Architects and Heroes Show – No. 42: Abe Alvarez-Tostado

For the 42nd installment of the Architects and Heroes show, we have visual artist and DJ Abe Alvarez-Tostado.

Born and raised in California, Abe’s childhood was spent attending galleries and art shows all over LA with his artist mother, while being entrenched in DJ and skateboard culture. His exposure to these cultures lead him to pursue art and djing as an outlet for his creativity.

Abe’s DJ career started in Long Beach, where he and his DJ Partner Scotty B. played at the Legendary Club Toe Jam, in Downtown Long Beach, where Rodger Clayton (co-founder of Uncle Jamm’s Army) had Snoop Dogg, Warren G, and Nate Dogg would play in the same building with Sublime, Green Day, and the Circle Jerks. In the late ‘90s he moved to San Francisco playing weekly at 111 Minna, and spinning at parties at the The Up and Down Club, The Top, Red Wine Social, Summer and Winter Camp Parties, and then Space Cowboy and BrassTax parties at The Burning Man festival.

As an artist, his early visual style was influenced by Mark Gonzales and Neal Blender, two well known skateboarders and artists. As his practice grew, Abe relocated to San Francisco, where he landed shows at galleries like 111 Minna and Upper Playground with artists like Doze Green, Jeremy Fish and Mark Ryden.

Currently residing in Yucca Valley, Abe has connected with a large and supportive community of creatives, and curates music and art events, and has even set-up his own private Art Gallery in the desert, all while creating a distinctively original pieces that include canvases, public murals, clothing, prints, and large-scale pieces that could only be created in the wide-open space that the desert offers.