Levi Ponce

Early life and career

Ponce was born in the Pacoima neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. He studied animation and graphic design at California State University (Northridge), and received a bachelor's degree in art. Ponce was influenced by his father, Hector Ponce, a sign painter and muralist whose work appears on many storefronts in Pacoima.

In 2011, Ponce began installing murals on the sides of buildings in poorer neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley.

Ponce is noted for his influence on what has become known as "Mural Mile", a strip of Van Nuys Boulevard in Pacoima once covered in graffiti and defaced storefronts. Ponce began painting murals along walls facing the street, and was joined by other artists.

Ponce's art sometimes take the form of a community project, as volunteers are welcome to assist with public murals. "These are our artists here in Pacoima", said Ponce, "they don't have galleries. They don't have schools or universities and museums. When I say come help paint, it's like a gift to them".

Canvas works by Ponce have been exhibited at The MACAY in Mérida, the Craft and Folk Art Museum in Los Angeles, and at California State University in Northridge.

In 2014, MSN Latino listed Ponce as one of "10 Latinos to Watch in 2014", describing his murals as "a truly marvelous and original way of beautifying the city, street by street".

In 2015, Ponce was commissioned to paint "Luminaries of Pantheism" for an area in Venice, California that receives over a million onlookers per year. The mural painting depicts Albert Einstein, Alan Watts, Baruch Spinoza, Terence McKenna, Carl Jung, Carl Sagan, Emily Dickinson, Nikola Tesla, Friedrich Nietzsche, Ralph Waldo Emerson, W.E.B. Du Bois, Henry David Thoreau, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Rumi, Adi Shankara, and Lao Tzu.