The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
The Architect's Newspaper reported on the latest Civic Art Program public artwork, Inverted Landscapes by Elena Manferdini, at the Zev Yaroslavsky San Fernando Valley Family Support Center in Van Nuys. The piece addresses Elena Manferdini's process in creating the artwork as well as her conceptual inspiration behind the piece.
Manferdini has long been interested in the relationship between painting and space, and how technology might impact or resolve that classical problem. To create the imagery for Inverted Landscapes, she 3-D scanned natural elements: flower petals, butterflies, cherries, and then layered them into abstract, 'superflat' images. The pattern was then printed on two sides of a film that sandwiched within panes of Solarban E-resistant glass. As sunlight hits the glass, the colors reveal different opacities; some cast shadows on the floor while others turn luminous. Because the building is on track for a LEED Gold rating, the artwork needed to be performative. 'It had to prove itself as an architectural skin and comply with the architecture—it’s not simply art.'
Manferdini has long been interested in the relationship between painting and space, and how technology might impact or resolve that classical problem. To create the imagery for Inverted Landscapes, she 3-D scanned natural elements: flower petals, butterflies, cherries, and then layered them into abstract, 'superflat' images. The pattern was then printed on two sides of a film that sandwiched within panes of Solarban E-resistant glass. As sunlight hits the glass, the colors reveal different opacities; some cast shadows on the floor while others turn luminous. Because the building is on track for a LEED Gold rating, the artwork needed to be performative. 'It had to prove itself as an architectural skin and comply with the architecture—it’s not simply art.'