Source: LAX
Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is proud to announce the installation of three new art exhibitions for the traveling public to view. The artwork, presented in partnership with the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, features works by two solo artists and one group exhibition. Guests will experience large-scale printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, painting and multi-media artworks that span three terminals.
“Los Angeles is home to the most dynamic local art scene in the country, and we are proud to host a thrilling range of new installations for guests to enjoy throughout 2022,” said Sarah Cifarelli, Art Program Director, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). “These thought-provoking exhibitions bring a vibrancy of ideas, color and materials, and will enhance the experience for the millions of guests who will pass through LAX this year.”
“Out of the Blue” curated by John David O’Brien is a group exhibition of paintings, ceramics, and mixed-media works featured in the Terminal 7 art gallery adjacent to the security screening area. The seven artists who are part of the group display experiment with unexpected pairings and use innovative techniques to demonstrate a mastery of color. Artists Kelly Berg, Richard Bruland, Sigrid Burton, Jennifer Faist, Yoko Iida, Jenny Okun and Soojung Park all are featured in the exhibit. The curator, John David O’Brien, is an artist and educator who currently lives and works in Los Angeles and in Umbria, Italy. “Out of the Blue” is on view for ticketed passengers through summer 2022.
“Your Body is a Space That Sees” by Los Angeles artist Lia Halloran combines ink and light to celebrate women’s contributions to astronomy. Her large-scale cyanotype prints source historical imagery from a group of Harvard women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when views of the night sky were captured in photographic emulsion on glass plates. Halloran identified plates used by these women and referenced the images for her art. Paying tribute to the female astronomers, Halloran includes their names and their discoveries in the titles of her works.
“This body of work is really meant to honor the invaluable work that female astronomers contributed to their field,” Halloran said. “Without these discoveries we would be nowhere near where we are now in terms of being able to measure and understand the universe.”
Lia Halloran is associate professor of art and the director of the Painting and Drawing department at Chapman University in Orange, California. She also teaches courses that explore the intersection of art and science. “Your Body is a Space That Sees” is on view for ticketed passengers in Terminal 1 at Gate 9 through fall 2022.
“Tumbleweeds” is a site-specific installation that features hand-crafted, botanical sculptures manipulated from wood. The sculptures are inspired by tumbleweeds found in the Mojave Desert, which extends into the northeastern part of Los Angeles County. The installation manifests artist Pontus Willfors’ ongoing investigation into nature and culture. His work questions our human existence in relation to the natural world by asking – are humans part of nature, or separate?
Willfors, who has lived in Los Angeles since 2005, views tumbleweeds as natural objects that are visually striking, but propagate devastation. The prickly spheres of a tumbleweed are considered an agricultural nuisance and fire hazard, but Willfors finds beauty in these plants with their delicate, yet resilient, fragmented branches and rootless forms. With this explanation, Willfors challenges viewers of his sculptures to consider connections between beauty and destruction. “Tumbleweeds” is on view for ticketed passengers in the Tom Bradley International Terminal, customs hallway, through fall 2022.