George Joaquim

About the artist

I am an American painter and visual artist deeply rooted in the Los Angeles creative community. I'm a founding member of the American Hotel & 50 Bucks Collective. In 1988, I moved into the historic American Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, drawn by its famous "bohemian milieu". There, I joined the "50 Bucks" art collective alongside other local artists, poets, and writers. As a part of the LA Punk Rock scene, during the 1990s, I worked the door at the legendary punk rock venue Al's Bar, which was housed on the ground floor of the American Hotel. Currently I'm involved in the Beauties of Hollywood Boulevard art project, an initiative supported in part by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the LA County Department of Arts and Culture, and Creative Recovery LA. I'm one of the interviewees in Tales Of the American, a feature-length documentary about the history of the L.A. Arts District.