LAX FEATURES CELEBRATED LOS ANGELES ARTISTS IN NEW EXHIBITIONS

Los Angeles, California, 2013-03-11 — /travelprnews.com/ — Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA), in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, unveils two new art exhibits at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) – A Look at COLA Individual Artist Fellowships featuring paintings, hand-drawn animation, photographs, film and mixed-media artworks, and My Life in Airports featuring Deborah Aschheim’s ink drawings of Los Angeles monuments combined with sketches from her travel diary. The exhibits are on display for ticketed passengers in Terminal 1 at Gate 1 (A Look at COLA Individual Artist Fellowships) and Gate 2 (My Life in Airports) through December 2013.

A Look at COLA Individual Artist Fellowship was assembled by curator Scott Canty, Director and Curator of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery.  It features a group exhibition of 21 Los Angeles artists who have been recognized for their artistic achievement, impact in the field, and sustained dedication to art-making.  The exhibition presents the complexity of the artistic experience, the importance of individual differences, and the memories and personal histories that inspire the art of our time. “Though stylistically different, the exhibition showcases the excellence, relevance, core ideas, and influence of twenty-one visual artists,” states Canty.  My Life in Airports features two series of ink drawings by Deborah Aschheim, a past recipient of a COLA Visual Artist Fellowship.

Aschheim’s drawings of iconic Los Angeles Mid-Century modern buildings reflect nostalgia for a jet-age, space-age, techno-utopia future. Reflecting on that yearning of a sleek, idealized future, Aschheim recalls the glamour of her first airplane flight during the same era, “which I dressed up for, as if they were birthday parties,” remembers Aschheim. Decades later, her travel experiences are vastly different as she navigates the complexities of air travel, focused on her destination, hurrying through terminals. In an effort to reclaim the countless hours she’s spent traveling, Aschheim made over 200 drawings in a six-month period based on her specific, yet identical airport experiences, creating a visual travel diary. From driving to LAX, to putting her shoes on the conveyor belt, to claiming her bags, Aschheim’s ink drawings capture the novelty, mundaneness, and intimacy of her life in airports.

About Los Angeles World Airports Art Program
Initiated in 1990, the purpose of the LAWA Art Program is to provide opportunities for educational, entertaining, and enriching cultural experiences for the traveling public at LAX and LA/Ontario International Airports and the LAX FlyAway® bus terminal. The program showcases local and regional artists through temporary exhibitions and permanent public art installations, which enhance and humanize the overall travel experience for millions every year. For additional information, please visit www.lawa.org.

About Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
LAX is the sixth busiest airport in the world and third in the United States, offering more than 600 daily flights to 91 domestic cities and more than 1,000 weekly nonstop flights to 56 cities in 32 countries on nearly 75 air carriers.  It ranks 13th in the world in air cargo tonnage processed.

In 2011, LAX served more than 61 million passengers, processed over 1.8 million tons of air cargo valued at nearly $80 billion, and handled 603,912 aircraft operations (landings and takeoffs).  LAX is part of a system of three Southern California airports – along with LA/Ontario International and Van Nuys general aviation – that are owned and operated by Los Angeles World Airports, a proprietary department of the City of Los Angeles that receives no funding from the City’s general fund.  For more information about LAX, please visit www.lawa.aero/lax or follow us on Twitter @LAX_Official, on Facebook at www.facebook.com/LAInternationalAirport and on YouTube at www.YouTube.com/laxairport1.

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Contact: Sarah Cifarelli
(424) 646-5260