so it’s totally taken seriously. Then I’ll be on the street painting the mural, and cops will pull up and pull guns on me because I’m spray painting. So I guess that’s being taken seriously, too.”

 

Crewest is open Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 7 PM, Friday and Saturday from noon to 8 PM, and Sundays from noon to 6 PM. Located at 110 Winston Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. 213-627-8272. The gallery is also available for parties or events.

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