TERMINAL ART EXHIBITIONS BLOOM IN TIME FOR SPRING AT LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT (LAX)
(Los Angeles, California – April 19, 2012) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, reveals four new art exhibitions, featuring solo exhibitions by Chris Natrop and Barry Markowitz; a group exhibit co-curated by Susanna Meiers and Victor Raphael; and an exhibit by art consultant and writer Elizabeta Betinski. The exhibitions are currently on display through June 2012 in Terminals 1 and 3, and the Tom Bradley International Terminal for the benefit of passengers and visitors at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX).
Located in the Terminal 1 Departures Level art display case, artist Chris Natrop’s installation titled Little River Mash Up is an arrangement of intricate paper cutouts suspended in delicate layers and bathed in rainbow-colored fluorescent light. Natrop’s process, which he describes as “knife drawing,” involves using a standard utility knife to spontaneously cut away at the paper to create a hybrid of abstracted landscape imagery. The imagery he creates often reflects Natrop’s surroundings; for this installation, the Los Angeles River serves as the focal point, a natural waterway battling with urban encroachment.
The Terminal 3 Arrivals Hallway features an exhibition of large paintings on wood panels by Barry Markowitz, titled Enceladus. Markowitz merges the medium of hand-pressed copper, silver, gold and metal leaf with that of paint and ink, resulting in variegated and reflective images.
Combining imagery collected during his travels around Los Angeles, Markowitz references the concept of discovery both in his own wanderings and in the context of the larger universe. Inspired by the mystery and mythology of Saturn’s moon, Enceladus, Markowitz points to this distant planet as a symbol of discovery and new life.
The Terminal 3 Arrivals Hallway display cases feature artworks co-curated by Los Angeles-based curator and artist, Victor Raphael and El Camino College art gallery director and curator, Susanna Meiers. Titled Out of This World, artists Terry Braunstein, Susanna Meiers, Victor Raphael, and June Wayne explore the enigmatic phenomenon of outer space through painting, photomontage, lithography, video, and an artist book. “The mystifying world of deep space, with its silent, distant planets and exploding supernovas, has long been a source of inspiration to artists throughout the ages,” states Meiers.
Located inside the Tom Bradley International Terminal art display, guest curator Elizabeta Betinski brings together different textures and styles within the theme of travel in an exhibition featuring Margi Scharff and Alexis Zoto. Inspired by her grandmother who immigrated from Albania, Zoto creates a dreamlike scene composed of symbols of domesticity and immigrant culture, including a vinyl floral appliqué, antique jewelry cases, and headboards floating in mid-air. By merging these symbols with her own aesthetic sensibilities, Zoto invites the viewer to contemplate personal stories of travel. Zoto’s installation is accompanied at each end by enlarged prints of ornate collages by the late artist Margi Scharff, who, as Betinski describes, “collect(ed) materials discarded by the various cultures she was visiting, piecing them together to create small, jewel-like collages.”
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About LAWA Art Program
Initiated in 1990, the purpose of the Public Art and Exhibitions Program at Los Angeles World Airports is to educate and entertain the traveling public at Los Angeles (LAX) and LA/Ontario International Airports and the FlyAway Bus Terminal at Van Nuys Airport. The program showcases local and regional artists through temporary exhibitions and permanent public art installations, which enhance and humanize the overall travel experience for millions every year.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the sixth busiest airport in the world and third in the United States, offering more than 600 daily flights to 91 domestic cities and more than 1,000 weekly nonstop flights to 56 cities in 32 countries on nearly 75 air carriers. It ranks 13th in the world in air cargo tonnage processed. In 2011, LAX served more than 61 million passengers, processed over 1.8 million tons of air cargo valued at nearly $80 billion, and handled 603,912 aircraft operations (landings and takeoffs). LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports – along with LA/Ontario International and 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.
