THE SPARC ART WRAPS PROJECT LAUNCHES
IN THE CITY OF SOUTH PASADENA, TRANSFORMING CONCRETE
K-RAILS INSTALLED FOR SAFE DINING AND SHOPPING
Those blank, concrete K-rails installed to form al fresco dining and shopping “parklets” in front of restaurants and retail businesses along Mission Street in South Pasadena, CA, are undergoing a dramatic makeover.
SPARC, at the direction of the City of South Pasadena and the South Pasadena Arts Commission, and as part of the City’s Al Fresco Dining and Retail Pilot Program, will cover the street side of more than 1000 square feet of K-rails along Mission Street, between Fair Oaks Avenue and Meridian Avenue, with digitized images of diverse works by established and emerging artists from South Pasadena, Los Angeles, and beyond. The works include: paintings, drawings, photography, poetry, and prose.
The Art Wraps Project, features works by Italian photographer Gusmano Cesaretti, known for documenting the street culture of East Los Angeles; Anthony Ausgang, a Los Angeles-based artist and writer originally from Trinidad and Tobago and one of the first artists of the “lowbrow” art movement of the 1980s; famed NBA photographer Andrew Bernstein, official photographer for the Lakers and winner of the Curt Gowdy Award for print media excellence; multi-instrumentalist and visual artist John Dwyer, founding member and primary songwriter of the garage rock band Thee Oh Sees; Christian Clayton, veteran interdisciplinary artist dedicated to art education; and Victoria Ariola, mixed media artist whose work is inspired by her Latin roots in Los Angeles and her global travels.
The SPARC Art Wrap Project is curated by Blue Trimarchi of ArtWorks/Fine Art Publishing. South Pasadena Arts Commissioner Jeff Burke (Burke Triolo Studio) is overseeing the printing of the digitally produced wraps.
