Tattoo star gets a gallery show
He's a Los Angeles icon and a world-famous tattoo artist whose work has gone beyond the skin and has been displayed in group shows at art galleries around the world.
Now, Mister Cartoon, aka Mark Machado, is celebrating his home and his local roots with his first solo exhibition in the city were he was born and raised.
“It's mando that we do it here first. The city is so important to me,” Mister Cartoon said a few days before the opening of “Just My Imagination” at Beyond the Streets & Control Gallery. It opens June 10 and runs through July 15.
“You're going to see new work by me that no one has seen before; not even my friends have seen it,” he added.
The original art pieces in the show exemplify the L.A. lowrider lifestyle, Chicano culture and the black-and-gray, fine-line style of tattooing that was born in prisons and elevated by talented artists like Mister Cartoon.
“I'm painting for myself and my peers. It's my part of leaving a mark in our culture or trying to add to our culture,” he said.
Tattoo icon Mister Cartoon opens his first gallery show June 10.
The show includes drawings and airbrushed works using automotive paint on various canvases, including handcrafted metal. While he has displayed his work in many group shows before, it's taken this long to debut his own solo show in L.A. because he's a busy working artist.
“I've never filled up a whole gallery on my own. It takes a lot of work to fill up a gallery and I'm a commercial artist, and you gotta work your 9-to-5,” Mister Cartoon said.
Born in downtown L.A. and raised in the Harbor area, he started as a graffiti artist before branching into murals, then on to gigs designing album covers and logos and eventually into tattooing. He's become a highly sought-after artist, inking hiphop stars like Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent and other musicians like Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Beyoncé.
At his exhibition, people will see pieces reflective of where he grew up, including a black-andwhite image of Los Angeles under a cloudy skyline with liquor stores and high-rises standing side by side. There's another black-andwhite piece depicting an oldschool cholo walking down the street surrounded by religious imagery like angels and clouds.
The backbone of the exhibition is the colorful paintings airbrushed on metal canvases inspired by his tattoos. And the metal canvases themselves were inspired by car parts, although some paintings are done on actual car parts, including the trunk
`JUST MY IMAGINATION'
What: Exhibition of the work of tattoo artist Mister Cartoon When: 11 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesdays-Saturdays from June 10-July 15
Where: Beyond the Streets & Control Gallery, 434N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles
Tickets: Free admission. For more information, go to control. gallery.
lid of a 1964 Chevy Impala.
“I'm taking images that I put on people's skin and putting them on canvas. And I'm keeping those classic heroes and characters I've developed,” he said.
There's also a complete car at the exhibition, which has also been on display before. It's a 1939 Chevrolet Master Deluxe airbrushed by Mister Cartoon a few years ago with images of old gangsters.
The exhibition is accompanied by a book of his drawings titled “Sketches: Book One.” The 180page volume is filled with more than 290 works that Mister Cartoon said show the background process of his art that most people don't get to see.
“Some of them are kind of (expletive) sketches, but it's the opposite of the polished paintings you're going to see in the show,” he said. “I'm hyped; I'm excited about all this. I just want people to go over there, relax and enjoy themselves and soak it in. Hopefully someone leaves inspired to make some art or just be involved in the culture.”