Welcome to RTEA

Born in Los Angeles California in 1953, Vallen has been creating socially conscious artworks for as long as he can remember. Being a teenager in the 60's sensitized him to politics, and like many of his generation he became inspired by the Civil Rights and Antiwar movements. By 1971, at the age of 18, he had already published cartoons in the Los Angeles Free Press and the Black Panther Party newspaper. In the same year he published his first street poster, a pre-Watergate artwork titled, "Impeach Nixon!" Vallen studied art at the prestigious Otis Parsons Art Institute of Los Angeles, where he was influenced by the great African American artist, Charles White. But despite his schooling the artist considers himself to be largely self taught. He forged a style shaped not so much by how others painted, but what they painted. Vallen has a firm commitment to figurative realism, and he's derived inspiration from the rich heritage of artists working as social critics and documentarians. His influences range from Goya and Daumier, to the German Expressionists and the Mexican Muralists.

In the late 70's and early 80's Vallen became involved in the nascent Punk Rock scene of L.A.. He produced a myriad of drawings, prints, and paintings based on those experiences. In 79 he worked for a short time at SLASH magazine (the West Coast's premier Punk publication), producing two cover illustrations for the infamous magazine. He also played a minor role in the production of "The Decline of Western Civilization", the Punk Rock documentary by director Penelope Spheeris. Concurrent to involvement with the Punk scene, Vallen developed fraternal ties to the large Central American refugee community of L.A., which was then seeking asylum from the terrible wars engulfing the region. Vallen was the first to create and distribute political Posters on the streets of L.A. in the late 70's. Those artworks combined text with original images and were expressions of solidarity with a people who were largely invisible to mainstream America. Moreover, Vallen's posters were bilingual... reviving a tradition that had reached it's zenith in the late 60's Chicano Arts movement. During the late 1970's, Vallen's illustrations also appeared in publications as diverse as SLASH magazine, the L.A. Weekly, California Magazine and Mother Jones.