LAist Interview: Mark Vallen

Andy Warhol’s statement that “every person will be world-famous for fifteen minutes,” was an amazing insight into a consumerist culture driven by media, but he hardly could have imagined that artists would someday be interviewed in virtual publications that exist in a place called cyberspace.

Here’s my fifteen minutes of world fame, as the LAist website put questions to me in a delightfully revealing and thankfully short interview.

LAist writes about all things LA, and is part of Gothamist.com, a global network of similar websites writing about life in eleven other metropolises like New York City, London, Paris, and Shanghai. The focus of these “-ist” sites is always the cultural and political life of the city; theater, food, sports, politics and a million other topics that help describe each unique location. It’s pretty intoxicating to be considered a noteworthy part of the city one lives and works in, so of course I’m honored to have been selected by LAist for an interview.

In the interchange I express opinions about my home city of Los Angeles and its divergent art scene, I pontificate upon the contemporary art world – my place in it – and how it all relates to LA; and I hold forth on Ed Ruscha, political art, minimalism, the Stuckists, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and East LA’s Self Help Graphics – all that and more.

Of course, no in-depth interview lacks an examination of the interviewees personal side – so you’ll find me waxing poetic about my favorite LA movies, beloved natural areas I frequent to escape the pressures of urban life, preferred foods, punk rock, and why I choose to live in one of the largest and craziest cities on earth.