FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 7, 2022

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LAX Public Relations
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(Los Angeles, CA) - The Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners unanimously voted on March 3 to accept a large-scale abstract painting by Renée Petropoulos titled “Just What Is Your Position," which is being donated by Fox Studios. The large-format artwork will serve as a visual landmark for airport guests who will use the brand-new Terminal 2/3 ticketing lobby at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) when it opens in April 2022.   “The display of visual art throughout the airport positively augments the guest experience at LAX, and we thank Fox Studios for this very generous donation,” said Beatrice Hsu, President, Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. “We are proud to provide the space to accommodate such a large-scale painting in a state-of-the-art terminal where a new audience will have the opportunity to see and appreciate the artwork.”   Originally commissioned in the late 1990s by the Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., the painting’s original home was the lobby of Building 100 on the Fox Studio Lot on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles. The film studio commissioned the artwork in part to satisfy the City of Los Angeles' Private Arts Development Fee Program, which is administered through the Department of Cultural Affairs. Fox Studios is currently renovating its headquarters building, and the lobby where the painting was on display since 1998 no longer will exist. Given the size of the piece, which measures 20-feet by 38-feet, Fox Studios offered to donate the painting to Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) for public display at LAX to ensure the artwork will continue to be in a location that advances the City Department of Cultural Affairs’ cultural, artistic and community interests.   To the artist, the location for “Just What Is Your Position” at LAX is ideal because it preserves the history of the painting, but also reveals additional meanings. Using color and pattern, the artwork explores a viewer’s perception of corporate culture and weaves together elements that create a sense of movement and fragmentation.   Petropoulos points out that the diagonal light effect from the Terminal 2/3 lobby windows echoes the diagonal element that crosses the width of the painting that originally reflected a staircase that traversed the original space at Fox Studios.    “I could consider this almost a re-birth for the painting,” Petropoulos said. “Being involved in the installation at LAX and being able to see the work transformed by this particular location, while also seeing how the work transforms the space around it, is incredible. It’s very exciting to consider how many people will be able to experience the work.”   The artwork is scheduled for installation beginning March 21, and will be completed in time for the projected opening of the Terminal 2/3 headhouse the following month. The new headhouse is part of a $1.8 billion project that includes the reconstruction of much of Terminals 2 and 3 as well as a post-security connector to the Tom Bradley International Terminal. The new facilities will open in phases, starting later this spring and continuing through 2023.   About the Artist: Renée Petropoulos is a renowned local artist who was born in Los Angeles and is currently a professor at Otis College of Art and Design. She holds a Masters in Photography and Video, and a Masters of Fine Art in Studio Art, both from UCLA. Petropoulos has created projects and exhibited internationally. Her notable commissions include permanent artworks for the downtown Los Angeles Public Library and LA Metro’s Green Line, which reflect her interest in both pattern and color.

 

About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

LAX, the third-busiest airport in the world and second busiest in the United States in 2019, is in the midst of a $15-billion capital improvement program that will touch on all nine passenger terminals and build new facilities, including an Automated People Mover (APM) train, Consolidated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) facility and the West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal.

 

In 2019, LAX served nearly 88.1 million passengers and offered an average of 700 daily nonstop flights to 113 destinations in the U.S. and 1,200 weekly nonstop flights to 91 markets in 46 countries on 72 commercial airlines.

 

LAX generates 620,600 jobs in Southern California, with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion, according to an economic study based on 2014 operations. 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 (LAWA), a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund. 

 

LAWA is leading the aviation industry in sustainability practices, with initiatives related to water management, energy (electricity) management, air quality, recycling and natural resources management. In 2019, LAX received Level III ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation from Airports Council International-Europe.

 

LAWA is also a leader in inclusivity, operating eight programs that provide opportunities for business enterprises including local, small, minority-owned, veteran-owned and disadvantaged firms, and working together with community partners to offer the HireLAX Apprenticeship Readiness Program, which targets local workers to make them ready for rewarding careers in the construction trades, and the Build LAX Academy, designed to prepare small contracting businesses for success when working on projects at LAX.

 

LAX was named a top-10 U.S. airport by SKYTRAX in 2018, and was honored as the “Most Innovative Airport for Passenger Experience” in 2019 by the American Association of Airport Executives. LAX is the second-most popular airport in the world to appear on Instagram, according to wego.com. Other recent honors have included selection as the No. 9 Best Airport (Wall Street Journal); No. 7 Best On-Time Performance for a Mega-Hub Airport (OAG); one of “The World’s Best Airports for Business Travelers” (GlobeHunters); Public-Private Partnership of the Year (P3 Bulletin); Urth Caffe, Best Airport Coffee Concession of the Year (Global FAB Awards); Innovation of the Year, Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility (ARTBA); Best Project, United Airlines Terminal 7 and 8 Redevelopment Program (Engineering News Record California); North American Public-Private Partnership Deal of the Year (IJ Global); and Innovative Transportation Solution of the Year, Automated People Mover (WTS LA).

 

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.