“Signs of the Times,” a new exhibit of collages inspired by Occupy L.A., opened with a reception for artist Stephen Seemayer at the District Gallery on Friday, April 26, 2013.

Accompanying the works — which include images and slogans of the Occupy movement, along with the pages of the L.A. Times from the days of the occupation (October-November 2011) — is a video by Seemayer and his “Young Turks” collaborator, Pamela Wilson, documenting their experiences visiting the protestors nearly every day.

Signs of the Times continues through May 26.

Stephen Seemayer: Signs of the Times opened this week at the District Gallery in Downtown L.A. The exhibit includes 63 one-of-a-kind framed pieces inspired by Occupy L.A., a 5-minute movie of photos and video of the protest that took over the City Hall lawn in the fall of 2011, and the artist statement pictured above, which explains Seemayer’s experience of the historic event.

Signs of the Times continues through May 26.

Artist Stephen Seemayer will exhibit new works based on the tumultuous two months of Occupy L.A., when activists took over the City Hall lawn demanding greater economic equality for the 99%.

During October and November 2011, Seemayer and his wife, photographer Pamela Wilson, spent time nearly every day talking with and documenting the occupiers who were camped out in tents and makeshift shelters around L.A.’s Civic Center. The protestors were not only showing solidarity with their brethren of Occupy Wall Street in New York, they were also pressing for more fairness and compassion for working class Americans. They urged a shift in values and a closing of the rift between the 1% of the wealthiest in our society and the rest of the American people who are facing foreclosures, unemployment and loss of benefits in this era of rampant corporate greed.

Seemayer’s energetic collages incorporate the slogans and signage that got the occupiers’ messages across, along with photographs of life on the lawn and with graphic stencils of raised fists and other revolutionary symbolism. Each is built on a reconstructed front page of the local paper of record, the Los Angeles Times — which is headquartered coincidentally across the street from City Hall — for each of the 61 days of the occupation and for the last night when thousands of police in riot gear and hazmat suits stormed the site and evicted the protestors.

The exhibit opens at the District Gallery in Downtown L.A. on Thursday, April 25, 2013, and runs through May 26.

AN ARTIST’S RECEPTION WILL BE HELD FRIDAY, APRIL 26, FROM 7-10 P.M.