Client: LA Metro
Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States
Completion date: 2015
Artwork budget: $350,000
Project Team
Artist
Shizu Saldamando
Industry Resource
Michael Mayer
Franz Mayer of Munich
Art Consultant
Erica Behrens
Franz Mayer of Munich
Public Art Agent
LA Metro
Overview
Shizu Saldamando designed a ten panels for the LA Metro, Two Palms station: Four gateway arch panels measuring eighteen feet by three feet and six seating module panels measuring eight feet by 2 feet.
Goals
The goal was to create a welcoming environment for metro riders by installing highly visible panels in overhead structures and throughout the station platform. Based on Saldamando’s original mixed media artwork titled Artist Educators, the work illustrates people, places and plant life from the local community and the artists’ family history. Her use of wood and washi paper connects the materiality of the compositions with the area’s Japanese heritage, while depicting images of a changing landscape and social demographic. Mayer of Munich artisans deftly translated the artist’s original materials into a combination of painted ceramic tile, silkscreen and mosaic inlay in order to reflect her complex and varied surfaces. Saldamando hopes throughout time, people will reflect on the rich diversity of the local community and culture.
Process
Saldamando used mixed media in her original designs (wood veneer, Japanese paper and graphite.) Mayer of Munich used assorted materials and techniques to best translate the artist’s ideas and working methods, including silkscreen printing, hand painting and airbrushing with additional water-jet-cut areas with mosaic inlay.
Additional Information
The artist has exhibited her artworks at venues that include the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Museo del Barrio, New York City; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Setagaya Museum, Tokyo; Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis; Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego; Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles; CAM Contemporáneo, Guadalajara; and the Chinese American Museum, Los Angeles. Saldamando holds a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.