Mear One

Mear One (born 1971 as Kalen Ockerman) is an American artist based in Los Angeles,[2] known for his often-political street graffiti art. Mear One is associated with CBS (Can't Be Stopped – City Bomb Squad) and WCA (West Coast Artist) crews. As a graphic designer, Mear One has designed apparel for Conart, Kaotic, as well as his own Reform brand. Mear One has designed album covers for musicians such as Non Phixion, Freestyle Fellowship, Alien Nation, Limp Bizkit, Busdriver and Daddy Kev.

Mear One
Mear One interpretation of The Madonna of the Rosary by Bartolomé Murillo in Dulwich Picture Gallery, produced for Dulwich Outdoor Gallery, Dulwich, South London, England, 2013[1]
Born
Kalen Ockerman

1971 (age 49–50)
Santa Cruz, California, United States
NationalityAmerican
Known forPainter, muralist, graffiti
Websitemearone.com

His 2012 mural, Freedom for Humanity, a temporary street installation in London, was criticized as antisemitic and later led to then Labour backbencher Jeremy Corbyn being criticized for failing to identify this when he was told it was to be effaced and sent an image of it on social media.

Early life and education

Ockerman was born in 1971 in Santa Cruz, California.

Career

An L.A. street artist and graffiti writer for over 20 years, Mear's partners have included Skate One, Anger, Yem, and Cisco CBS.

In 2004, Mear joined artists Shepard Fairey and Robbie Conal to create a series of "anti-war, anti-Bush" posters for a street art campaign called "Be the Revolution" for the art collective Post Gen.[3]

In April 2014, Mear appeared with fellow graffiti-muralists Cache, EyeOne, and Alice Mizrachi at Brown University as part of the panel Bottom-Up Place Making: Graffiti-murals and Latino/a Urbanism, hosted by the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America and moderated by University of Arizona urban theorist, graffiti writer, and professor, Dr Stefano Bloch.[4][5]

In 2015, he was a judge on Oxygen Channel's "Street Art Throw Down" hosted by poster artist Justin Bua.[6]

Freedom for Humanity mural by Mear One.

In September 2012, Mear One painted a temporary street mural in Hanbury Street, London, entitled Freedom for Humanity. It depicted suited men seated around a table, under an Eye of Providence, playing a Monopoly-like board game that rested on the backs of bent over naked figures, with a background of industry and protest.

A local councillor likened it to antisemitic propaganda in pre-war Germany, referencing what he saw as its stereotypical depictions of Jews, together with its reference to finance and the monetary and Masonic associations of the Eye of Providence. The Labour Mayor, Lutfur Rahman, said: “The images of the bankers perpetuate anti-Semitic propaganda about conspiratorial Jewish domination of financial and political institutions.”[7][8] Mear One said that those portrayed comprised both Jews and non-Jews and denied any antisemitic intent, and that his work raised questions of class.[9]

Amid allegations of antisemitism in the UK Labour Party in 2018, the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn was criticised for a social media comment made while he was a backbencher, which asked why the mural was being threatened with removal.[10]

References
  1. "The Outdoor Street Gallery of Dulwich". Inspiringcity.com. 8 May 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  2. "Kelly 'Risk' Graval & Mear One Paint The Maiden Of The Mayfair Mural In Los Angeles". Broadway World. 17 October 2019. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  3. "Postgen.com".
  4. https://geography.arizona.edu/people/stefano-bloch
  5. "Brown.edu". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2016-09-27.
  6. "Meet Guest Judge MEAR ONE". 23 January 2015.
  7. "Kalen Ockerman mural to be removed from Brick Lane". BBC News. 5 October 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
  8. Brooke, Mike (3 October 2012). "Fury over Brick Lane's 'anti-Semitic' mural". The Docklands and East London Advertiser. Retrieved 28 October 2019.
  9. Whitehouse, Geoff (8 Oct 2012). "Mear One's Brick Lane Street Art: Class and Societal Inequality Not Racial Hatred". 'International Business Times'. Retrieved 13 Feb 2019.
  10. Dysch, Marcus (6 November 2015). "Did Jeremy Corbyn back artist whose mural was condemned as antisemitic?". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 23 March 2018.
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