Sandow Birk
Sandow Birk, a fifty- seven year old Los Angeles artist created this art piece displayed at the Long Beach City Place Shopping Center. He painted these hand made ceramic tiles and titled his work “ The Discovery of Long Beach”. In it, we see a traditional 19th century battle scene of soldiers on horseback racing to war with swords and flying banners.
There is another mural very similar to this one which is titled “Foundings of the City of Long Beach”; they share the same type of hand painted and hand made ceramic tiles but feature different scenarios. Here you see members of the cavalry wearing Mexican sombreros, a baseball cap and surfboards being carried. You also see female soldiers carrying a “Sale” sign. You can spot different objects such as a wagon, boom box, a computer, a parking meter, mail boxes. There's also a water scene where you can see the Queen Mary and the California State University Long Beach pyramid. This mural grasps a multi- cultural community livelihood.
This artist graduated from Ortis/Parson’s Art Institute. His work deals with contemporary life with an emphasis on social issues. His work theme from the past included inner city violence, war, graffiti, political issues and much more. Some awards he has won have been in 1999 Getty Fellowship for painting and in 2001 by (COLA) a City of Los Angeles. Birk was born in Detroit, Michigan and was raised on the beaches of Orange County, CA.
This artist has many museums and galleries with his work in public and museum collections. Some well known museums include the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art upon many more. Elyse Pignolet, his wife has collaborated with him in the past in a series called "99 Names of god.However, usually Birk typically works solo.
