The High Life: Billboards in Los Angeles

Over the past couple of months, West Hollywood's MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Shindler House has been celebrating billboards all over Los Angeles in one special way: Handing the space over to artists and letting them create the message. The art center says of this unusual experiment, "The sudden existence of artistic speech mixed in with commercial speech provides a refreshing change of pace." It distinguishes billboards as a product of the country's "aggregate of dynamic histories," of combined pop culture and commercialism, and says its billboards provoke one "to look and think."

This exhibition, "How Many Billboards? Art in Stead," remains with only a few of its original 20 still on view throughout the Beverly Hills and Culver City area; and a show book is scheduled to debut in June.

As a relative to ubiquitous Los Angeles palm tree, billboards are more equal counterparts to neon signs for its role and commercial purpose in the vast urban landscape. If you love the bright lights of neon, then "How Many Billboards? Art in Stead" is something to explore. Below, a brief list of billboards that remain from this exhibition.

Artist-scholar Ken Gonzales-Day's board sits on Olympic Blvd. west of Gramercy Pl. (close to Wilshire Center) and reminds how much of present-day visuals come from the past. [Photo Source: MAK Center]

Artist Kerry Tribe's billboard makes us dream-bound on La Brea Ave., north of Venice Blvd. [Photo Source: MAK Center]

Kenneth Anger gets to the point on Beverly Dr., north of Pico Blvd. [Photo Source: MAK Center]

Discovering Light in L.A.'s Museum of Neon Art

BRIGHT Finding the Museum of Neon Art in downtown L.A.

It's bright. It's dark. It buzzes and glows. It's one of its kind. It's in our city. And it's all about neon.

Nestled in the hip, cultural epicenter of the Arts District in downtown L.A., the Museum of Neon Art (136 W. 4th Street, Los Angeles; 213-489-9918), of MONA for short, has hosted a number of exciting exhibits in the electrical medium of neon art introducing artists who work with bringing light to new life forms. The museum expands its mission twofolds with another objective in mind: to save old, vintage neon signs around town that are otherwise headed for the dumpster. MONA has been restoring what they find since its founding year of 1981, when locally-based neon artist Lili Lakich and scholar Richard Jenkins opened doors at a Warehouse District studio space, where Lakich operates today.

Two years later in 1983, MONA sent its first traveling exhibition to the bright city of Tokyo with a show called "Seibu." More, outgrowing its original location on Traction Ave., it headed to Universal Citywalk in 1991, which seems like an open-air neon gallery today for anybody who visits because of its lovely excess of neon signs.

Most recently MONA celebrated a fundraising banquet at the tune of the internationally famous Circque du Soleil, Cirque du Neon. For the summer, the museum will hit the streets for its 12th season of its award-winning MONA Neon Cruises. In the near future, fans can expect the museum to find a new address. Word is, its lease has expired and it's looking for a new home.