Willowbrook
Fellow space travelers, outrageously dressed in pattern and color, wait for liftoff in Willowbrook as multiple suns shine bright.
Fellow space travelers, outrageously dressed in pattern and color, wait for liftoff in Willowbrook as multiple suns shine bright.
Meleko Mokgosi’s platform level station artwork will recognize everyday people who work in Beverly Hills. The artwork will celebrate both the important work of historic labor leaders who fought for worker’s rights, and contemporary workers
Rigo 23’s artwork engages Beverly Hills’ history as Tongva land and a place called “a gathering of waters.” In the artwork, water will be depicted in different stages of stillness and motion, animated as the Metro rider walks by. A waterscape framed by plant life strengthens connectedness to the natural world and history’s slower tempo, while also offering a respite from the hustle and bustle of the commute. Enlarged portraits of indigenous plants represent gifts to Spanish explorer Portola’s expedition by local Tongva representatives, a gesture of welcoming and generosity at the center of Los Angeles’ origin story. This generosity would not be reciprocated by the waves of European arrivals. The Tongva people and their culture were nearly erased by foreign cultural and religious impositions as well as the introduction of diseases to which the locals had no defenses. This project aims to contribute to the reversal of a multi-century long process of erasure, forgetting and replacing.
Devon Tsuno is creating an artwork for the entrance of the station that speaks to agricultural history in Southern California and the role of Japanese American gardeners.
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.
Through a series of empowering and expressive hands-on mosaic workshops, Los Angeles-based arts organization Piece by Piece is engaging the Veteran community in the design of the Veterans Legacy Art Project, a mosaic artwork for a freestanding wall adjacent to the site of the future Westwood/VA Station.
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.
“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.
Wanderers explores connections between diverse populations and between humans and the earth.
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.