Born in Los Angeles California in 1953 to parents of Mexican and Spanish heritage, Mark Vallen has been creating socially conscious artworks for as long as he can remember. Being a teenager in the 1960's sensitized him to politics and alternative cultural movements, and like many others of his generation he became involved in the Civil Rights and anti-War movements.

By 1971, at the age of eighteen, he had already published cartoons in the Los Angeles Free Press, the Black Panther Party newspaper, and self-published his first street poster, a pre-Watergate artwork titled, "Impeach Nixon!" Vallen studied Art at community college and attended the prestigious Otis Parsons Art Institute of Los Angeles, but still considers himself to be largely self taught. He forged a style shaped not so much by how others painted, but what they painted.

Vallen has a firm commitment to figurative realism, and he's derived inspiration from the rich heritage of Artists working as social critics and documentarians. His influences range from Goya and Daumier, to the German Expressionists and the Mexican Muralists.

In the late 1970's and early 80's Vallen became involved in the nascent Punk Rock scene of Los Angeles. The Artist produced a myriad of Drawings, Prints, and Paintings based on those experiences, with the intent of not only documenting the underground cabaret-like scene, but of stirring the passive observer out of the role of voyeur and into the active one of participant.

In 1979 the Artist worked for a short time at SLASH magazine (the West Coast's premier Punk propaganda organ), and created two cover illustrations for the infamous publication. He also played a minor role in the production of "The Decline of Western Civilization", the classic Punk Rock documentary by Director Penelope Spheeris.

Concurrent to his involvement with the Los Angeles Punk scene, Vallen also developed fraternal ties to the large Central American refugee community of L.A., which was then seeking asylum from the terrible wars engulfing the region. Sympathetic to the refugee's plight, Vallen was the first to create and distribute political posters on the streets of Los Angeles in the late 70's. Those artworks combined text with original images, and were expressions of solidarity with a people who were largely invisible to mainstream America. Moreover, Vallen's posters were bilingual, reviving a tradition that had reached it's zenith in the late 60's Chicano Arts movement.

Vallen's exhibitions have been many and wide ranging. In January 2000, two of Vallen's Prints were included in an exhibition of political posters at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City. Another of the Artist's Prints was included in the traveling exhibit and book, "Just Another Poster? Chicano Graphic Arts in California", which was organized by the University Art Museum - University of California - Santa Barbara. In early 2003 his Punk Portraits were a featured part of the Los Angeles Kantor Gallery's inaugural exhibition. Today the Artist is concentrating on easel painting, and he currently works and exhibits with ARTINO, an L.A. group of Latino figurative painters who have come together to bring a greater appreciation of Latino Art to the world. Members work in a variety of styles and mediums with an emphasis on their Latino cultural roots. Vallen helped to organize "¡El Grito! Liberation of the Spirit", an ARTINO exhibition at the Lankershim Art Gallery celebrating Mexican Independence Day. Mark Vallen views his Art as being part of a contentious culture, a continuum of a challenging, questioning aesthetic, examining some of the basic precepts of our society. His work shares a purpose with Artists past and present who have grappled with difficult issues and taken uncompromising stands on them. He continues to create Art in the belief that it can make a difference in our world, and that there can be no social progress without it. 

You can contact Mark Vallen at: vallen@art-for-a-change.com Mark Vallen's artworks can be viewed and purchased from the following online locations: www.artino.us  www.art-for-a-change.com