Metro Features Little Tokyo on New Poster by Local Artist
A new poster celebrating Little Tokyo – one of many destinations customers can travel to via Metro – will be on display on Metro buses and rail cars from Oct. 26, 2009, through Dec. 20, 2009.
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| Editors: Print-sized digital image of vertical and horizontal poster is available. Contact Metro Art, 213.922.2721 |
Commissioned by Metro Creative Services, the new poster is by local artist Shizu Saldamando. As seen through the eyes of Saldamando, the iconic red Yagura Towerand the blue tile roofs ofJapanese Village Plaza emerge from a vivid collage of washi paper and colored pencil, against a swirling wood grain surface, creating a contemporary landscape of a neighborhood landmark.
“The washi paper is vibrant and detailed with various printed designs that add depth and color to the piece, and also serve as a metaphor for the diverse, colorful history of the neighborhood,” said Saldamando. “I incorporated a wood panel as my backdrop to reference Japanese woodblock prints. The swirling lines and natural blemishes in wood made me think of Asian landscape painting as well.”
Shizu Saldamando received her Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts. She has exhibited her work at venues that include: Japanese American National Museum, Setagaya Museum (Tokyo), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Claremont Museum of Art, The Craft and Folk Art Museum, Barnsdall Municipal Art Gallery and many local venues. She is the recipient of a California Community Foundation Fellowship.
In the tradition of celebrating transportation through colorful travel destination posters, Metro commissions a diverse range of Los Angeles artists to create original artworks for the Metro Neighborhoods poster series. The purpose of the series is to express the distinctive character of neighborhoods and destinations served by Metro. The posters are displayed throughout the Metro system, including on trains and buses, in stations and various other locations. The limited edition posters are available for purchase at the Metro Store, metro.net/metrostore.
The Little Tokyo poster is the 19th in a series of posters commissioned by Metro Creative Services. Posters in the series have garnered a Print Magazine Regional Design Annual Excellence Award, Tranny Merit Award, “Fresh” Illustrations Award from Illustrations Magazine Annual, Los Angeles Society of Illustrators Silver Medal, and a Society of Environmental Graphic Design Award.
Metro seeks to change public perception about transit and to transform the customer’s experience through excellence in art and design. Central to this objective, Metro Creative Services includes the agency’s in-house design studio, which creates Metro’s brand communications, and the agency’s art and design excellence programs, which commission wide-ranging projects by visual artists and promote overall design quality of customer environments. From intelligently designed, user-friendly customer information, engaging and effective advertising and a newly designed fleet of buses and trains to large scale site-specific artworks by world-class artists and live poetry readings, Metro employs art and design to create a sense of place, engage transit riders, and improve quality of life throughout Los Angeles County.
For more information about Metro’s art programs and it’s free docent guided tours, visit metro.net/art of call 213/922-4ART.