Robin Brailsford’s Pioneros de la Rivera de San Gabriel (pioneers of the San Gabriel River, 2015) celebrates the pioneering spirit of the area’s five founding families and their descendants who capitalized on the unique local geology to create a thriving community and industrial center.
In train cars with ample space, passengers position themselves at carefully calibrated distances from their neighbors. However, once that space has been established they begin to relax and act as they might do in the privacy of home.
‘Photo Binge’ satirizes an urban, commodity-driven culture that focuses on food, health, nutrition, beauty and the surface of things. The collage of images depicts various binge activities such as eating, exercising and shopping.
Faith Ringgold designed fifty-two individual smalti glass mosaics across four mezzanine walls. Each a personification of creativity, performance, sports and fashion illustrated in Ringgold’s signature style of line drawing a simplified figure in a solid, color-block background.
Tyree Guyton designed this artwork to evoke thought, create conversation and stimulate the observer to think about the most basic mode of transportation – the shoe.
Project Description Wyatt has designed two 52-feet long ceramic tile murals for the end walls of the Wilshire/Western Station. People Coming presents portraits of members of the community as they approach the viewer; People Going shows some members of that group walking away. Portions of the famous Wiltern Theater, located just across from the station entrance, can be seen in the back-ground. Painted in Wyatt’s realistic and dramatic style, the mural’s theme is at once the diversity of Los Angeles, its possible future, and a metaphor for a city always in transition. Artist Statement “I am interested in connecting with people through my art. In today’s corporate world the human element seems often to get lost—I try to bring back the human connection by monumentalizing people rather than buildings and objects. Hopefully, people will connect to the idea of how important they are to making the city, and mass transit, work. It was a challenge trying to translate the sensitivity of painting into tile. I spent over six months just experimenting with this new medium. Most of the finished …
At Willowbrook/Rosa Parks Station, artists Michael Massenburg and Robin Strayhorn created 5 seating areas out of concrete and ceramic tile, each seat honoring an important year in the life of Rosa Parks.
The artist’s use of a silk flower to mimic the imperfect appearance of a wilting lily—its blossoming, sagging, drying and falling petals—is a metaphor that investigates socially constructed notions of gender.
Alison Saar’s Paraje is a reminder of the surrounding terrain’s natural history and is designed to offer transit users respite from the sun and wind. Located on the west end of the station platform and measuring 10 feet high by 10 feet wide, the cast stainless steel sculptural windscreen contains imagery inspired by the nearby Gardena Willows Wetlands Preserve, which is one of the few remaining pristine willow marshes in Los Angeles.
Artworks on gateway arches depict the legs of travelers headed to their destinations: a business professional with her rolling briefcase, a parent with a stroller and a hummingbird in flight.
Located just three and a half blocks from the Canoga-Owensmouth Historical Museum, the artwork conveys the urban and botanical history of the area.
Project Description John O’Brien designed terrazzo paving areas and porcelain enamel steel panels for station platforms. Artwork designs incorporate images taken from high altitude aerial photos and from landsat satellite sources. A person in transit can either enjoy the artwork from the purely decorative point of view or delve into its mapping and discover that it actually maps the area they are transiting through. Artist Statement “In my public art, I work to embed different levels of meaning into the final work in such a way all viewers can come away with some sense of its significance and beauty.” About the Artist JOHN O’BRIEN’S public art commissions in Los Angeles include the Mar Vista and Westwood Branch Libraries, Sepulveda Park West as well as the Los Angeles Riverfront Park. He has a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California, and currently teaches as Assistant Professor in Sculpture at California State University Northridge. He has years of experience as an artist/educator and fabricator with a special focus on the traditions of assemblage art and …
Merge Conceptual Design, the artist team of Franka Diehnelt and Claudia Reisenberger was commissioned to develop color palettes and tile artworks for two stations along the El Monte busway.
Merge Conceptual Design, the artist team of Franka Diehnelt and Claudia Reisenberger was commissioned to develop color palettes and tile artworks for two stations along the El Monte busway.
Flick presents the landscape of the major streets surrounding Expo Park/ USC Station as a stream of images one might encounter through the window of a moving vehicle.
This portrait of our metropolis offers a sense of both place and displacement, and underscores the need for a thriving public transportation system. The series also gives us a sense of where we are personally and on the level of urban planning.
The series depicts the rolling hills and native flora of western Los Angeles at Cheeseboro and Palo Comado Canyon and captures the foothill woodlands that run along the San Gabriel Mountains to the east through images taken at Descanso Gardens.
Jody Zellen designed terrazzo paving areas and porcelain enamel steel panels for station platforms. Artwork designs incorporate images from the San Fernando Valley that trace its architectural history and its relationship to the city of Los Angeles.
Bob Zoell has abstracted the appearance and arrangement of typographic design symbols to create a bold and graphic series of ceramic tile murals. The artwork covers four columns at station platforms at Wilshire/Vermont Station.
Soo Kim’s artwork concept for the station platform cuts and collages her photographs of the dense, urban topography along the Wilshire corridor with images she has captured throughout the world.
In 1924, the first neon sign in the United States was posted around the corner from Pershing Square. Commemorating this art form, neon artist Antonakos created Neons for Pershing Square, a series of neon sculptures suspended from the station’s high ceiling.
The final artwork–based on hundreds of photographs taken by the artist in the neighborhood–shares with Metro riders the gardens, front porches, living rooms and street life of area residents.
Titled Negative Space (STScI-2015-02), Mungo Thomson’s two murals for this subway platform evolved from a series of artworks in which he digitally inverts astronomical images from the Hubble Space Telescope’s online photographic archive.
John Humble’s compelling series of 12 color photographs, titled Natura Urbanus (2015), expands upon a long-term photographic project exploring the paradoxes and ironies of the Los Angeles landscape. Each set of three artworks considers nature in relation to one of four themes: the Los Angeles River, power lines, artificial nature and freeways.
The seven energetic images selected for this series were produced by a photogram process and tell stories that reflect the idea of journeys, passages, memories, and thresholds that define our lives.
