Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio uses amber as a metaphor for preserving history and elevating workers’ stories in his artwork for the concourse, which will be fabricated in mosaic. Amber is a natural substance that traps and protects historic material for millions of years, and it is a luxury gemstone.
Sarah Cain’s artwork for the station’s entrance is intended to be a welcoming, oasis of color and design in contrast to the density of metallic high-rise buildings in Century City.
Phung Huynh explores the origin story of Century City through her unique approach of urban folklore and community voices. The artwork will include portraits of recognizable actors from the area’s early history as a film studio back lot and renowned architects who built Century City, as well as everyday people who work and own businesses in the area.
Oscar Magallanes was inspired by Century City’s history in the motion pictures industry. Their design for the station artwork weaves together a narrative of stories told through film and the complex histories of the communities surrounding the future station.
Analia Saban is creating a semi-fictional underground world constructed in geologic layers of color and texture. Buried in the layers, riders will find an unexpected montage of objects from symbols of local culture to prehistoric fossils found during Metro’s station excavation.
Moses X Ball’s inspiration for his design of the platform artwork is driven by his experiences growing up in South Central Los Angeles and riding public transit to visit the museums along Wilshire Boulevard at a young age.
Karen Hampton’s artwork for the Northeast Entrance draws inspiration from her childhood experiences riding the RTD bus along Wilshire Blvd, examining how travel can broaden one’s access to different cultures.
Yunhee Min’s artwork is grounded in the idea that cultural institutions create a sense of shared identity and community.
Gala Porras-Kim’s artwork for the main station entrance will depict a selection of objects sourced from The Fowler Museum at UCLA that reflect the cultures and histories of various communities in the surrounding area.
iris yirei hu’s tile mosaic artwork will call attention to the native flora, fauna, and wildlife of Southern California, along with their seasonal shifts and the cycles of life and death.
Sandow Birk’s artwork will depict a panorama of Los Angeles over 150 feet long focusing on the area around the future station and beyond. The scene spans millennia, as prehistoric creatures roam past historic and contemporary buildings such as the Wadsworth Chapel, the oldest building on Wilshire Blvd., the gates to the VA with the National Soldiers Home plaques, and the main hospital at the West LA VA Medical Center that was built in 1977.
Victoria Fu and Matt Rich’s site-responsive design imagines the glass entryway as a prism-like object that will refract light and images down into the station.
For the ticketing area of the Westwood/VA Station, Francesco Simeti is creating a series of collaged images that will be translated into glass tiles. His design incorporates icons of Los Angeles architecture with flora from the surrounding area, including the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center campus and the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, creating a harmonious, monumental landscape.
Eloy Torrez’s artwork will highlight the individuality of Veterans and their unique experiences. To create the artwork design, Torrez interviewed Veterans from the Greater Los Angeles area about their pre-military, military and post-military lives.
The Waiting Room Gallery presents exhibitions that engage a broad range of transit patrons and visitors to Union Station. The program creates a memorable, dynamic environment for our customers and encourages the use of public transit.
A colorful collage of urban planning featuring: a multi-lane commercial corridor, Del Amo Avenue; mid-century housing and manicured home niwas (gardens); historic Gardena Blvd and school mascot “easter eggs” from Harbor Gateway schools; and remembrance to those resting at a Memorial Park.
Celebrating the diversity of Los Angeles County and the community of transit riders, We Are…Portraits of Metro Riders by Local Artists is an exhibition featuring 41 portraits presented throughout the Metro system and online.
“All is Flux” is a single image (a photogram) capturing the shadows of a stream of water moving across the surface of still water.
“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.
CLOSING SOON
On view at Union Station through September 21, 2023
The Yellow Car and Los Angeles, Metro Art’s exhibition in the Union Station Waiting Room Gallery, offers a fond look back at two foundations of public transit in the region: the “Yellow Cars” of Los Angeles Railway Corporation and the transition to LA’s first years of bus service. Together, these early rail and bus lines shaped the Metro system we have today.
Ball-Nogues Studio’s Getting There celebrates the extraordinary innovation of past, present and future transit systems in Los Angeles. Appearing as colored light cast across the north and west façades of Metro’s Maintenance of Way Building (MOW) in downtown Los Angeles, the dynamic mural changes subtly at different viewpoints and as the sun moves across the sky.
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On view through May 12, 2024
“Where You Stand: LA Chinatown 1880-1939” invites participants into the center of the vibrant community of families, businesses, and associations through a multi-dimensional experience of the Chinese immigrant community of early Los Angeles.
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