John Outterbridge (b. 1933 Greenville, NC) is a Los Angeles based artist working primarily in assemblage. Outerbridge has been an influential educator, community activist, and participant in the Black Arts movement in Southern California throughout his ongoing career. He took up this role soon after moving to Los Angeles upon graduating from the Academy of Art in Chicago. Much of Outterbridge's work deals with oppressive realities the black community faced (and continues to face) in Los Angeles, including quickening impoverishment as a result of deindustrialization, police brutality, job discrimination, and a deficit of educational and artistic resources. The 1965 Watts Uprising greatly influenced Outterbridge particularly because of
his relationship to Noah Purifoy whose work in the exhibition 66 Signs of Neon marked the beginning of a public commitment to community building and his assemblage work.
In the early 1970’s Outerbridge worked with the city officials to develop an arts education program at the already existing