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Mark Vallen (born 1953) is an American activist with Chicano and other issues, curator, figurative realist painter, and blogger, who runs the ''Art for a Change'' web site; he founded ''The Black Moon'' web site for Japanese culture. ==Life and work== Mark Vallen was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He studied art at the Otis Parsons Art Institute and was influenced by the African American artist, Charles White,〔("Mark Vallen" ), RTEA. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 but considers himself largely self-taught, with influences from Goya, Daumier, German Expressionists and Mexican Muralists.〔Material sourced from ("150 Dia de los Muertos" ), Arts Council of Sonoma County, retrieved 8 September 2007. The information is no longer on that site as of 26 January 2008. The same text can be found at ("2nd City Council: Dia de los Muertos" ), 2nd City Council Gallery, retrieved 26 January 2008, now , retrieved 13 September 2008.〕 By the age of 17, his cartoons had been published in the ''Los Angeles Free Press'' and the Black Panther Party newspaper, and he had printed a (pre-Watergate) street poster, proclaiming, "Evict Nixon!".〔 He worked on Slash, and produced art work based on the early punk scene.〔Crew, Adrienne. ("LAist Interview: Mark Vallen" ), LAist, 20 February 2006. Retrieved 8 September 2007.〕 He participated in Penelope Spheeris' punk rock documentary ''The Decline of Western Civilization'' (1981).〔 At the end of the 1970s and into the early 1980s, Vallen was involved in the Los Angeles Punk scene and the civil rights movement. He advocated for the neglected Central American refugee community, and was the first person to distribute on the streets of Los Angeles political posters in support of that community. These posters used his artwork with bilingual text (the latter a practice derived from the 1960 Chicano Arts movement).〔 In 2001 he gave the International Workers Association the right to use his image and poster ''Ningun ser Humano es Illegal'' (No human being is illegal).〔("Ningun ser Humano es Ilegal: No human being is illegal" ), International Workers Association, 2001. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 Paul Von Blum said in the ''Journal of American Studies of Turkey'': Vallen is a figurative realist painter. Much of his work documents California's labor movements, depicting their "dignity and struggle".〔Spicer, Tracy. ("Art for a change" ), ''Pasadena Weekly'', 6 July 2006. Retrieved 8 September 2007.〕 As a response to racial profiling after the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Vallen made a pencil drawing of a Muslim woman, titled ''I Am Not the Enemy''; prompted by the Iraq war, he reproduced the drawing as a poster for wide distribution, with the title at the bottom in bold upper case.〔 He deplored the increase of racial hate crimes following 9/11 and stated, "Moslems, Arabs, and people of Middle Eastern descent are not the enemy. Many people from the Middle East have come to the United States to escape repression, terror, and war. The fact that these innocent people would now be targeted by misguided Americans is a cause for great shame."〔Vallen, Mark. ("I am not the enemy: Mark Vallen 2001" ), art-for-change.com. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 Vallen's art was in the traveling show at UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, the Oakland Museum of California, the Merced Multicultural Arts Center, the Crocker Art Museum, the Jersey City Museum, and Galería de la Raza; his art was in the opening show at the Kantor Gallery, and in the exhibition ''At Work: The Art of California Labor'' at Pico House gallery; a solo retrospective, ''More Than A Witness'' was at the A Shenere Velt Gallery, Los Angeles.〔 He was included in the show ''Fundamental'' (addressing religious fundamentalism) in Manchester in 2007.〔Kelly, Angela. ("Exploring the dogma of war" ), ''Metro News Manchester'', 7 September 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 Vallen was inspired to create ''Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!'' after the election of Ronald Reagan in the fall of 1980. Still some years before Robbie Conal gained fame for his scathing caricatures of Reagan, Vallen's piece appealed not only to the aesthetics but the pragmatics of activism in Los Angeles. Vallen modeled his figure in part on Wonder Woman, and with its obvious nod to Lichtenstein’s pop art, his piece was both aesthetically familiar and initially non-threatening to the viewer. The deceptively brief text undercut the familiarity of the image with a deeply ironic commentary on the priorities of the average American citizen. It offered a grim view of American complacency in the face of the nuclear threat. Both ''Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!'' (1980) — a front cover graphic for LA Weekly〔Vallen, Mark. ("Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!: Mark Vallen 1980" ), art-for-a-change.com. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 — and ''We're Number One'' (1984) were shown as part of the ''Yo! What Happened to Peace?'' traveling exhibition, whose venues included the Los Angeles Transport Gallery and the Parco Museum in Tokyo in 2005.〔Vallen, Mark. ("Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!" ), art-for-a-change.com, 6 August 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕〔("Yo! What happened to peace?" ), Paco Museum (mostly in Japanese). Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕〔("'Offensive and aggressive': The war against art" ), Adbusters, 11 May 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 Two of his prints, including ''Nuclear War?! There Goes My Career!'', were included in an exhibition of political poster art at the Museum of Modern Art.〔〔 Vallen's illustrative work includes ''Slash'' magazine, the ''LA Weekly'', ''LA Reader'', ''California Magazine'', ''The Progressive'', ''Mother Jones'', and South End Press,.〔 It has frequently been used for the cover of the ''Santa Monica Review''.〔("Celebrating SMC's Literary Journal as It Begins 20th Anniversary" ), Santa Monica College, 1 May 2007. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 His art is in the book, ''Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California''.〔 He contributes art to the web site Xispas, which covers Chicano culture and is edited by the writer, Luis J. Rodriguez.〔〔("Events for the month of October, 2004" ), Tia Chua's Cafe Cultural, 2004. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 Vallen designed the cover for Rodriguez's poetry book, ''My Nature Is Hunger'', published in 2005.〔("Events for the month of November, 2005" ), Tia Chua's Cafe Cultural, 2005. Retrieved 9 September 2007.〕 He lives in North Hollywood.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mark Vallen」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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