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Mark Vallen 2004
Oil on Wood
14″ x 11″
Here’s what Vallen had to say about this artwork:
“I created this portrait in oil on a wood panel. Titled African American, a full color reproduction of the work was printed in the pages of the Los Angeles Times Calendar Magazine when the paper covered my solo exhibit, Mark Vallen: More Than A Witness, at West Hollywood’s A Shenere Velt Gallery in 2004. The painting is now in a private collection.”
Mark Vallen 1990
Lithograph on Paper
30″ x 22″
In Vallen’s own words:
“My lithographic print is a tribute to the other America. It expresses love for the dispossessed and impoverished people of the Americas. The portrait is of an anonymous mother and child; they could be living anywhere, Brazil, Honduras, Chile, Mexico – or East Los Angeles.”
Mark Vallen 1980
Signed Giclée Print
10″ x 14″ inches
This is the cover art Vallen did for the very last issue of SLASH magazine in 1980. Founded in 1977 the magazine was the very first Westcoast U.S. publication to promulgate the punk explosion.
Here’s what Vallen said about his artwork:
“My drawing was a visual proclamation that the spirits of the indigenious warriors of the North American continent had come back to possess the youthful punk rebels of the U.S. The mohawked and leather clad fellow in the drawing represented those spirits. The buttons on his leather jacket read, ‘Dead Kennedys, ‘I Am An Enemy of the State,’ and ‘We Are All Prostitutes.’
The magazine introduced an unsuspecting public to the likes of the Sex Pistols, Clash, Siouxsie and the Banshees and other bands hitherto unknown in the United States. L.A.’s own backyard was amply covered with reports on X, Germs, Fear, Black Flag, and many others. The last issue of SLASH featured articles on Crass and Adam and the Ants. My SLASH cover drawing was not only a political statement – it also served as a rebel fashion exclusive!”
Mark Vallen 1991
Serigraph
19″ x 24″
In Vallen’s words, and the words of others to follow:
My silkscreen print New World Odor was included in the exhibition, JUST ANOTHER POSTER? – Chicano Graphic Arts in California, a historic collection of Chicano artworks from the 70’s to the late 1990’s that traveled to museums across the US. The exhibit ran at the Fowler Museum at the University of California Los Angeles from June 16, 2001 to December 29, 2001, and I wrote a short review of that show.
In the official illustrated catalog for the exhibit, then Associate Professor of English at UCLA, Rafael Perez-Torres, who also happened to be one the show’s curators, wrote the following incisive passage regarding my print:
“Chicano identity has often been expressed in terms of personal and cultural development at the nexus of various systems of economic, political, and cultural exchange. This concern informs the critique behind Mark Vallen’s New World Odor. The title puns on the phrase President George H.W. Bush used to characterize the sociopolitical configuration of the world after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union. The poster suggests this new order means nothing but the same carnage beneath a different regime. The pile of skulls tumbling toward the viewer presents a macabre, perhaps slightly mocking vision of what awaits us in a world dominated by capital and commerce.
The gothic lettering seems to reference the poster art of the Third Reich, suggesting that the fall of communism has ensured the triumph of fascistic forces. The critique here is part of that strain in Chicano public art connected with political conditions at a global and international level.”
Read more below
Mark Vallen 1980
Hand-signed Silkscreen print
15″ x 16″ inches
Vallen’s statement on this artwork:
“In 1980 I created this silkscreen street poster which also ran as a front cover for the LA WEEKLY newspaper. It was a time when people were seriously wondering if nuclear war would break out between the Soviet Union and the United States. My artwork struck a cord with people and proved to be incredibly popular.”
Vallen’s poster was included in The Path of Resistance, an exhibit of contemporary protest art held at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art in 2000. Organized by Joshua Siegel and Susan Kismaric, the exhibit traced 40 years of socially critical and politically charged art.
The artwork was also exhibited at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (PMCA) in an exhibit titled Serigrafía, which ran from January through April, 2014.
Mark Vallen 2010
Linocuts on Paper
24.5″ x 15.5″
Here’s what Vallen had to say about this piece:
This is my linoleum block portrait of Pat Morrison (a.k.a. Pat Bag), the enchantingly sinister-looking bass player for The Bags, one of the first and most notorious late 70s punk rock bands in Los Angeles. I carved the linoleum block in early 1979, and unbelievably did not actually print the edition until 2010.
Each print in the limited edition of twelve was hand-pulled by master-printer John Greco at his Josephine Press print shop in Santa Monica, California. Printed on beautiful heavy white paper (acid free) using Dan Smith traditional relief ink; all prints are embossed in the lower right corner with the Josephine Press logo. Adhering to the time-honored practice in traditional printmaking, a final “cancellation print” was made after I cut a large “X” cut through the linoleum block – signifying the edition is closed and no further prints can be published from the block.
At the earliest performances of The Bags, band members wore bags over their heads and each was assured anonymity by taking “Bag” as a last name. Pat left the group in 1980 and began performing under her own name; she eventually ended up joining The Damned, the first U.K. punk band to record a single, an album, and to tour the United States. Their 1977 visit to Los Angeles helped to ignite the L.A. punk scene, and in 1996 Morrison fittingly married The Damned’s lead singer, Dave Vanian.
Mark Vallen 1980
Drawing, Pencil on Paper
26″ x 16″
Vallen’s interpretation:
“This is a portrait drawing I created of Hollywood punk rocker, Suzi Gardner. Suzy and I crossed paths while prowling around as denizens of the original punk rock scene in Los Angeles in the late 1970s. She had a look about her that made her an irresistible subject, and so I asked her to sit for a portrait. The result was an artwork that captured the zeitgeist of L.A.’s early nihilistic punk movement. Suzi eventually became a member of the all female rock band L7, a band she is still very much involved with today.”
Mark Vallen 1979
Signed Giclée Print
17″ x 13″ inches
Vallen created this drawing as a cover illustration for the legendary SLASH magazine in 1979. Founded in 1977 the magazine was the very first Westcoast U.S. publication to promulgate the punk explosion.
Here’s what Vallen said about his artwork:
“Sue Tissue was the lead singer for the band Suburban Lawns. My pencil drawing was released as a cover for SLASH magazine in 1979 – the first of two artworks created as covers for the magazine. The drawing also ended up in the book, Hardcore California, a history of Punk and New Wave by Peter Belsito and Bob Davis.
The Suburban Lawns were an edgy punk/pop outfit fronted by Tissue, whose quirky vocal style put the band on the forefront of the avant garde. Their underground hit single, Gidget goes to Hell typified their unique southern Californian sound.”
Mark Vallen 2015
Monotype on Paper
11″ x 8.5″
Listen in as Vallen describes the thought that went into creating this artwork:
“To mark the devastating drought of California (my home state), and to observe Día de los Muertos 2015, I created an extremely limited edition suite of six Monoprints. The prints recall the Tlaloque, underlings of Tlaloc, the ancient Aztec god of rain and celestial waters. You may consider my print a supplication for divine rain and an end to crippling drought; Tlaloque is a chromatic painted prayer put to paper in the Aztec tradition.
Essentially Tlaloque is a printed painting that depicts a watery realm. The artworks were created in oil paint directly applied onto a pane of glass, covered with a sheet of paper, and then burnished with a wooden spoon; each color was “pulled” separately. Working with a limited palette of cool colors (ultramarine, viridian, cerulean), I applied the paints using brushes, crumpled paper, cotton swabs and my fingers, to produce an ethereal female visage seemingly made from aquatic plants, water currents, and bubbles.”
Mark Vallen 1980
Signed Silkscreen print
15″ x 16″ inches
Here’s what Vallen said about his artwork:
“When I created this print people had began to wonder aloud about the future and their stake in it. Suddenly, the chilling refrain of the Sex Pistols ‘No Future’ began to have a ring of truth to it. Now we’re in the 21st Century, and strangely enough the same question is still being asked. Originally a street poster, my artwork was eventually published as a popular cover for the L.A. Weekly newspaper in 1980 – the year of the poster’s creation.”
Vallen’s print was included in Under the Big Black Sun: California Art 1974-1981, a comprehensive survey of California artists held at the MOCA Geffen Contemporary in L.A., Oct. 1, 2011 through Feb. 13, 2012.
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© All artworks and writings by Mark Vallen unless otherwise identified.