Some of the artists in this show weren’t even born yet when Billy Shire decided to clear out the storage apartment at the corner of Melrose and Martel, upstairs from his flagship Soap Plant shop with marked purpose.

His vision: to showcase the incredible, ethnic folk art he brought back from Mexico, Guatemala, and museum quality pieces from Asia and elsewhere alongside that of his talented friends–people who were finding a hard time being taken seriously by the art establishment of the era in spite of their technical prowess. His experiment has spawned a legacy. The renewed interest in illustration art resultant from his gallery’s success influenced the zeitgeist and launched industries. The lowbrow movement of California Art (which in turn informed the Pop Surrealists that followed) influenced fashion, television, film, and culture. The rest, as they say, is history.

The 32nd Annual Drawing Show is an invitational event that traces the history of Post-Pop in its birthplace.