All Exhibitions

In addition to integrating artwork at all Metro stations, we also offer transit riders the opportunity to engage with a wide variety of artworks through multiple exhibition series. The unique, site-specific formats range from neighborhood posters and photography to community art banners and most recently on TAP cards and digital screens at station platforms.

Detail of "Seven Spots and a Path" by Jud Fine

Seven Spots and a Path

Artist(s):

As Landscape Artist, Jud Fine collaborated with the landscape architect and the Landscape Project Team to develop design concepts and specifications for landscaping artwork and plantings integrated throughout the G Line (Orange) route.

Poetry In Motion/LA™

Poetry In Motion/LA™

Launched in October 1998 in partnership with the Poetry Society of America, Poetry in Motion/LA™ places poems directly in the path of more than one million Metro bus riders daily.

Metro Art Portrait Series: More People Than You Know

More People Than You Know

Metro Art Portrait Series: More People Than You Know is designed to feature and engage the different neighborhoods surrounding the stations of the Metro system. This rotating exhibition features portraits of patrons created by artists connected to the neighborhoods served by the A Line (Blue).

Image of bookmark with text and imagery.

Metro Art Bookmarks, 1996 & 1997

In 1996 and 1997, Metro Art initiated and developed bookmark projects in a creative effort to encourage transit customers to use the Metro system to travel to local libraries. Visual artists and poets were invited to form teams and submit collaborative designs of text and imagery for bookmarks to be distributed in “take one” holders on board 2,000 Metro buses, and at public libraries countywide.

MacArthur Park site (1991-92)

This temporary construction fence, which consisted of 30 painted plywood panel murals, was erected around the drained lake in MacArthur Park in an effort to mitigate construction of MacArthur Park Station.

Commuters passing colorful artwork in lightboxes in LA Union Station.

Journeys: LA Communities Through the Eyes of Artists

Featuring the original artworks by  twelve artists who created posters for the Through The Eyes of Artists series, Each artwork on display in this passageway focuses on a particular neighborhood or city in Los Angeles County to capture the look and feel of each place from a personal perspective.

Eileen Cowin, I see what you’re saying (train of thought)

I see what you’re saying (train of thought)

Artist(s):

Project Description In 2001, artist Eileen Cowin inaugurated the program with a series of photographs titled, I see what you’re saying (train of thought). These black and white, larger than life, close-up images of eyes and mouths felt separated from their overall context of a continuing narrative. “Eyes” view, witness, notice, watch and spy while “mouths” talk, pout, utter, and express. In viewing these photographs, we were reminded of our habit of looking at others and reading stories into what we see. As we wait, travel, stand or sit, we daydream and those around us weave into our imagination.   Artist Statement “The ‘gestures’ in these images are plainly seen, but remain ambiguous… These scenes ride the edge between the real and the unreal, between social commentary and personal fantasy.” About the Artist EILEEN COWIN is an artist who uses photography as a medium. She has been the chair of the Photography Department at California State University at Fullerton for many years. Her Bachelor of Science is from the State University of New York, New Paltz, and Master …

EXPO 1 Banners

EXPO 1 Banners

To mark the historic opening of the first phase of the Expo Line, now E Line (Expo), and to welcome new transit riders to the neighborhood, Metro celebrated the many contributions of the South Los Angeles community and its rich ethnic diversity in a series of light pole banners installed along Crenshaw Blvd. between Exposition and Vernon.

Hirokazu Kosaka, in collaboration with Ted Tokio Tanaka Architects, "Buffer Zone" (seating)

Buffer Zone

Artist(s):

For Little Tokyo/Arts District Station, Hirokazu Kosaka created six smooth granite benches with concentric circles of black and white, simulating a Zen archery target with station canopies in the shape of Japanese archery bows. Buffer Zone was displayed at the station from 2009-2017 in coordination with the artist. 

A line drawing of a Los Angeles cityscape.

An Ode to the Essential

Produced in 2021, An Ode To The Essential is a tribute dedicated to all essential workers and to those we have lost. The tribute features an original poem by Joseph Rios with text in a reflective gold reminiscent of the glow of afternoon light and suspended over a delicate line drawing of a distinctly Los Angeles cityscape by artist Manuel López. 

Alhambra, Phung Huynh

Alhambra

Artist(s):

Alhambra was the first city in California with an iron pipe irrigation system. The pipes frame the cultural icons and symbols of the city, including its founder, B.D. Wilson, and depict the community’s diversity, commerce and history.

Landmarks—blanketing the mountainous landscape—are highlighted within this artistic and equestrian-friendly foothill community.

Altadena

Artist(s):

Nature trails, train tracks, map fragments and names of local landmarks are nestled along sun-kissed mountain peaks and natural wonder that this independent, creative community in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains offers.