Sandow Birk

Sandow Birk was born in 1962 in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Orange County, California. In 1988, Birk received a BFA degree from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design, Los Angeles, California, and he studied art in France and England in the early 1980s. Although well traveled, Birk mainly centers his artwork on California culture, having been influenced by his own California experience. Many of his early works were created with a focus on urban Los Angeles and its social and political issues, as well as inner-city violence, gangs, graffiti, surfing, and skateboarding, which make up the melting pot of different cultures that coexist in Los Angeles.