At 6th and Spring, Gronk nods towards a gaggle of people who seem to be on a walking tour of the Historic Core. They look like Victorian anthropologists on safari. “There’s that white middle class,” he says, referring to a recent conversation. He had said of the “new” downtown: “The influx of a strong, white, middle class demands amenities. Things we didn’t have when I moved in. Every day was an adventure.”
Gronk—known for his role in the Chicano movement and currently featured in LACMA’s “Phantom Sightings” show—has been using “downtown as a playground” since the 1970s. As an observer of Los Angeles, he seems to have a strong affection for her shifting identity, free from wistful nostalgia.
“I am an observer of the environment I live in. From a critical eye, I utilize things that I will perhaps not see again, like going to places John Rechy wrote about—Harold’s on Main—these were moments in time to tap into.”
A notable moment in time hung in “Phantom Sightings” is a 1972 photograph of a wall at LACMA where ASCO artists Gronk, Herrón and Gamboa had spray-painted their names, while Valdez leans against its railing. The photo’s inclusion in the show brings a wry smile to Gronk’s face, but he’s not resting on his laurels: “I’d rather be part of a living culture that pushes the boundaries.” He’s “still marking it up,” but now, for example, he has designed opera sets for Peter Sellers where, like Valdez in the photograph, the singers are “inside of the set.”
One could get wistfully nostalgic about the downtown of the 1970s and 1980s, when the punk and art scenes were on fire. Gronk remembers downtown teeming with galleries with an international presence, in that major corporations, like Arco, had their own gallery spaces, and MOCA conducted tours of artist’s studios.
“Now we only have Art Walk,” Gronk said. “But there’s great opportunity for artists to have their first show. And certain galleries, like Bert Green, really nurture young artists. There’s an engaging scene still in development where younger artists are beginning to cut their teeth.”
One such emerging artist is fellow East LA native Robert Vargas, for whom Gronk is sitting for a portrait to be included in Vargas’ solo May show. You may know him by his work’s steady presence on walls in downtown galleries, workshops, cafes and retail stores—too many to list here. A Historic Core resident since 2005, the 33-year-old Pratt Institute and LA High School for the Arts graduate has bitten into downtown and in turn watched the scene chomp on its teething ring.
“Art Walk used to feel like a local’s secret, now people come from all over. But we still have a long way to go to get work that is on par with the quality of bigger galleries on the Westside,” he said.
Vargas believes one way to develop this is through creative collaborations, like when he invited Emmeric Konrad to paint a homeless man, “Ricky the Pirate,” for crowds of viewers on Main Street during December Art Walk. The artists took turns drawing on the same wooden board, one minute at a time, then spent the last two minutes painting and drawing together, through and over each other, in baroque crescendo. He feels such interactions not only keep the artistic dialogue alive, but also strengthen the creative community.
Unlike Gronk, Vargas is wary of the new. “The marketing of new residential buildings downtown plays on the romantic idea of artists and their lofts, but how many young artists can actually afford these places? It’s great to see the new wave of downtowners integrate with the old wave, but will the texture of the Historic Core be lost if the new outnumbers the old?” he asked.
As such, Vargas, known for his figurative paintings, has taken a political turn and is exploring new media. For example, a current video project with LA muralist Kent Twitchell comments on the much-publicized painting-over of Twitchell’s Ed Ruscha mural and recent cloth, found cardboard and plaster sculptural works freeze-frame the destitution that mingles with the bourgeoisie. Vargas too taps into the moment…perhaps the best way to ride the waves of change.
As Gronk said, “Los Angeles is not a city; it’s a place to observe a diversity of people you can’t find elsewhere. There is no one school of thought and many different forms of art. Not all are great or good. Sometimes you walk away from the work and say the experience was the best part.”
Gronk’s early work can be seen in the “Phantom Sightings: Art After the Chicano Movement” show at LACMA.
Robert Vargas’s solo exhibition opens at the 626 Gallery during May Art Walk (May 8th).
For more on art and sex, visit SaskiaVogel.com.