ATLAS

Rick Ordonez, known as ATLAS, is a Los Angeles-area graphic designer and graffiti artist from Alhambra, California. Best known for his stylized cat characters, ATLAS became a recognizable presence along the Pasadena Freeway after shifting from ornate lettering and graphics into a simpler, more character-driven visual language. His work stood out in LA’s graffiti landscape for its humor, charm, and unexpected softness … cats instead of menace, personality instead of posturing. In 2010, following public attention and legal trouble connected to the cat tags, he was given a solo exhibition, Rick Ordonez: Kitty Litter, at Mid-City Arts. ATLAS later participated in ESMoA’s 2014 SCRATCH exhibition, further connecting his street-born work to the gallery and institutional art world.

SPRAY IN PROGRESS: “THE NUN II” HAS ATLAS’S NAME ON IT.