‘Enviromates’ Banners Unfurl Kids’ Social Concerns

Top Los Angeles artists including Jim Shaw, Daniel J. Martinez, May Sun and Bruce Yonemoto have joined forces to create a pair of 12-foot-tall banners called “Enviromates,” each consisting of four panels depicting various body parts and combining to create male and female images.

The artists, who also include Meg Cranston, Ron Davis, Laurel Beckman and Carole Markin, joined forces with 100 8- to 14-year-old children from Watts and Pacoima to create the banners, which will be unveiled during a special event Aug. 21 at the Watts/Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club. (Another set will go on view at the Boys and Girls Club of San Fernando Valley.)

Each artist worked on a different part of the male or female body to give striking visual presentations of the kids’ social and global concerns, which include pollution, gangs, drugs, pregnancy, homelessness, AIDS and child abuse.

The concept was based on the Dada art game “Exquisite Corpses,” in which artists would draw sections of the same human body without seeing each other’s work. The project was co-organized by artist Markin and master printer Daniel B. Freeman. Information: (213) 655-9376.

MURALS: “Undiscovered America,” a new mural by the “aerosol art team” Earth Crew, was dedicated Saturday at the Tokiwa Foods building at 843 East 4th St. The mural, produced by a multiethnic group of “writers,” depicts the achievements of Native American groups from Alaska to Argentina in the arts, agriculture, writing and science. It is intended to celebrate “the end of a 500-year cycle of colonization, and the inauguration of a new era of multicultural collaboration.” The work was produced through SPARC’s “Great Walls Unlimited” program and is the first spray paint mural the organization has sponsored.

PUBLIC ART PROGRAM: USC’s new master’s degree program in Public Art Studies, which offered three trial courses last spring, will officially get underway in the fall with courses aimed at students preparing for a career in public art administration. Headed by Director Jay S. Willis, the two-year program is the first in the country to award degrees in public art. Initial courses begin Aug. 31 and will be taught by professionals including Jessica Cusick of the L.A. County Transportation Commission, Barbara Goldstein of the L.A. Cultural Affairs Department and Elizabeth Smith of the Museum of Contemporary Art. Information: (213) 740-2787.

INSTALLATION: Santa Monica artists Francisco Letelier and Steve Durland have opened “Hierarchy of Needs,” a collaborative installation examining basic human needs, at the 18th Street Art Complex’s New Gallery. The installation is on view before Highways performances and by appointment through Aug. 31. Information: (310) 315-9633.

EVENTS: Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions and the L.A. Center for Photographic Studies have joined forces for an art sale to benefit the AIDS activist group ACT UP/LA. The event, which begins at LACE at 6 p.m. on Saturday, features more than 350 works by L.A. artists including Tim Ebner, Robbert Flick and Millie Wilson. All works are $75 and will be sold on a first-come, first-served basis. Video screenings, entertainment by various performance artists and dancing are included. General admission is $10. Information: (213) 624-5650.

Performance artist Dan Kwong and writer Helen Viramontes will perform in conjunction with the Municipal Art Gallery’s exhibition, “500 Years: With The Breath of Our Ancestors,” on Aug. 15 at 3 p.m. The free program also features Keith Antar Mason and the Hittite Empire’s “Inside Superman’s Mind, the New World Is Wild.” Information: (213) 485-4581.

The reconfigured Ruth Bloom Gallery in Santa Monica hosts a benefit for AIDS Project Los Angeles this weekend, with a sale Friday through next Sunday of rare and unusual antique toys dating from the mid-19th Century. Information: (310) 829-0062.

DEADLINES: Applications are due Aug. 15 for the Public Corporation for the Arts’ 1992-93 Cultural Arts Grant Program, which funds community arts organizations and individual artists for projects taking place in the city of Long Beach. Information: (310) 499-7777.

Monday is the deadline for submissions to a “National Advertising Campaign to End Homophobia” mounted by the gay Latino artists’ group VIVA! Honorariums will be paid for published works. Information: (213) 953-1970.

BOOKS: Venice-based Lapis Press, owned by artist Sam Francis, has won the American Institute of Graphic Arts’ coveted book design award for the second year in a row. This year’s award is for “A Witch,” the first English translation of August Strindberg’s novella.

Beyond Baroque is seeking donations of books and other publications for its Big Book Sale and Auction, which will be held Aug. 20-22 as a fund-raiser for the Venice arts center. Information: (310) 822-3006.

PEOPLE: Orange County artist Jean Towgood, past president of the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art, has been named president of the national Women’s Caucus for Art for 1992-94. In addition, Sandra Rowe, current president of the Southern California chapter, has been named to the group’s national board of directors for 1992-95. . . . David S. Rodes, acting director of UCLA’s Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts since 1989, has been made the center’s permanent director.