Join Metro Art-commissioned artist Ken Gonzales-Day and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) curators Eve Schillo, Associate Curator of the Wallis Annenberg Photography Department, and Rita Gonzalez, Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and Department Head of Contemporary Art, as they delve into Gonzales-Day’s latest artwork, Urban Excavation: Ancestors, Avatars, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Sages, Spirits, Symbols, and Other Objects. This site-specific artwork, designed for the future Metro Wilshire/Fairfax Station, draws inspiration from LACMA’s extensive permanent collection.
For his Metro Art commission, Gonzales-Day reviewed over 4,000 sculptural objects and selected a range of artifacts spanning a wide array of cultures, continents, and eras. He photographed the selected objects, manipulated the imagery, and reproduced them in his artwork design that will be integrated into the station as a large-scale, glass tile mural on the north and south walls of the station concourse.
Inspired by the concept of the station as an excavation site that unearths layers of time and historical records, Gonzales-Day’s artwork will greet riders as they move through the station and expose them to a vast collection of historical artifacts that are not always accessible to the public.
Learn more about the collaborative relationship between Gonzales-Day and LACMA at this engaging and informative discussion.
Event Details
Tuesday, August 20, 2024
7:00 – 8:00pm
LACMA
5905 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90036
Free with RSVP here.
Paid parking is located at the Pritzker Parking Garage on 6th St., just east of Fairfax Ave. from 5:00am to 10:00pm. The event is also located close to several bus lines. Plan your journey here.
About the Artist
Ken Gonzales-Day’s interdisciplinary and conceptually grounded projects consider the history of photography, the construction of race, and the limits of representational systems, from lynching photography to museum displays. Gonzales-Day’s work has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of The Getty, LACMA, MOCA, MoMA, The Chicago Art Institute, The National Gallery of Art, National Portrait Gallery, and the American Art Museum in D.C., among others. His monographs include Lynching in the West: 1850–1935 (Duke) and Profiled (LACMA, 2011). Gonzales-Day holds the Fletcher Jones Chair in Art and at Scripps College and received a Guggenheim Fellowship in photography in 2017.
About Metro Art
Metro Art enhances the customer experience with visual and performing arts that encourages ridership and connects people and neighborhoods in LA County. Follow Metro Art on Facebook and Instagram, and sign up for the Metro Art email list to learn about upcoming art opportunities, events and exhibitions!
