#34 Artist Sandow Birk

Is painting a silly way to communicate? Why is the Qu'ran is so relevant to everyday America? And what does Bruegel have to do with mass shootings? 

Born in Detroit but raised in the OC Birk is well travelled, and his subjects are as wideranging as his world wide adventures. Images of gang violence, graffiti culture, prisons, surfing, skateboarding, Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Iraq war, and the Qur’an are all treated with an eye toward social justice and historical contexts.

Birk has exhibited in dozens of museum and galleries, and his work is in many public and museum collections including: SF MOMA the LACMA, The Getty Center in Los Angeles; the Met; and the Harvard University Art Museum as well as several renown European museums. Birk has received an NEA grant, and Fellowships from the Guggenheim, Fulbright, the Getty and the City of Los Angeles. AND There are no less than seven books devoted to his various projects - which obviously is one of the reasons, I'm excited to have him on the show.