LAXART

As the leading independent nonprofit contemporary art space in Los Angeles, LAXART is linking contemporary art and community—a vital coalition in an international city bursting with creative innovators. Dedicated to artistic and curatorial freedom, LAXART supports ambitious and experimental exhibitions and public art projects with emerging and mid-career artists that respond to the cultural climate of the city. In collaboration, we produce new artwork that takes conceptual and material risks; work that is unlikely to be realized within the traditional museum setting, but is an important part of the story of L.A.’s dynamic art scene. A key component of our artist-centered programming, LA Public Domain (L.A.P.D.) art initiatives literally bring art out of the gallery space and to the streets. The program provides a platform and support for aspiring and critical public interventions that engage diverse audiences and respond directly to urban spaces. Aligned with the LA2050 approach, L.A.P.D. shares the innovations of the next generation in new and exciting frameworks; this year, two sculptural installations in public parks, five billboards across the city, and a commissioned mural on our own building façade. The 2013 L.A.P.D. showcases LAXART’s unique programming model and continues our record of success in the public domain. Los Angeles-based artist Anna Sew Hoy has proposed a site-specific sculptural public art installation at Kings Road Park in West Hollywood. Responding to the park’s constellation-like design with a water fountain, waterfall, jungle gym, and seating, Hoy will create a dimensional work made of glazed stoneware, painted hoops, and an embedded mirror to highlight the act of seeing, offering passersby a viewfinder, a mirror reflection, and an opaque silhouette. Visitors will be able to see something new every time they visit by reflecting different views as they navigate the natural surroundings. LAXART will also produce the first public artwork with L.A. artist Sam Falls. Inspired by the history of minimalist sculpture and an interest in photography, he is creating a post-minimalist aluminum sculpture with paint that fades in the sunlight over time. A site-specific work weighing approximately 250 pounds, the piece will have colored panels that could shift from dark to light over the course of a day. The work will be installed in conjunction with a major exhibition, billboard project, and publication at LAXART in November, and may remain on-site for as long as two years. Billboard art has been a signature of LAXART since 2006. Whether an element of an artist’s first solo exhibition or as part of a major regional survey, billboards allow artists to break from tradition and share their ideas in large-scale. In 2013, five L.A.P.D. artists will be added to a list that includes Raymond Pettibon, Walead Beshty, Mungo Thomson, Doug Aitken, Mark Bradford, Charlie White, Kate Costello, Roy Dowell, Fay Ray, Meg Cranston, Harrell Fletcher, and more. LAXART’s Culver City site has always had a direct relationship with the street and that expressive presence connects community members with the work. The first painting on the façade, by Daniel Joseph Martinez, presented a composed text that read, “beauty… it rubs against one’s tongue it hangs there hurting one insisting on its own existence finally it gets so one cannot stand the pain then one must have beauty extracted.” This project became a part of the identity of the space, as an emblem for the organization that creates dialogue inside and out. Since then, artists such as Karl Haendel, Sanya Kantarovsky, Dianna Molzan, and the renowned L.A. collective Slanguage, have used the façade as their canvas. In 2013, a new L.A.P.D. wall mural on our La Cienega building will be viewed by thousands of drivers and pedestrians traversing on the iconic L.A. thoroughfare. The L.A.P.D. program impacts L.A.’s arts and cultural vitality in the long-term, as it explores the myriad ways that artists speak to audiences and expands the field of how they make work. Each new project gives new perspective on current practices and reveals how city audiences are engaging with the work. LAXART continues to question of the validity of given contexts for the exhibition of contemporary art, architecture, and design. As the forum evolves, we can work toward a new, progressive exhibition modeled after L.A.P.D., with a range of work that lives in the L.A. cityscape with vast accessibility—instead of entering a formal institution to find art, locals walk out their front door and encounter art as they go about their day. This momentum is building toward our most significant exhibition to date, The Occasional, a citywide initiative based on international artist residencies and newly commissioned work in experimental contexts throughout the city that give the public opportunities for interaction with artists from around the world.