Artillery Magazine Reflects on Two Decades of Los Angeles Art, From Banksy to AI Avatars

In a personal essay for Artillery, a writer born in 2006 in suburban Maryland and now based in Los Angeles since 2022 traces the evolution of the LA art world alongside the rise of social media and digital culture. The piece revisits Banksy's 2006 exhibition "Barely Legal," a three-day event in a Downtown LA warehouse that featured a live painted elephant and drew a £25,000 purchase from Christina Aguilera. It notes the 2007 "Meeting of Styles: LA" graffiti event and MOCA's "Art in the Streets" survey, which included Banksy and Shepard Fairey but sparked controversy when a BLU mural was removed within 24 hours by then-director Jeffrey Deitch. The essay charts LA's institutional boom: Pacific Standard Time (2011–2012), Frieze's 2014 announcement and 2019 fair debut, The Broad (2015), Marciano Art Foundation and Hauser & Wirth (2016), Sprüth Magers (2017), and ICA LA (2018). It contrasts New York's competitive art scene with LA's anonymity, quoting curator Ali Subotnick and artist Hamish Robertson. The writer then examines NFTs and AI art, citing Jon Rafman's AI popstar Cloudy Heart (2024) and the Bored Ape phenomenon, arguing that the desire to be seen as an artist often outweighs the art itself. The essay concludes that LA's future will be shaped by mysterious avatars, reflecting the city's mythmaking nature.