L.A.’S URBAN CULTURE COMES TO LIFE THROUGH THREE DIVERSE ART EXHIBITS AT LOS ANGELES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT
(Los Angeles, California – May 2, 2014) Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs announces three new art exhibitions at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) that explore Los Angeles’ natural and built environments through sculpture, painting, photography, drawing, and mixed-media works. Featuring solo installations by Jaime Scholnick in Terminal 1 and Luciana Abait in Terminal 3, and a group exhibition guest curated by Milo + McLean in Terminals 7 and 8, the artworks on display re-interpret the substance of our environment and the familiar Southern California experience.
Using reclaimed Styrofoam packaging as her canvas, artist Jaime Scholnick has installed an assemblage of individually painted sculptures in the Terminal 1 display case on the Departures Level, transforming the ubiquitous material into art objects. The installation titled Artifacts Series: Black/White/Flo Red Installation, on view for ticketed passengers through July 2014, is a diverse collection of intricately painted shapes arranged and stacked like a repository of artifacts from ancient, modern, and imaginary worlds. The shapes of the Styrofoam obliquely reference the shape of the consumer object it once held—a computer, a teapot, a space heater—while slyly reminding us of our never-ending desire for material goods. The Styrofoam forms can be interpreted in a multitude of ways, inviting viewers to contemplate the transient nature and the environmental impact of our consumer cravings.
Aquarium and Underwater Series is an exhibition composed of three artworks by Luciana Abait, each conjuring a surreal atmosphere out of the familiar environment of swimming pools. Located in Terminal 3 on the Ticketing Level and on view to the public through December 2014, Aquarium is a backlit photo-transparency installation featuring a grid of 24 illuminated photographs of swimmers and swimming pools captured from underwater. In Underwater Series, Abait displays two large photographs depicting the floors and walls of swimming pools, offering abstract views that evoke vast, desolate landscapes. The crimson color of the water in these artworks is a reference to its elemental counterparts, fire and lava, creating a glowing and mysterious setting for viewers to reflect on humanity’s relationship to the environment.
Welcome to L.A./Please Come Again is a group exhibition of contemporary artworks by fifteen Los Angeles artists inspired by the multifaceted and evolving identity of Los Angeles as a vibrant metropolis. On view for ticketed passengers through December 2014 in the Terminal 7 and 8 Departures Level Connecting Concourse, the exhibition features 37 diverse artworks that critically explore and delve into a range of Los Angeles’ celebrated, notorious, and enigmatic qualities through painting, photography, drawing, and mixed media. L.A.’s landscape is a stunning and complicated amalgam of cultures, people and possibility. From its iconic Pacific shores to the urban skylines dotting the city, L.A.’s “mythic glint” draws romantics and trailblazers alike. The range of dynamic artworks, providing a context for discussion, reflection, and interpretation for passengers who call this city home, as well as for first-time visitors to this wonderfully paradoxical paradise that is Los Angeles. Featured artists include Jennifer Celio, Zoe Crosher, J. Bennett Fitts, Yvette Gellis, Jill Greenberg, Roni Feldman, Yolanda Gonzalez, Susan Holcomb, Christine Nguyen, Elizabeth Patterson, Richard Ross, Lana Shuttleworth, Mark Stock, David Strick, and Lacey Terrell.
About Los Angeles World Airports Art Program
Initiated in 1990, the purpose of the LAWA Art Program is to provide opportunities for educational, entertaining, and enriching cultural experiences for the traveling public at LAX and LA/Ontario International Airports and the LAX FlyAway® bus terminal.
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. For additional information, please visitwww.lawa.org.
About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the sixth busiest airport in the world and third in the United States. LAX offers 680 daily flights to 96 cities in the U.S. and 933 weekly nonstop flights to 57 cities in 34 countries on 59 commercial air carriers. LAX ranks 14th in the world and fifth in the U.S. in air cargo tonnage processed, with over 1.9 million tons of air cargo valued at over $86.9 billion. An economic study in 2011 reported that operations at LAX generated 294,400 jobs in Los Angeles County with labor income of $13.6 billion and economic output of more than $39.7 billion. This activity added $2.5 billion to local and state revenues. 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.
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.
