Glenn Beck seemed all too happy to introduce his viewers to Los Angeles' staunchly conservative street artist, Sabo. "Pretty shocking," Beck mused while standing amongst Sabo's inflammatory portraits of politicians like Ted Cruz, Wendy Davis and President Obama. "I couldn't believe it when I saw [the artwork], that it was, like, on our side."
As Beck points out during a segment that aired on TheBlaze TV this week, Sabo is "the guy who did the Wendy Davis Barbie doll art, the Hillary Clinton flying monkeys and all the things you’ve seen about the drones.” The life-sized posters of Davis portray the Texas gubernatorial candidate as a Barbie with an exposed fetus, adorned with the words "Hollywood welcomes Abortion Barbie Wendy Davis."
The pseudonymous artist Sabo shielded his face from view during the interview with Beck, but didn't shy away from explaining that he makes art to combat what he feels is a leftist, liberal "monopoly" over the realms of education and entertainment.
"I am the fasted censored street artist in the city of Los Angeles," Sabo, under the Twitter handle unsavoryagents, exclaims to his followers. "I am not a Left-WIng-Zombie-Artist. I am on the edge, the only true rebel artist in LA."
He goes even further to add, on his website: “My aim as an artist is to be as dirty, ground level, and mean as any liberal artist out there, more so if I can. Use their tactics, their methods, appeal to their audience, the young, urban , street urchins with a message they never hear in a style they own.”
Sabo's works have made the internet rounds this month, with some conservative outlets calling the posters "stunning." He's hardly the first artist to render conservative beliefs, though. Take, for example, Jon McNaughton, an anti-Obama artist notorious for his particularly incendiary political paintings. And we can't forget Gilbert and George on the other side of the Atlantic, two British artist who admitted to voting Conservative and having a soft spot for Margaret Thatcher.
Sabo says he's been in the business of street art for 14 years, albeit, seriously for six. It appears as though he's been working alone for as much time (read: he's not part of an LA-based crew). His work certainly blurs the line between art and propaganda, and while established street art figures like Shepard Fairey have been eager to engage in the political sphere, Sabo's works beg the question: What is the conservative aesthetic?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Related
Before You Go
