Argonaut News review of Gajin Fujita’s exhibition

5 Jun 2015

Incorporating symbols of his urban Los Angeles upbringing into scenes drawn from traditional Japanese art, painter Gajin Fujita’s cross-cultural mashups achieve an identity uniquely their own.

With a LACMA spotlight already under his belt, the internationally renowned artist — barely into his mid-40s — has come a long way in a short time from his days at Otis College of Art and Design to his fourth L.A. Louver show, “Warriors, Ghosts and Ancient Gods of the Pacific.”

Fujita’s layered, spray-painted pieces, from massive wall-consuming murals to smaller works no less colorful and eccentric, are peopled with samurais and geishas and peppered with graffiti scrawl and Dodgers logos.

It’s a mix that represents Fujita’s multiple streams of artistic education: his time tagging with the KGB graffiti crew while attending Fairfax High School’s fine arts magnet program; his college years at Otis and the University of Las Vegas; and healthy doses of popular culture.