California Locos: Renaissance & Rebellion

California Locos Renaissance and Rebellion brings together over 40 years of LA culture. Surf, skate, street art, tattoo and street photography come together to celebrate West Coast.

California Locos brings together over 40 years of LA culture, presented through the eyes and hands of the artists who shaped it. Featuring three generations of legendary LA artists, this book chronicles the life and work of the five original locos, Chaz Bojórquez, Dave Tourjé, John Van Hamersveld, Norton Wisdom and Gary Wong, and expands this core membership to include works by Mister Cartoon, Shepard Fairey, Estevan Oriol, Retna, OG Slick and many others. Surf and skate culture, street art, tattoo, street photography, graphic design and music come together on over 432 pages to celebrate Los Angeles in all its exuberant diversity and raw grittiness. Being a LOCO means being crazy about life, being creative, rebellious and open-minded to the ethnic and cultural diversities of our city and the world. LOCOS is a movement and embodies the innovation, multiculturalism and rebellious.

Dave Tourjé was born and raised in the culturally eclectic Northeast L.A. of the 1970s and his upbringing amongst the skaters, gangs, and the area’s tribal friction play heavily in his work. Also a musician, Tourjé was a member of the influential L.A. band the Dissidents, playing shows with Camper Van Beethoven, Saccharine Trust, The Minutemen to name a few. Tourjé’s artwork oscillates between high and low, punk and institutional hegemony and was the subject of a one-man exhibition covering 15 years of paintings on acrylic glass at the Riverside Art Museum in 2002. It has been featured at the Oceanside Museum of Art, the Orange County Museum of Art, and Laguna Art Museum. In 1998, Tourjé helped to form the Chouinard Foundation after purchasing the home of Nelbert Chouinard, in order to help restore the lost history of one of the great art schools in the world.