Ontario Airport Displays A Trove Of Diverse Art By SoCal Artists

(December 17)  Travelers will have another reason to utilize Ontario International Airport over the next five months as its two main terminals will host a display of the work by several contemporary artists relating to international themes.
Los Angeles World Airports), in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, announces a group exhibition featuring twelve Los Angeles-based artists who derive inspiration from the urban and natural worlds to create photographs, paintings, sculptures, and installations, which are on display at Ontario International Airport, on the Departures Levels in Terminals 2 and 4 through May 2014.Curated by Ginger Van Hook, Out of Thin Air features a blend of original contemporary artworks reflecting the individual artistic processes intrinsic to working and creating in Southern California amidst an assemblage of people, places, and ideas from across the world.
Los Angeles World Airports, known by its acronym LAWA, is the airport oversight and operations department for the city of Los Angeles, which owns and operates  Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario International Airport, and Van Nuys Airport.  Over the last several years, city of Ontario officials have been critical of LAWA as ridership at Ontario International has declined from its peak of 7.2 million passengers enplaned there in 2007 to 3.9 million this year. In response, LAWA is seeking to attract passengers to San Bernardino County’s largest commercial airport, a medium-hub, full-service facility with seven carriers offering 14 daily nonstop flights to 13 major U.S. cities plus seven daily non-stops to Guadalajara, Mexico.
Out of Thin Air is a free exhibit on the second floor of both terminals, beyond the airport’s security screening barriers, making it accessible only to ticket-bearing passengers.
The nine artists on exhibit in Terminal 4 use a variety of media and methods to survey their surroundings.
Kenneth Ober, Luke Van Hook, Holly Tempo, and Michael Giancristiano demonstrate distinct approaches in examining and interpreting the landscape, in its organic and artificial states, from intricate renderings to fields of color and pattern.  Renée Foxcombinesornate paintings and sculpturesto depict microscopic occurrences, such as the propagation of a flower or the power of a seed, while Shizuko Greenblatt incorporates synthetic and organic objects to reference Ikebana, the Japanese art of flower arrangement.
Michael Massenburg and Mark X Farina mix color, language, and abstract forms to create a sensory experience and express human relationships with the environment. Artworks by Scott Griegeralter manipulate perspective using digital art and design.
The three artists on exhibit in Terminal 2, Siri Kaur, Yoichi Kawamura, and Anne Marie Rousseau, use photography to explore the expansive and limitlessness nature of the skies. Kawamura’s images of distant horizons and Kaur’s diptych of photographs capturing the Aurora Borealis reference themes of infinity, vastness, and contemplation. Rousseau’s combination of air show photographs creates a collage of intersecting lines and open space.
Initiated in 1990, the purpose of the Public Art and Exhibitions Program at Los Angeles World Airports is to educate and entertain the traveling public at Los Angeles International, Ontario International and the FlyAway Bus Terminal at Van Nuys Airport. 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. Additional information is available at www.lawa.org.
Ontario International Airport is located near the confluence of the I-10 and I-15 freeways, roughly 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles, and close to Orange County, the San Gabriel Valley, and Palm Springs. making it the Inland Empire’s preferred airport for nonstop flights throughout the West.  Information on flights and schedules is available at  www.flyontario.com.

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