FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 23, 2022

CONTACT
LAX Public Relations
(424) 646-5260

(Los Angeles) Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is proud to present four new art exhibitions now on display for the traveling public to view in Terminals 2 and 3. The artwork, presented in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs (DCA), complements the modern design aesthetic featured in the redesigned terminals.

“Los Angeles is a city known for its vibrant local art scene, and we are excited to unveil these new installations that represent the talent and diversity of the local artist community who create here,” said Sarah Cifarelli, Art Program Director, Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA). “These imaginative exhibitions are a welcoming sight for the millions of guests, employees and partners who will pass through LAX while the art is on display over the next several years.”   

 

The art installations include three solo projects as a part of LAX’s rotating exhibitions program, and one permanently installed public artwork which was recently gifted to LAX by Fox Studios. 

Terminal 2, Level 3 Lobby

 

"Little Wing" by Krysten Cunningham, curated by Elise Barclay, is a site-specific three-dimensional wall drawing rendered in white rope against a sky-blue painted wall. The rope recalls the simplicity of empty clotheslines while simultaneously inviting the viewer to imagine a space beyond their reach.

 

Cunningham achieves a deceptively simple composition through the manipulation of a basic geometric form, the triangle. By folding and flattening triangles into rhomboids, Cunningham creates a spatial illusion suggesting motion. The resulting shapes evoke paper airplanes, birds and flight patterns. Each of the forms begins with a ball of rope that defies gravity as it unwinds around fixed points delineating a path across the surface of the blue wall. The viewer's eye moves into illusionistic space until it lands on the hanging ball of yarn, which represents the gravity that airplane flight enables us to overcome. "Little Wing" is on view to the public until spring of 2024.

"Just What Is Your Position" by Renée Petropoulos was donated to LAX by the Fox Corp. in March 2022. This large-scale abstract painting was originally commissioned for the Fox Studio Lot on Pico Boulevard in West Los Angeles where it was displayed for over 20 years. Composed of acrylic on plywood panels and measuring 20-feet high by 38-feet long, Los Angeles artist Renée Petropoulos responded to the commission by creating a non-figurative, yet narrative artwork that considered the historical role that art patronage played in art production. In its new and permanent location at LAX, the artwork serves as a visual landmark for airport guests who use the brand-new Terminal 2/3 ticketing lobby.

 

Petropoulos is known for work that comments on both public and private space and the intersection between them. In "Just What Is Your Position," the artist alludes to both the nature of a viewer’s perception, and the norms of corporate culture. The elliptical shape mimics the shape of the human eye as well as the standardized shape of a corporate logo. The visual components of the painting include historical renditions of planetary orbits, the growth patterns of plants, the intricacies of private document seals, and global reach vis-á-vis color representing flags of nations. The various patterns are woven together and layered to create a sense of movement and fragmentation, producing a multi-centered composition.

Terminal 2, Level 3 Hallway

 

"Your Body is a Space That Sees" by Los Angeles artist Lia Halloran builds on her initial solo exhibition on view in Terminal 1. The new installation in Terminal 2 presents three monumental reproductions of cyanotypes in vinyl alongside a single framed original artwork. Inspired by women’s contributions to science, Halloran’s immersive cyanotypes combine ink and light to recall telescopic views of the night sky, as captured in photographic emulsion on glass plates in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

 

Halloran identified glass plates used by a group of Harvard women astronomers to make extraordinary discoveries about the universe and referenced the astronomical images in her prints. Paying tribute to the female astronomers, Halloran includes their names and their discoveries in the titles of her works. The immense size and deep midnight blue of Halloran’s prints are a reminder of the mystery, wonder, and beauty of the cosmos, and our never-ending fascination to explore them. "Your Body is a Space That Sees" is on view for ticketed passengers until spring of 2024.

Terminal 2, Arrivals Level, Baggage Claim

 

"A Universal Shudder" by Eve Fowler, curated by Jake Yuzna and BF Hall, is a set of four site-specific murals that highlight the vastly different meanings people can find in a single text. For this series, Fowler took inspiration from the writings of seminal author Gertrude Stein. Extracting phrases from Stein’s 1914 book of poetry "Tender Buttons," Fowler places Stein’s words in a new context by including them on vibrant, solid-colored murals based on the legendary designs of the Los Angeles Colby Poster Printing Co. (1946-2012). By placing Stein’s words outside of the context of the full texts, Fowler invites viewers to create their own interpretation for each phrase, reminding us that every text we encounter in the city contains as many meanings as there are residents of Los Angeles. "A Universal Shudder" is on view to the public until spring 2023.

 

All media who wish to view the art located beyond the security screening must contact LAX Public Relations staff by emailing laxpr@lawa.org. Media must bring a current, government-issued ID to be escorted through TSA screening and will be escorted and supervised by Public Relations staff for the duration of their stay within the terminal. High resolution photos of the images can be downloaded here. 

 

About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

LAX, the fifth-busiest airport in the world in 2021 with 48 million passengers, is in the midst of a $15-billion capital improvement program that will touch on all nine passenger terminals and build new facilities, including an Automated People Mover (APM) train, Consolidated Rent-A-Car (ConRAC) facility and the West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal. 
 
In 2019, LAX served nearly 88.1 million passengers and offered an average of 700 daily nonstop flights to 113 destinations in the U.S. and 1,200 weekly nonstop flights to 91 markets in 46 countries on 72 commercial airlines.
 
LAX generates 620,600 jobs in Southern California, with labor income of $37.3 billion and economic output (business revenues) of more than $126.6 billion, according to an economic study based on 2014 operations. This activity added $6.2 billion to local and state revenues and $8.7 billion in federal tax revenues. The study also reported that LAX’s ongoing capital improvement program creates an additional 121,640 annual jobs with labor income of $7.6 billion and economic output of $20.3 billion; $966 million in state and local taxes; and $1.6 billion in federal tax revenues.
 
LAX is part of a system of two Southern California airports – along with Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund. 
 
LAWA is leading the aviation industry in sustainability practices, with initiatives related to water management, energy (electricity) management, air quality, recycling and natural resources management. In 2019, LAX received Level III ACI Airport Carbon Accreditation from Airports Council International-Europe.
 
LAWA is also a leader in inclusivity, operating eight programs that provide opportunities for business enterprises including local, small, minority-owned, veteran-owned and disadvantaged firms, and working together with community partners to offer the HireLAX Apprenticeship Readiness Program, which targets local workers to make them ready for rewarding careers in the construction trades, and the Build LAX Academy, designed to prepare small contracting businesses for success when working on projects at LAX.
 
LAX was named a top-10 U.S. airport by SKYTRAX in 2018, and was honored as the “Most Innovative Airport for Passenger Experience” in 2019 by the American Association of Airport Executives. LAX is the second-most popular airport in the world to appear on Instagram, according to wego.com. Other recent honors have included selection as the No. 9 Best Airport (Wall Street Journal); No. 7 Best On-Time Performance for a Mega-Hub Airport (OAG); one of “The World’s Best Airports for Business Travelers” (GlobeHunters); Public-Private Partnership of the Year (P3 Bulletin); Urth Caffe, Best Airport Coffee Concession of the Year (Global FAB Awards); Innovation of the Year, Consolidated Rent-A-Car Facility (ARTBA); Best Project, United Airlines Terminal 7 and 8 Redevelopment Program (Engineering News Record California); North American Public-Private Partnership Deal of the Year (IJ Global); and Innovative Transportation Solution of the Year, Automated People Mover (WTS LA).
 
As a covered entity under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the City of Los Angeles does not discriminate on the basis of disability and, upon request, will provide reasonable accommodation to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. Alternative formats in large print, braille, audio, and other forms (if possible) will be provided upon request.