BiographyEd Ruscha came to prominence in the late 1950s, and as a Pop artist, he incorporated signs and symbols from the commercial culture he found around him in Los Angeles. Unlike his east coast contemporaries, he was more often draw to banal scenes from the urban environment, and his subject matter includes gasoline stations, the city street, or apartment complexes. He is also well known for the depiction of words and phrases and often creates the work using unconventional materials such as gunpowder.