Project Description

Phung Huynh designed terrazzo paving areas and porcelain enamel steel panels for station platforms. The completed works display ‘lucky’ Chinese cherubs with California poppies, and Chinese cherub pilots in a surreal yet travel-friendly atmosphere of airplanes, birds and flying oranges. The designs suggest travel, a “bon voyage” gesture, and imagery that is symbolic of California. The faces express a pop culture sensibility rather than a culturally specific idea. They are lucky symbols and happy gestures that welcome or bid farewell to travelers in the area.

Artist Statement

“A piece that is for the public, I wanted to create something sweet, whimsical, fun and delightfully kitschy.”

About the Artist

PHUNG HUYNH is Associate Professor of Art at Los Angeles Valley College and teaches courses in drawing, painting, and design.  Huynh completed undergraduate coursework at the University of Southern California, received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and earned a Master of Fine Arts from New York University.

Huynh is influenced by 17th century Italian Baroque painters as well as contemporary painters who explore postcolonial, cross-cultural phenomena. Her work is a deliberate exploration of traditional Chinese auspicious imagery, and the ways it is consumed and distorted in American popular culture. Huynh has had solo exhibitions at Sam Lee Gallery in Los Angeles, Gagosian Gallery in Beverly Hills, and the Sweeney Art Gallery at the University of California, Riverside.

Display year: 2005 –