Project Description

Performance on the Streets of LA presents an array of street performers (singers, musicians, dancers, dress-up superheroes, counterfeit celebrities, living statues and buskers of every sort) in iconic locations from Pershing Square, Echo Park, Olvera Street and Union Station to Hollywood Boulevard and finally to the Venice Boardwalk. The images are subjective evocations of a world of performance and artistry that, even while rarely credited, contribute to the richness of the city.

These artworks will be on view at Historic Broadway Station as part of the Metro Art Photo Lightbox Series.

Artist Statement

“My goal with these works was to create images that Metro commuters would recognize and relate to as their own world, familiar on the one hand, yet also fresh, as represented by a painter whose character was informed by the city we share”

About the Artist

RALPH GILBERT (b. 1948, Los Angeles) studied drawing and painting at the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles, followed by a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He has dedicated himself to furthering the tradition of figurative and narrative mural painting with projects that call for expressions of community, culture and history. Though his work is grounded in the history of his craft, his approach is evocative and of its own time. Gilbert was awarded the Edwin Austin Abbey Memorial Fund Fellowship in mural painting at the National Academy of Design in New York and has created murals for libraries, city halls, medical centers and more across the United States.