Shana Nys DambrotAcross the city’s bus stops and Metro stations, walls and poster cases display photographs and light-boxes programmed by the Metro Arts initiative and other civic agencies regularly feature the work of L.A.-based artists. Perennial favorites are works celebrating the diversity and pluralism of our neighborhoods — and our neighbors.
Credit: Mathew Scott
Now Grand Park in the heart of downtown takes this practice to literally a new level, as this summer sees the return of the Big L.A. Portrait Gallery — a nighttime art show in which work by a dozen Los Angeles photographers is projected in 100-square-foot images. Like a giant Bat Signal Instagram, these images light up the south wall of the L.A. County Hall of Records — itself a major architectural landmark, built by modernist starchitect Richard Neutra.
Credit: Gizelle Hernandez
Works by Aly Aliano, Emily Shur, Gizelle Hernandez, Gregg Segal, John Francis Peters, Mathew Scott, Melodie McDaniel, Philip Cheung, Ryan Schude, Sam Comen, Spencer Lowell and Walter Thompson-Hernandez combine to form an epic narrative cross-section of the L.A. experience, surprisingly intimate considering the high-rise scale.
Credit: Ryan Schude
The Big L.A. Portrait Gallery turns on from sunset to midnight everyday through July 4, when the park hosts its annual Fourth of July block party. In the meantime, the display forms the perfect evening backdrop for everything from romantic strolls and salsa lessons to more party-crowd events like Sunday Sessions and DJ Nights. Check the Grand Park Facebook page for complete events listings.
Nightly, 8 p.m.-midnight, through July 4. Grand Park, 200 N. Grand Ave., downtown.
Grand Park on Instagram
Credit: Melodie McDaniel
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