BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAYSABER
Saber. “Buffed” (photo © courtesy of the artist)
Saber – The American Graffiti Artist
Among the thousands of people who make up the graffiti community around the world, there are few names that carry the same legendary quality as SABER. Born in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, SABER was raised by creative parents and discovered his passion for art at an early age. At 13, his cousins introduced him to graffiti when they took him to see the spray paint-covered Belmont Tunnel. From that moment on, he was hooked. After honing his skills on local walls, SABER joined MSK, and was later inducted into legendary piecing crew AWR.
SABER was already a fixture in the Los Angeles graffiti scene by 1997 when he completed the largest graffiti piece ever created. His piece on the sloping cement bank of the Los Angeles River was nearly the size of a professional football field, and took 97 gallons of paint and 35 nights to complete. In a famous photograph—taken by his father just after it was finished—SABER stands on the piece and appears as a tiny speck amid a giant blaze of color. It catapulted SABER to legend status in the graffiti world.
SABER began exhibiting in his fine art in 2002. While known for his elegant and aggressive abstract letterforms, SABER’s artistic output has also included drippy, surreal cityscapes and his painstakingly rendered “new reality” canvases. SABER has also worked corporate projects with Hyundai, Scion, Boost Mobile, Roland Sands Design, Montana Paint Company, and Karmaloop. His monograph, SABER: MAD SOCIETY, complete with stories of his graffiti misadventures, was released by Gingko Press in 2007 and is now in its second printing.
In October 2010, SABER released a video in which the year’s heated debate about healthcare was spray painted over the American flag. While some saw it as desecration, SABER advocated for healthcare reform in the video, revealing that he had epilepsy and was un-insurable. This work led SABER to create a large group of American flag paintings called the Tarnished series.
In 2011 SABER’s artwork is featured in two museum exhibitions, “Street Cred” at the Pasadena Museum of California Art and “Art in the Streets” at MoCA Los Angeles.
Saber
238
138
45
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
The wall at Le M.U.R. in Paris got the Mode2 treatment just ahead of the legislative elections, offering a fine opportunity for the artist to wax politically. He created his message of empowerment on...
Berlin’s 1UP Crew was in Moscow to participate in this year's Artmossphere Biennale. We caught up with the guys for an impromptu action on the walls of the Winzavod Art Center while the installations ...
Halloween this year is on a Tuesday so its hard for people to know when exactly to celebrate it - we had 20 or so Trick-or-Treaters Saturday night so that tells you the kids vote in this part of...
This year represents a high-water mark for current Street Artists being represented at the New York fairs if what we have just seen over the last couple of days is any indication. For those who have b...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. "What If You Fly" Sean Yoro AKA HULA 2. Herakut in Paris for "100 Walls for Youth" 3...
