Artist Mear One paints for a crowd at the Los Angeles Art Show. (Bethany Firnhaber)

An artist dips his over-sized paintbrush into a bluish-gray concoction of acrylic and water. Carefully, he brings his arm back, winding up. He lets loose.

Mear One flings the color from his brush onto the canvas in an act of organized chaos. After about two hours of work, clouds and a blue-gray sky begin to appear on the 12-foot by 12-foot canvas.

Mear One is one of four "street artists" who painted live at the Los Angeles Art Show this year as part of a project titled Vox Humana. Alongside him, on equally grand canvases were legendary Los Angeles artists Kofie, El Mac, and Retna. Each of them began their art when they were young teens, tagging the sides of buildings, signs and dumpsters with spray paint.

"They've been criminalized throughout their entire careers as artists," said Bryson Strauss, curator of the Vox Humana project and director of LA Art Machine. "Eventually, after some years of running around in the streets and hanging off of bridges, they kind of migrated into the studio."

As each of these "street artists" began to hone their craft, they developed styles distinctly their own. Mear One has gravitated towards vibrant colors and caricature-type images that often seem to be making a statement about society. Kofie's style displays his self-proclaimed fascination with architecture and form. His use of muted earth tones and geometric forms combine in a style he has dubbed "vintage futurism." And El Mac and Retna often work together, combining their skills of lettering and aerosol figure painting to create larger-than-life depictions of ordinary people.

While most of the mural work these artists do today is commissioned or at least done with prior approval, they recognize that they are still drawn to the studios of their youth: the city. Kofie admits he has an eye for retaining walls; he often notices the texture and color of the sides of buildings he walks by each day.

The Los Angeles Art Show afforded Mear One, Kofie, El Mac and Retna a unique opportunity. While each of them has painted live at one venue or another during the course of their artistic careers, none of them had ever painted for an event that touted them as a main event.

"Never before has a top-tier art fair actually encouraged street art," said Bryson Strauss. "This is a little moment in art history."