Not everyone made it to the top floors of Oceanwide Plaza — the abandoned billion-dollar development of luxury high-rises in downtown Los Angeles — but the graffiti artist called SEK was determined to get there. Dressed in his usual hoodie, and with a paint-splattered satchel over his shoulder, he slipped onto the property through one of many openings in the surrounding fence, and began heading up 52 floors.
That was in early February, when local graffiti artists first began hitting the construction site’s three towers after becoming newly aware that the property was mostly unguarded. In that first week, the buildings would be smothered in paint, as taggers left their names and acronyms in elaborate shapes and colors: “Hopess,” “Tang,” “Eels,” “6FT,” “Ska,” “DWP,” “420,” “Libre,” “Serb,” “Sweets,” “Thrash” and hundreds more. Others painted cartoon pandas and left statements of purpose (e.g., “Forever Living Krazy!”).
That night at the top of the main tower, SEK found a spot to leave his name spelled out in bubble letters painted in silver, red and black. Splashing his mark onto the glass of what was once destined to be someone’s luxury penthouse condo was part of a collision of class and culture in the heart of Los Angeles, steps away from the Crypto.com Arena, home to the star-studded Grammy Awards and the L.A. Lakers.
At 35, SEK has been a graffiti artist for nearly 20 years, and he spoke on the condition of anonymity. Graffiti is considered vandalism in the California Penal Code, and always carries the risk of prosecution. “Graffiti has taught me that there’s no waiting for permission. You just have to take chances and express yourself by any means necessary,” SEK said later in the first of two interviews, one on the phone and another during a walk through downtown L.A. His handiwork on the tower is documented on his personal Instagram account and in abundant drone footage of the buildings posted on YouTube.
It is the 30 year anniversary of the LA uprising which broke out on April 29, 1992 in response to the acquittal of the LAPD officers involved in the brutal beating of Rodney King.