Cambodia Town Mural Project

The Cambodia Town Mural Project is a collection of eight public art murals in Cambodia Town in Long Beach, CA.

The Cambodia Town Mural Project demonstrates the Arts Council’s enthusiasm and commitment to making our neighborhoods more joyful while fostering safe public spaces. This project encourages civic pride and supports the Arts Council’s mission to foster creativity and culture, enliven our communities and enable a thriving economy.

Cambodia Town Mural Project in Long Beach 2017

City of Long Beach paints 8 Murals in and around Cambodia Town.

This project is in partnership with Cambodia Town Inc., United Cambodian Community (UCC), Homeland Cultural Center (HCC), Long Beach Transit and the offices of councilmembers Daryl Supernaw (4th District) and Dee Andrews (6th District). The Arts Council secured funding to cover the costs of the project through a grant from the California Arts Council, California Community Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts Long Beach Transit, Midtown Business Improvement District and the Port of Long Beach.

Meet The Artists

Federico Laguerder

Federico Laguerder

Videographer

Federico Laguerder is an aspiring filmmaker who has been selected to capture the Cambodia Town Mural Project from start to finish. He will begin in March and complete the video in June 2017. The short video will include footage of murals in-progress, every completed mural, the UCC workshops, the celebration and walking tour, and interviews with the project partners, artists, residents, business and property owners and other community members. He has worked as an art and production assistant on film shorts like 200 Years, Move-In Day and Kamikaze. He looks at film as a way to inspire others to be their best. He loves cameras because they allow him to create and capture memories.
Rick Vilchis

Rick Vilchis

Muralist

Rick Vilchis is an artist who has deep roots in the graffiti-art street culture. He was born and raised in the Wrigley area of Long Beach, and gained an interest in art at a young age. He began painting the outdoor gallery at Homeland Cultural Center and exploring the Los Angeles graffiti-art movement around the age of 16. Since then, he has had two solo shows and has been a part of group shows throughout Southern California and Japan. He has also painted murals in many parts of Southern California. Although he is a self-taught artist, he considers his years in the sculpture program at LBCC under Coleen Sterritt, as one of the most influential periods, influencing his work into a more refined style of graffiti. His work can be described as the experience of an artist trying to find balance between the street and the gallery.
Jason Keam

Jason Keam

Muralist

Jason Keam is a local Long Beach artist and animator. He is a social media content animator for top production companies like Cartoon Network, Disney, Fox, etc. Last year he opened a pop-up creative studio in North Long Beach called The People’s Studio. The Studio created a space for locals to come and talk about art, local issues and showcase his work and the work of other local artists. He has also worked creatively with local organizations and businesses such as Deforest Park, Maya Foundation, Empact Communities and the Long Beach Creamery. The main goal of his work is to bring together people and local businesses together to create a self-sustaining city.
Angela Willcocks

Angela Willcocks

Muralist

Angela Willcocks is a multidisciplinary artist and activist whose practice is influenced by the community. Her work visualizes and engages different aspects surrounding the underrepresented. She believes drawing and painting are the foundations of her work, but each of her projects is unique in medium and message. She has collaborated to create short, socially informative videos that were projected “guerrilla like” onto spaces like parking lots, oil rigs, malls and cargo containers. She has worked on projects like Barbershops, a playful, cultural animation; Blind Video, a video and braille Installation; and OPEN, portrait drawings and figurative pop-ups. Recently as a result of a public art initiative (ALOT), she has self-funded a rented storefront as a studio in North Long Beach. She believes that these projects work to engage the community in the process of art making as a new dialogue.
Zeinab (ZYNB)

Zeinab (ZYNB)

Muralist

Born in Tehran, Zeinab (ZYNB) first began painting in the streets in 2010. Her work is dedicated to rethinking notions of social power by advancing the narratives of diverse communities whose stories and needs have historically been marginalized. Recognizing that public art is one of the most democratic and accessible forms of art, her work explores themes of transformation, nature, collective memory and healing from violence. She has painted murals in Chile, Cuba and other parts of the United States.
Jose Martinez

Jose Martinez

Muralist | Homeland Cultural Center

Born and raised in Long Beach, Jose Martinez is the co-owner and senior principal designer of Piranha Bay Resort Wear, a screen print and embroidery sportswear company located in Signal Hill. Jose is a graduate of the Art Institute of Phoenix where he received degrees in Visual Communication and Computer Animation. After graduation, Jose moved back to Long Beach and started his career with Homeland Cultural Center, where he started graphic design workshops, and the world famous Outdoor Urban Gallery. That eventually led to a six-year career with a prominent, Fortune 500 Advertising Specialty company as art director and project manager. In his free time, Jose enjoys traveling and painting Aerosol-inspired murals in Southern California and across the globe.
Bodeck Hernandez

Bodeck Hernandez

Muralist

Long Beach painter and illustrator Bodeck Luna Hernandez is interested in bridging the divide between childhood memories with the Digital Age. An immigrant from Manila, Philippines, Hernandez has been creating pieces that compound the sensory habit of replaying a distant visual memory while pixelating expired recollections. Exploring the relationship with both nostalgia and modern society’s heavy reliance on disposable technology and consumerism is a recurring theme in his work. His personal approach with his background in street art heavily influences his illustrative works. From commercial and private commissions to album covers, he likes to bind the community by showcasing local talent and businesses.
Tracy Negrete

Tracy Negrete

Muralist

Tracy Negrete is a female, Hispanic artist based in Long Beach. She has an extensive background in mural painting and fine art. Her passion is in collaborating with and inspiring communities through art. Her personal work explores individual narrative and vital as well as the significance of collective healing. She has also been a part of shows in Long Beach, Los Angeles and New York. She believes in the arts as a form of transformative healing and sees herself as a cultural worker for social issues. She has experience working with communities and public schools. She has created art literacy–based projects with multiple communities including youth and public schools. She has received recognition from Vice Mayor Rex Richardson and Councilmember Al Austin for her contribution to the Creative Corridor Challenge Mural, “Together We Soar,“ and for her work on to the Bixby Knolls Mural, “Tribute to Don Gibbs.” Tracy actively looks to work with youth and community volunteers in creating and exposing them to art.
Sayon Syprasoeuth

Sayon Syprasoeuth

Muralist

Sayon Syprasoeuth, leads the Living Arts Long Beach program, which introduces high school students and disadvantage young adults from various schools throughout Long Beach to give them exposure to the arts. He is an interdisciplinary artist, focusing on his personal story as a refugee from Cambodia. He grew up in Thai refugee camps, and emigrated to the United States at the age of 10. His work address past and present issues; triggered by memories of war and trauma, beliefs, spiritual dimensions and life in contemporary time in the United States. His work has been shown in Cambodia, China, Berlin and throughout the United States. He received his Bachelor in Fine Arts degree from Long Beach State in 2003 and Master in Fine Arts from Claremont Graduate University (CGU) in 2007. Since 2008 he has been a coordinator for Global Hybrid, an arts exchange between artists in Cambodia, Korea and United States. He is currently an independent curator and a practicing artist.

Project Partners

Arts Council of Long Beach

United Cambodian Community

 

Cambodia Town

 

Homeland Cultural Center

 

Long Beach Transit

City of Long Beach

 

Rebuilding Together

 

Asian Pacific Islander Forward Movement

 

Map of the Cambodia Town Mural Project

About the Project

Artists for the Cambodia Town Mural Project were selected through a panel composed of community professionals from Long Beach, who reviewed submissions from an open public call for a videographer and muralists.

One of the murals was created through community workshops, facilitated by Sayon Syprasoeuth, professional artist and program coordinator for Living Arts Long Beach at UCC, who worked with local community members to conceive, design and paint a mural.

Homeland Cultural Center invited artist, Jose Martinez, to lead community volunteers through the mural painting process of a new permanent mural design for Homeland. Additional murals were painted by artists Angela Willcocks, Bodeck Hernandez, ZEINAB (ZYNB), Jason Keam, Ricardo Vilchis and Tracy Negrete. A videographer, Federico Laguerder, has also been chosen to create a short video capturing the entire project from start to finish.

Five of the muralists are residents and active artists in Long Beach and one artist has painted murals internationally in Chile, Cuba and other parts of the US.

 

Generous Support

The Arts Council for Long Beach’s Cambodia Town Mural Project is generously supported through private foundations and public donors, including grants from these governmental agencies:

California Arts Council

California Community Foundation

Artworks

Long Beach Transit

City of Long Beach

The Port of Long Beach