Casey Eklips Interviewed by Katie Zuppann for Juxtapoz

If I'm not mistaken, Known Gallery started off as a venue for Seventh Letter artists to show of their work-both on the streets and on canvas. Why did you organize the group as Known Gallery?

You are correct. Known Gallery was started to showcase our friends and family which turns out to be mostly The Seventh Letter artists and our associates, much like The Seventh Letter is made up of mostly AWR and MSK members. This doesn't mean we only work with crew members, it just means we know a lot of people through graffiti and our roots in street culture. We originally didn't want to display graffiti but only gallery works, but that didn't last very long.

The name KNOWN came from KNOWN SURVIVOR which came from this track I was listening to that reminded me of my father who fought in the Hungarian revolution in 1956 and lived to talk about it. I know that's kind of deep but that's where the name comes from to be honest. Almost everything I do starts with a crazy thought that is usually sparked by a music track or something. I've always liked the word KNOWN, like in: known affiliate, known graffiti writer, also known as, etc. so I had to do something with it. The name was also really appealing because I felt it was our way to be KNOWN NOW or NOW KNOWN.


Known Gallery has grown from a daily blog into a full-fledged website and movement. Describe Known Gallery's progression.

In the beginning we never planned to be a daily blog, but the site wasn't completely ready when we went on tour to Japan and Taiwan with the LETTERS FIRST art show. We wanted to share our experiences with our supporters so we launched the blog and people really liked it so we decided to continue.  When we got home we finished the site with the artist profiles and began to represent artists, curate more shows and with the success of Letters First and help from The Seventh Letter, it all fell into place.

To what do you contribute the success of Known Gallery?

All the amazing artists that are involved, all the great shows we've curated, The Seventh Letter crew, our street credit and our supporters. The list goes on..

What do you have planned for the future?

More art shows with more artists in more countries. Always continue to improve the site. We just added a forum so we can communicate closer with our supporters. We also launched our online store, so with that comes more prints, exclusives, etc. And we should have a new gallery in Los Angeles by the the beginning of 2010.

What artists are you excited about right now?

I'm really feeling all the new stuff coming out of James Jean, Sonny Gerasimowicz aka Coax AWR, Push, Revok, Mr. Cartoon, Keegan Gibbs, JR, BLU, Aaron Horkey, Roid, Pose is really on fire right now, Young Savannah of course, too many to list. It's a great time for art and the internet allows us to see so many amazing people from everywhere in the world.

Where do you see graffiti and street art heading?

I think very soon graffiti will be more accepted into the fine arts world and museums, much like the Olympics will accept skateboarding. And if not, we will make an alternative and be bigger like the X-games did for skating. Hopefully writers will be treated with more respect from the corporate world and paid accordingly. The whole "you do it free anyways" thing is really old.

One of my favorite ongoing series you guys run is The Seventh Day Project, where you film different Known Gallery artists completing a piece. They take various styles, but overall, the films are fast paced, time-lapse videos documenting an artist work on a graffiti piece from start to finish. Tell us a bit about the origins of this project and how it has evolved, and where it will go.

Another crazy idea. Basically we wanted to let the world see what we do from beginning to end. Releasing it monthly on the 7th just made it fun and exciting.  A lot of our supporters had never seen us paint before so it's always really cool to hear their feedback. It also allows our videographers, photographers, beat-makers and video editors to share their skills with our audience. We plan to release some DVDs, books and more products from the Seventh Day Project in the near future.

Any final parting words?

Thank you to all the people who check KnownGallery.com daily, Katie for this interview, all our supporters around the world, our crews, Ralph Guzman for building and maintaining our sites, The Seventh Letter crew and everybody involved in our lives. RIP Adam Goldstein, Forever PURE.

Join us at forum.knowngallery.com

Read interview at: www.juxtapoz.com

Read the first part of the interview at: www.juxtapoz.com

Getting Augor's feature article locked down was a blast, as (almost) all features are for the Magazine. I'd already been following Augor's work for a while when we at Juxtapoz decided to run a feature on him for our April 2009 issue. Originally, we were going to run it in July or August 2009, but I was so hyped on his new shit that we pushed it up.

What initially struck me about his billboard work in particular was how obviously well-planned and thought-out the entire production was. There was a message there in the way he manipulated the advertising I found intelligent and really fucking ballsy. I've hung out with graf artists since I was in high school, but never with a writer doing things on this scale, which really intrigued me. Originally, when I decided to write the piece (way back in September 2008 or so), I asked Augs if he'd be down to take me out bombing with him in LA one night. To my surprise, he was totally willing. So I got to planning.

Augor and I kept in touch throughout the months leading up to our planned meeting and his work and its level of skill and boldness only seemed to increase during that time. It was great to watch him progress, knowing we were going to collaborate on this feature.

When I got off the plane in LA, I immediately called Augor and couldn't get a hold of him. I hit up some other cats I figured might know where he was, but still couldn't pinpoint him. "Great, he's probably in jail or something," I thought. True to my nagging suspicion, Augor had been rolled up on by LA's finest while doing a piece a few days prior, and had only just been released when he called my cell. We agreed to meet up at his place the next day- a day that turned into a full 14 hours of talking, watching fellow writers paint a legal wall, eating, hanging out, drinking, and getting to know a young artist hell-bent on changing the way the public, and even other writers and artists, see graffiti and public space.

Overall, having the opportunity to meet up with world-class artists and get to know them in an intimate enough way to be able to try and write their life story in less than 3,000 words, while keeping it informative and interesting, is a big challenge but I love it. Talking with Augor reminded me of my frustration over what a bad rep graf artists get, because not only is he a really nice guy but he holds his art (graf, illustration, graphic/apparel design, whatever) to really high aesthetic and moral standards. Only in respecting what you do, will others around you feed off that, and in turn respect your artwork.

So read the Augor's article in the April 2009 edition of Juxtapoz and get to know an artist I have no hesitation in saying is a rising force to be reckoned with.

-Katie Zuppann