Form and Power: Black Murals in Los Angeles

6 L.A. Artists

6 LA Artists by Kent Twitchell is featured in Torrance, a city in the South Bay area of Los Angeles County. Twitchell’s mural inspires its audience and makes an immediate impact through its great size and distinct use of realism. Looking from left to right, Twitchell represents the artists Marta Chaffee-Stang, Alonzo Davis, Paul Czirban, Oliver Nowlin, Eloy Torrez and Wayanna Kato, who are all graduates of the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles like Twitchell. They are also all artists that are deeply admired by their communities. Stand is a landscape artist who focuses on the simplistic beauty of California, while Davis is an advocate for African American artists. Czirban is an abstract landscape ceramicist, while Nowlin is a professor of art at L.A. City College. Finally, Torrez is a muralist focusing on people of color and restoration while Kato is an Asian-American artist who does not often publish her work.    

The realistic artwork is a community-inspired mural focused on strength in diversity. The six artists depicted in the mural have each empowered their community through either social activism or education. Sprouting from themes of cross-cultural collaboration and fellowship in the arts, Twitchell’s mural puts forth the idea that your community is not always the people you look like, but rather the individuals who help you reach your fullest potential and inspire you.

Written by Kaisa Liljenwall, c/o ‘24

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