Art Exhibition & Panel Discussion - L.A. Graffiti Book - Jim McHugh

ABOUT THE BOOK:

L.A. Graffiti is a collection of unique works by 151 Los Angeles graffiti and tattoo artists represents an unprecedented collaboration across the city’s diverse artistic landscape.

Many graffiti artists carry sketchbooks, called black books, and they ask crew members and others whose work they admire to inscribe their books with lettering or drawings. A few years ago, the Getty Research Institute invited artists, including Angst, Axis, Big Sleeps, Chaz, Cre8, Defer, EyeOne, Fishe, Heaven, Hyde, Look, ManOne, and Prime, to consider the idea of a citywide graffiti black book. During visits to the Getty Center, the artists viewed rare books related to calligraphy and letterforms, including works by Albrecht Dürer and Leonardo da Vinci. The artists instantly recognized the connections to their own practices and were particularly drawn to a liber amicorum (book of friends), a form of autograph book popular in the seventeenth century. Passed from hand to hand, it was filled with signatures, poetry, and coats of arms, like a black book from another era.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS & INTERVIEWER:

JIM MCHUGH has garnered many awards for his photography and is included in prominent collections such as The Museum of Modern Art, The Walker Center, The Polaroid Collection, and the National Portrait Gallery in London. He has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally.

In 2010, the United Nations honoured him with the IPC Professional Photography Leadership Award. Jim also won The International Photography Awards’ First Prize for Fine Art Photography 2007, and George Eastman House awarded him Best of Show in 2008 for architectural imagery of Los Angeles.

Jim attended the master’s program at the UCLA Film School. He went on to become one of the original contributing photographers to People magazine, an official photographer for the Grammy Awards, and a contributing photographer to Architectural Digest.

He is renowned for his large format Polaroid images of Los Angeles, urban landscapes monumentalizing that which is now invisible and derelict. These pictures were first exhibited at Timothy Yarger Fine Art in 2010 in a show of Jim’s work titled “Let’s Get Lost: Polaroids From The Coast.”

Jim is critically acclaimed for his series of artist portraits that include Ed Ruscha, John Baldessari, and David Hockney, and he has published several books on artists. His artist portraits were first exhibited at The James Corcoran Gallery in Los Angeles in 1984. In 2011, the Yarger gallery presented “Los Angeles: 40 Artists - Photographs by Jim McHugh” in partnership with the Getty Museum’s “Pacific Standard Time” program, celebrating art in Los Angeles from 1945 to 1985.

Presently, Jim is working, based in Los Angeles, and is preparing an exhibition for Photokina - World of Imaging 2012 in Cologne, Germany.

MICHAEL KIRCHOFF is a photographic artist, independent curator and juror, and advocate for the photographic arts. He is a frequent portfolio reviewer for several fine art photographic organizations and non-profits in the U.S. and abroad. Michael has been a contributing writer for Lenscratch, Light Leaked, and Don’t Take Pictures magazine. In addition, he spent ten years (2006-2016) on the Board of the American Photographic Artists in Los Angeles (APA/LA), producing artist lectures, as well as business and inspirational events for the community.

Currently, he is Editor-in-Chief at Analog Forever Magazine , Founding Editor for the photographer interview website, Catalyst: Interviews , and Contributing Editor for the column, Traverse , at One Twelve Publishing. Previously, Michael spent over four years as Editor at BLUR Magazine.