NEW LAX EXHIBITION OF PAINTINGS PRESENTS A FUSION OF PLACES AND PATTERNS

            (Los Angeles, California – December 1, 2016) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, announces a new art exhibition titled Ventanas by Los Angeles artist Carolyn Castaño in Terminal 1 at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). Ventanas (Spanish for windows) is a series of 12 site-specific paintings that mix landscape imagery, abstract patterns, and motifs culled from contemporary and vintage airline graphic design.

            Each painting evokes the experience of looking through a window, inviting viewers to imagine or recall the visual transitions they may have experienced during travel. The exhibition is on public view on the Lower/Arrivals Level in Terminal 1 Baggage Claim through April 2017.

Castaño’s vibrant paintings combine watercolor, gouache, and acrylic to suggest possible destinations or points of origin, including Latin American tropical landscapes that celebrate breathtaking natural wonders such as the Rio Celeste in Costa Rica, stunning Southern California landscapes where ocean, mountains and desert meet, and the dramatic expanse of the Pacific and iconic profile of Mount Fuji. Using her signature illustrative style, Castaño’s paintings are a contemporary homage to vintage travel posters, beckoning viewers to dream of distant lands, as well as explorations of our region’s world-famous natural landscapes.

Ventanas opens a window on two historical moments that shape the visual representation of travel in the Western Hemisphere. Castaño’s fluid watercolor landscapes recall the journey of Alexander Von Humboldt, the Prussian painter and naturalist whose 1799 Latin American expedition introduced the region’s flora to much of Europe. Castaño’s works also make ample use of the hard-edge patterns and colorful imagery found on aircraft tails, where corporate, aerospace, and modernist design intersect. Often functioning as both an emblem of corporate and national identity, the pop icons and bold bands of color of aircraft tail design are indelible visual markers of trips taken and adventures to be embarked upon.

            “I wanted my paintings to give a feeling of looking through a window,” said Castaño. “Windows frame what and how we see the world, whether it’s looking out from inside an airplane as new geographies come into view, or peering in at the carefully orchestrated universe of form, color, and logotype found within the aircraft one is about to board. I hope viewers enjoy the many ways we can see and experience our surroundings, whether in transit or at home.”

            The series of paintings expands Castaño’s ongoing interest in the everyday visual vernaculars of home and heritage, be it in Los Angeles, Latin America, or in the natural landscape, real and imagined.

About Los Angeles World Airports Art Program

The mission of the LAWA Art Program is to enhance and humanize the travel experience by providing diverse and memorable art experiences throughout the airport. The Art Program includes temporary exhibitions, permanent installations, and cultural performances. With an emphasis on local and regional artists, the Art Program provides access to an array of contemporary artworks that reflect and celebrate the region’s creative caliber. For additional information, please visit lawa.org.

About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

            LAX is the seventh busiest airport in the world and third in the United States. LAX served more than 74.9 million passengers in 2015. LAX offers 742 daily nonstop flights to 101 cities in the U.S. and 1,273 weekly nonstop flights to 76 cities in 41 countries on 64 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with more than 2.1 million tons of air cargo valued at over $101.4 billion. LAX handled 655,564 operations (landings and takeoffs) in 2015. 

            An economic study based on 2014 operations reported LAX generated 620,610 jobs in Southern California with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues. The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital-improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion, $966 million in state and local taxes, and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues. LAX is part of a system of two Southern California airports – along with Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.

            For more information about LAX, please visit www.lawa.aero/lax or follow on Twitter @flyLAXAirport , on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LAInternationalAirport , and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/laxairport1 . Information about LAX’s ongoing multi-billion-dollar LAX Modernization Program, as well as tips and shortcuts to help navigate LAX during construction, are available at www.LAXisHappening.com .  

            As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Alternative formats in large print, braille, audio, and other forms (if possible) will be provided upon request.