LA><ART

LAXART PUBLIC DOMAIN/DIGITAL BILLBOARD PLATFORM:

Exhibition Series II

May 2016—September 2016

LAXART is proud to announce Exhibition Series II of the Digital Billboard Platform, part of the LAXART Public Domain initiative to support experimental public interventions that respond to the complexities of urban space. Produced in collaboration with the city of West Hollywood's Art on the Outside (AOTO) program, these installations feature newly commissioned videos that play frequently within the hour on four large digital billboards located at 9039 Sunset Boulevard and 8410 Sunset Boulevard. An ongoing presentation of time-based works with an emphasis on emerging and under-recognized artists, the LAXART Public Domain Digital Billboard Platform enables artists to occupy, contest, and play with the boundaries and use of public space, challenging preconceived ideas about where art belongs.

In this latest project series, three artists examine aspects of Sunset Boulevard as a long storied and celebrated cultural site. Works in Series II include:

ADAM MARS

WE’VE ALL SEEN YOU NAKED,

May 1—31, 2016

Eight 8 second digital jpeg stills on two channels.

9039 Sunset Blvd.

Appropriating aesthetic elements from public advertising, Mars' work blend veracious humor with the sensibilities of pop art to create messaging geared at contemporary viewers and their shared experience of social media. These spot-on homages to the celebrated musical past of the infamous Sunset Strip walk the invisible, magic line between sentiment and scandal. Adam Mars' work ultimately examines what it means to live in a rapidly evolving culture and questions the ambiguity of our future.

PASCUAL SISTO

MONUMENT VALLEY and NO CONTENT

June 1—30, 2016

Four 32 second digital animations on two channels. Two 64 second digital motion videos on one channel.

9039 Sunset Blvd.

Pascual Sisto uses the location of Monument Valley to analogize the Sunset Strip as an epic backdrop that has abandoned any distinction between the real and the cinematic. In this work, he examines how recognizable sites can become well-packaged, mythologized symbols in America. Sisto likens these idealized locales to two anthropomorphized characters who have become so enmeshed in our world that clear differentiations between the real, hyper-real, and virtual have dissolved.

COLE STERNBERG

THE NATURE OF OUR BENT HORIZON

July 1—August 31, 2016

Two three-minute, single channel motion videos.

8014 Sunset Blvd.

Created en-route aboard a shipping vessel, Cole Sternberg’s romantic ode to our collective journey presents an optically bowed horizon line. Alluding to the commonality of a fractured world outlook, the elegiac work suggests escape, new frontiers, and the movement of people and resources.

About LAXART:

Founded in 2005, LAXART is Los Angeles’ leading independent contemporary art space supporting artistic and curatorial freedom. The organization is committed to producing newly commissioned works of art, to present experimental exhibitions, public art initiatives, and publications with emerging, mid-career and established local, national and international artists.

LAXART Public Domain has produced public art projects including site-specific sculpture, outdoor murals, and billboards throughout the city of Los Angeles. LAXART has been responsible for producing first public works by artists including Mark Bradford, Jedidiah Caesar, Shannon Ebner, Sam Falls, Karl Haendel, Vishal Jugdeo, Wyatt Kahn, Sanya Kantarovsky, Ruben Ochoa, Anthony Pearson, Lisa Williamson, and Jonas Wood among others.

LAXART’s programs are produced with generous support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The Getty Foundation; The National Endowment for the Arts; The Pasadena Art Alliance; and The Stratton-Petit Foundation