Striking, colorful, insightful murals abound throughout the South Bay. The diversity of the neighborhoods in which they appear is matched only by the diversity of the art itself. Murals are a city’s urban canvas, expressing the history, concerns and aspirations of a community. Though they are susceptible to weather, vandalism and decay, murals are also freely visible and open for all to enjoy. For generations, Los Angeles has been renowned as one of the world’s great mural capitals. Here’s a collection of 23 exemplary pieces to discover throughout the Los Angeles South Bay:
San Pedro
Misty Copeland Square Mural
Artist: Kelcey Fisher
Date: December 20, 2015
Type: Cultural
Misty Copeland, the first African-American female principal dancer in the 75-year history at the American Ballet Theatre, has been honored with a square dedication and mural at her alma mater, San Pedro City Ballet. Copeland began training at San Pedro City Ballet when she was 13 years old. This year (2015) she was also named Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world.
Location: San Pedro City Ballet, W. 13th St and S. Pacific Ave, San Pedro
WPA Post Office Mural
Mail Transportation
Artist: Fletcher Martin
Date: 1938
Type: Historic/Indoor
One of two indoor murals painted during the Great Depression as part of the Works Progress Administration arts initiative. Artist Fletcher Martin painted “Mail Transportation” showing the delivery of mail in several different settings, at the main San Pedro post office in 1938. Restored during the 1970s by José-Luis Gonzalez of Goez Studio.
Location: San Pedro Post Office, 839 South Beacon St., San Pedro, CA 90731
Barton Hill School Mural
Artist: Parents and Volunteers
Date: 2006
Parents and volunteers painted this mural depicting an underwater scene on a staircase leading to Barton Hill School in San Pedro in 2006.
Location: Barton Hill School, 423 N Pacific Ave, San Pedro, CA 90731
Mosaic
Artist: Julie Bender
Medium: Tile
Mermaid themed tiling mosaic art by local artist Julie Bender.
Location: Rainbow Services, 453 W 7th St, San Pedro, CA 90731
Sea Creatures Mosaic
Artist: Julie Bender
Medium: Glass & Clay Tile
Date: July 2102
This colorful marine life mosaic at Peck Park Pool is a whimsical view of aquatic life and includes depictions of a mermaid, seal ion, dolphin, crabs, fish, sea shells, and many other marine life. With the exception of the mermaid, all of the creatures in the mosaic are native to the area. The project was completed with much community involvement especially that of numerous Girl Scout troops under Bender’s vision and leadership.
Close up, beautiful new details begin to emerge. The pieces of shaped glass and mirror glimmer in the sunlight amid the colorful broken shards of clay. Get really close and you can see smiley faces and names scratched into the pieces. Much of the work was completed by local youth, who were given the chance to place personal touches in the mosaic. As you study the mural up close, you’ll discover even more details. Written around each panel are interesting facts about sea life, such as “The whale ear has air in it” and “barracuda have pointy teeth.”
While local artist Julie Bender did the designing and most of the intricate work, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Moms from Art to Grow On, and families and students from Mary Star of the Sea High school pitched in. A longtime San Pedro resident, Bender used to work at the pool and wanted to do something to make the area look nicer.
Location: 560 N Western Ave, San Pedro, CA 90732
Untitled (L.A Maritime Museum Mural)
Artist: Duncan Gleason
Date: 1920’s
Type: Historic/Indoor
Only part of this seascape survived its removal from the Hotel Clark in downtown Los Angeles after a period of neglect. It was donated to the museum by Mrs. Gleason.
Location: 500 Sampson Way, San Pedro, CA 90731
Gabrielino Nation: Spirit of the Sage
Artist: Johanna Poethig
Size: 20′ x 30′ ft
Medium: Acrylic
Date: 1995
Type: Cultural
Created with Roberto Salas and commissioned by the Social and Public Art Resource Center and the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. This mural is a tribute to the Gabrielinos who originally lived in this area of Southern California. The Sage ceremony at the dedication of the mural was led by Manuel Rocha, spiritual leader of the tribe. Vera Rocha, political leader of the present day Garielinos, portrait is the centerpiece of the mural.
Location: 1306 Pacific Ave., San Pedro, CA 90731
Wellington Signs Mural
Artists: Ben Zask, Angelica Sotiriou, Jan Govaerts, Nancy Towne-Schultz, Peggy Sivert Zask, Candice Gawne, Carol Hungerford, San Arno, Annemarie Rawlinson, Meeson Pae Yang
In collaboration with the artists of the 4th Street Lofts and Wellington Signs, the San Pedro Waterfront Arts District created a vinyl mural on the Mesa side of Wellington Signs at the corner of 5th. The mural presents the work of the 4th Street Loft artists (in the order on the mural): Ben Zask, Angelica Sotiriou, Jan Govaerts, Nancy Towne-Schultz, Peggy Sivert Zask, Candice Gawne, Carol Hungerford, San Arno, Annemarie Rawlinson, and Meeson Pae Yang.
Location: 227 N Pacific Ave, San Pedro, CA 90731
See more San Pedro Public Art here.
Rancho Palos Verdes
Untitled (Home Savings, Rancho Palos Verdes)
Artist: Millard Sheets
Size: 30′ X 10′ ft
Medium: Mosaic
Date: 1974
Type: Contemporary
Recreational horseback riding. The stained glass window at rear of bank, depicting care and enjoyment of animals, is by Susan Hertel.
Location: 27319 Hawthorne Blvd., Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275
Torrance
6 L.A. Artists
Artist: Kent Twitchell
Size: 20′ X 110′ ft
Medium: Acrylic
Date: 1979
Type: Portrait
From left to right the artists are Marta Chaffee Stang, Alonzo Davis, Paul Czirban, Oliver Nowlin, Eloy Torrez, and Wayanna Kato. All are graduates of Otis Art Institute in L.A., as is Twitchell. They were friends of his, and represented a cultural cross-section of artists whose work he admired.
Location: 1220 Engracia Ave., Torrance, CA 90501
Redondo Beach
Whaling Wall Number 31
Artist: Wyland
Size: 622 feet long
Medium: Air brush
Date: 1991
Type: Environmental
This iconic work is the largest and most visible mural in the South Bay. The artist painted this 622-foot-wide seascape on a blank wall at the AES power plant. Completed in just 11 days, it was dedicated on June 24, 1991, and was No. 31 in Wyland’s series of “100 Whaling Walls.” This giant mural of migrating whales includes nine life-size gray whales, the artist’s first blue whale (100 feet long), plus bottlenose dolphins and kelp forests 70 feet high. Southern California Edison installed halogen lighting so the painting also can be appreciated at night.
Location: West wall, Redondo Beach AES plant, 1100 North Harbor Dr., Redondo Beach, CA 90277
WPA Post Office Mural
Fishing from Redondo Dock
Artist: Paul Sample
Medium: Oil
Date: 1937
Type: Historic/Indoor
One of two indoor murals painted during the Great Depression as part of the Works Progress Administration arts initiative. This Redondo mural is one of three murals painted by Paul Sample in 1937 that were moved to the Redondo Beach post office in 1977. Assisted by Jean Swiggett and Ivan Bartlett.
Location: Redondo Beach Post Office. 1201 Catalina Ave., Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Mosaic
Artists: Patti Linnett and Debbie Collette
Medium: Ceramic Tile
Date: 2009
Mosaics cover the stairs at King Harbor in Redondo Beach. This was the first project under the auspices of the newly formed Public Art Commission of Redondo Beach. In four months, with more than 50 volunteers and thousands of tiny pieces of tile, two Redondo Beach women helped turn a set of ordinary cement steps into a work of art. The colorful chips of ceramic tile depict images of rolling waves, crabs, fish and other sea features.
Location: King Harbor, 831 N Harbor Dr, Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Hermosa Beach
Artist: Art Mortimer
Medium: Acrylic on concrete
Date: April 2011
Type: Landscape/Historic
This mural is the first of several historical murals planned by the local Hermosa Beach Murals Program. The mural depicts a view of Pier Avenue, which is about 1 block from the mural, looking along its last block as it runs down to the Hermosa Beach Pier – as it looked in 1924. Many of the buildings depicted in the mural still exist. The mural is based on old, black and white photographs and the descriptions and stories of local residents. It is colorized to resemble old hand-tinted postcards of the era.
Location: Hermosa Avenue & 14th, North facing wall, parking structure C
Hermosa Beach Murals Project
#2: Hermosa “Splash” Circa 1909
Artist: Chris Coakley
Date: January 2012
Type: Historic
The scene looks southeast from the point of view of the Pacific Ocean off 16th St. toward the Hermosa Beach Pier. The mural shows a modern young woman (modeled by the artist’s daughter) tossing a can of paint onto a wall, which then fans out to become a picture of Hermosa Beach circa 1909. Based on early photographs provided by the Hermosa Beach Historical Society, all of the structures shown are as they were in that period.
Seen in the mural are from right to left – Redondo Beach Power Plant, which provided power for the Red Car line; Berth Hotel (now part of the Sea Sprite Hotel); Hermosa Pier, built in 1904; Morse & Morse grocery and lumber store; Red Car Depot, early home of Ralph Matteson, an early builder and businessman whose last house still stands on Manhattan Avenue; Hill House, reportedly the first house built in Hermosa Beach, on Pier Avenue above Monterey; Vetter Windmill, used to water Vetter’s flower gardens located at 16th and Ardmore (now reconstructed and moved to the park at PCH and Aviation Blvd); Hermosa’s first church, St. Cross Episcopal on Monterey Blvd.; and a Red Car Trolley that whisked people from Los Angeles to Hermosa Beach to enjoy the sun, sand and surf.
Location: 140 Pier Avenue, South-West corner at Manhattan Avenue
Hermosa Beach Murals Project
#3: Hermosa Beach West Coast Jazz
Artist: John Pugh
Type: Historic
Created by the renowned muralist, John Pugh, who works in the Trompe L’oeil style. The phrase “narrative illusionism” is often used to describe John’s work, giving the illusion of a three-dimensional scene.
In very dramatic fashion the mural reminds viewers of the rich history of jazz in Hermosa Beach particularly as it rolled out of the Lighthouse Cafe from the 1950s to the 1970s. The mural depicts a larger-than-life trumpet with the hands and fingers of a musician on the valves. The bell of the trumpet appears in 3D. Shaped as an ellipsis, the horn’s bell measures 10′ X 9’6″. Reflected on the right hand side of the bell is the great jazz bassist, Howard Rumsey. On the left hand side the mural depicts the trumpet playing, jazz vocalist, Chet Baker, along with jazz saxophonist, Gerry Mulligan. Rumsey, Baker, and Mulligan were leading representatives of the “cool” West Coast Jazz style. The background shows the soft, aging brick and slowly fading Lighthouse Cafe sign still visible at the cafe’s rear entrance about 100 yards to the west. Under the ownership of John Levine and with club manager, Howard Rumsey, the Lighthouse Cafe and West Coast Jazz became synonymous. Howard’s often changing, but consistently popular, Lighthouse All Stars played their hearts out night after night, and produced album after album, more than 25 of which were recorded at The Lighthouse Cafe between 1952 and 1989. The Lighthouse Cafe still serves patrons who want to combine good music with drinks and dinner. Today, jazz is featured on Sunday mornings.
Location: 1007 Hermosa Avenue at 11th Court, North facing wall
Hermosa Beach Murals Project
#4: Hermosa Swimwear Evolves
Artist: Steve Shriver
Type: Historic
This mural presents eight vignettes depicting Hermosa swimwear over more than a century. The first vignette features one of Hermosa’s earliest residents, Mrs. Charlotte Madison, who was married to Mr. Ralph Matteson, the founder of Hermosa’s first bank. To prevent skirts from rising up around the body when entering the water the suits had little weights sewn into their hems. The second vignette features Hermosa’s then soon to be young Mayor Logan Cotton talking with a stylish beach goer and trying to understand the Hermosa Beach City Council rules governing men’s swim wear. The rules were controversial and very specific regarding men NOT rolling down their tops to expose their hairy chests! The young woman’s sheath suit was all the rage as designers struggled to come up with materials and designs which would allow the shape of the female body to be displayed tastefully. Vignette three shows Hermosa’s City Marshall, Mr. E. L. Messinger, probably reprimanding a young bather about her swim suit. In a foretaste of the “culture wars” of today, many young men thought the whole idea of regulating swimwear was “ridiculous” and the local women agreed. It’s this daring swim suit from 1931 that explodes the widely-held belief that suits went from more to less in chronological order. Vignette four is in front of the old Biltmore Hotel that faced the beautiful sands of Hermosa Beach. With the hotel in the background sun worshipers like our sunbather went through an array of swimming costumes during the late 40s and 50s. This colorful suit was more form-fitting and revealed more than earlier suits, but was still well behind the French designed bikini that was waiting since 1946 to be introduced to America. Hermosa’s own “godfather of surf photography,” Leroy Grannis, is responsible for vignette five. The photo’s caption in a book of his photography sums it up: “Hermosa Beach Strand 1967… then, as now, Hermosa was one long summer vacation for the young and tanned. Check out the classic stingray bicycle with butterfly handlebars.” The bikini or its very close relative had finally arrived on Hermosa’s shore. The seventh vignette shows two sunbathers enjoying the early evening south of the Pier with the setting sun and the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the background. By now the bikini had been reimagined in Brazil and its daring designs graced Hermosa’s sand and they still do. The eighth vignette brings us to the present and possibly to the “culture wars” that were talked about way back in 1931. For a period of time the Federation Internationale de Volleyball wanted the sport to be sexy. Most Hermosa volleyball fans and players enthusiastically go along with that. The last vignette seems to harken back to the 30s, but who knows what the future will bring.
Location: 500 Pier Ave at Cypress Ave, West facing wall
Hermosa Beach Murals Project
#5: Hermosa’s Great Wave
Artist: John Van Hamersveld
Size: 75′ X 19′ ft
Date: June 2015
Type: Historic
Hermosa’s Great Wave is the creation of legendary, multidisciplinary artist John Van Hamersveld. The Palos Verdes artist is best known for his Endless Summer surf movie poster and his album covers for the Beatles “Magical Mystery Tour,” the Rolling Stones’ “Exile on Mainstreet,” the Beach Boys “Made in California,” and Jefferson Airplane’s “Crown of Redemption.” The mural depicts the evolution of Hermosa Beach surfboards through time, with Van Hamersveld’s mural expressing the narrative through the silhouettes of three surfers, each holding a different surfboard representing a distinct era. The image of these surfers overlays a collage of colorful, abstract shapes and an expansive, all-powerful wave.
The mural’s story begins with the kookbox era. Jacobs, McFarlane and Van Hamersveld himself, first surfed on kookboxes — hollow, wood surfboards steered by dragging a foot because kookboxes didn’t have fins. Next – the Golden Era of the 1960s, represented at the unveiling by surfboard shaper and retired lifeguard Sonny Vardeman and by members of the Haggerty Surf Club, including John Joseph, Mike McIntire, and John Leininger. The contemporary era of short board surfers was represented at the unveiling by Spyder Surf shaper Dennis Jarvis, ET shaper Pat Ryan, surfing’s first World Champion PT Townsend and South Bay standouts Bobby Warcola and John Teague.
Location: Hermosa Avenue & 14th Street, North facing wall of The Underground Pub & Grill
Boardwalk Mosaic Mural
Artist: E. J. Harpham
Medium: Hand-painted tile
Beautiful tile mosaic featuring sea life.
Location: 10th Street at Beach Drive (boardwalk), Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
Sunny Southern California
Artists: Neal and Dawn Von Flue
Size: 40 feet
Date: 2007
Type: Historic
Created for Hermosa Beach’s Centennial celebration. 100 years of Hermosa History packed into 40 feet of mural!
Location: Pier Ave, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254
El Segundo
El Segundo Blue Butterfly
Artist: Scott Bloomfield
This mural, commissioned by the owners of JB’s Fine Art Productions, celebrates the tiny, once-endangered El Segundo Blue Butterfly by blowing it up to mural size on the site of this El Segundo business.
Location: 201 El Segundo Boulevard, El Segundo
Aviation History
Artists: Chuck Caplinger and Grant Wright
Date: 1997
Type: Historic
Chuck Caplinger and Grant Wright completed this mural in 1997, depicting aviation history, on the wall of what is now a UPS Store.
Location: 214 Main Street, El Segundo, CA
Wilmington
El Mercadito Market Mural – Untitled (Mexican Revolutionaries)
Artist: Mario Falcon
Medium: Acrylic
Date: 1979
Type: Historic
Mexican revolutionary imagery featuring portraits of Zapata and Morelos, 2 panels. Javier Moreno, Mario Falcon and Mario Uriarte collaborated on the original mural in 1979. Restored in 1990 by Mario Aguirre Uriarte. The United Wilmington Youth Foundation and artist Arnoldo Vargas restored this mural with scenes from Latino culture and history in 2013.
Location: East L Street at Hyatt Ave., Wilmington, CA 90744
Manhattan Beach
Permanent Wave
Artist: Paul Tzanetopoulos
Size: 32’ x 9’ ft
Medium: One-inch porcelain tile
Date: 1997
This tile mural was designed expressly for the City of Manhattan Beach. The blue and white mosaic adorns the outdoor public Comfort Station (showers) located at the pier on Manhattan Beach. The mosaic consists of six cultural “keys” – graphic elements representing earth and water produced by different cultures throughout history and represented here in complementing colors, crowned by crashing waves and sea foam.
The image visually combines the motions of sand, wind and water into a tapestry in one-inch porcelain tile. Color is utilized extensively throughout this mosaic technique to present a completely unique illustration. This mosaic has been developed graphically to function primarily from two distinct viewpoints: from a distance (the seaside/pier) and close-up (while showering or passing by). From the pier, the viewer is exposed to a colorful, visually intriguing array of patterns and waves breaking on the beach; the waves and foam appear visually complete, as a wall mural. In close proximity, the viewer enjoys the enormous patterns and colors below the wave motif and is offered the wave and foam graphic in relative abstraction, thus illustrating a key principle in this work – our overview in terms of a micro and macro appreciation of the planet.
Location: Manhattan Beach Pier Comfort Station, Manhattan Beach Boulevard at the Pier, Manhattan Beach, California 90266, West facing exterior wall surface
Cultural Wave
Artist: Paul Tzanetopoulos
Size: 600 lineal feet, variable height
Medium: Pre-cast cement tiles
Date: 1997
The Sea Wall, running 600 feet across the length of the beach and varying in height from ground level to 14 feet, was beautifully enhanced with 4″ x 4″ cement tiles, applied in a relief pattern. The large-scale wall was transformed into an enormous cultural graphic, its design foundation in Manhattan Beach’s unique waterfront context.
The motif employed here was a hybrid of archetypal cultural graphics used since pre-history to illustrate the continuity of the ocean’s dominance over the environment. From nearby (and especially from any distance), this concrete block veneer, with both color and shadow, visually excites and adds beauty, complexity and interest to this already dynamic element in the community.
It took over a month of working everyday with at least six other people to put up the seawall, which stretches from below the comfort station to the other side of the pier, and the shower mural. Because the tiles were handmade, they don’t have perfectly straight lines, and so require more attention to get them to line up.
LA-based artist, Paul Tzanetopoulos, also designed the bright lights of the tall columns leading into LAX, the largest permanent public art installation in the world, which was installed in 2000.
Location: Manhattan Beach Sea Wall, Manhattan Beach Boulevard at the Pier, Manhattan Beach, California 90266
