Street Artists Say Graffiti on Abandoned L.A. High-Rises Is Disruptive, Divisive Art

Not everyone made it to the top floors of Oceanwide Plaza — the abandoned billion-dollar development of luxury high-rises in downtown Los Angeles — but the graffiti artist called SEK was determined to get there. Dressed in his usual hoodie, and with a paint-splattered satchel over his shoulder, he slipped onto the property through one of many openings in the surrounding fence, and began heading up 52 floors. That was in early February, when local graffiti artists first began hitting the construction site’s three towers after becoming newly aware that the property was mostly unguarded. In that first week, the buildings would be smothered in paint, as taggers left their names and acronyms in elaborate shapes and colors: “Hopess,” “Tang,” “Eels,” “6FT,” “Ska,” “DWP,” “420,” “Libre,” “Serb,” “Sweets,” “Thrash” and hundreds more. Others painted cartoon pandas and left statements of purpose (e.g., “Forever Living Krazy!”). That night at the top of the main tower, SEK found a spot to leave his name spelled out in bubble letters painted in silver, red and black. Splashing his mark onto the glass of what was once destined to be someone’s luxury penthouse condo was part of a collision of class and culture in...