The Power of Public Art

Inventiveness is in the DNA of Los Angeles – from Hollywood to the tech industry to the renowned arts scene. As proof, the anticipated first museum of artificial intelligence (AI) arts – Dataland – and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art are both scheduled to open in 2025. Despite the devastating recent fires, the city is proving once again that its unwavering energy and the boundless creativity of its local community are as strong as ever. Even just walking the streets of LA is likely to bring its share of arty discoveries. Case in point: in West Los Angeles, at 1440 Sepulveda, a new large piece with bold patterns and colours brings vibrancy to the neighbourhood, reflecting how art can transform the places in which we live and work in a meaningful and inspiring way. Commissioned to Czech-American artist Natalja Kent by Beacon Capital Partners, who acquired the building on which the piece sits, the façade-scale installation stands out and creates a landmark open to interpretation by passers-by. “This artwork is a public homage to the delightful and healing power of light, colour, movement and play,” Kent says. “Abstraction has the bold power of inviting new ways to see and interpret the work, depending on the viewer’s perspectives.”

Built in 1986, the original building featured a solid structure but required significant refurbishment to optimise spaces and improve usability

Honouring the Light and Space art movement (which originated in Southern California in the 1960s), the piece consists of seven large light works called ‘chromograms’ that Kent made with a process she developed over seven years of experimentation using light sensitive paper typically used in film and photography. The resulting gradients and abstractions reflect the movement and rhythms of the surrounding environment – from which the artist drew inspiration – including the building itself, the neighbourhood, the green park across the street, the streaming yellow sunlight through the dappled trees, the pedestrian walkways, the nearby Pacific Ocean and Los Angeles in general. “I meditated on these external aspects of the building and performed a movement meditation with lights in response,” she explains. “The light-sensitive paper recorded my movements, and the subsequent work was transformed into the architectural features you see in the façade.” The work was then enlarged to scale, transferred onto the powder coated aluminium through a pigment process and baked onto 3.6- by 1.2-metre panels. 

Kent drew inspiration from the urban and natural context of Los Angeles; Natalya Kent, photo by Dana Pleasant

“Near the façade on the Sepulveda Avenue side of the building, there is a beautiful tree that shades the sidewalk and building in the afternoon,” says Kent. “For pedestrians passing on that walkway I wanted to integrate a feeling of cool relief from the sun on a hot summer day, where the tree shades the mural. As a person walks into the dappled light, the mural swirls with gradients of deep blues and wet purple tones, as if they took a dive into a clear, deep ocean.” Inside the 10,000-square-metre building – which is currently home to production studios for a major sports network and spread across three levels – the discovery continues. In the lobby, with its soaring ceilings, a full-length living wall flanks one side while Kent’s unique work lights up the other, surrounding the space with creative energy from all angles. “There is joy and play in that kind of abstract colour reference tied to bodily movement,” the artist says. “Public art has the capacity to offer solace, delight and transformation. If we give art our attention and curiosity, untold experiences can unfold – new colours are witnessed, a way of seeing discovered, a story transmitted in colour alone might be found. These are just a few of the gifts that I personally have experienced from public art.”

Photography by Jason O’Rear, courtesy of Beacon Capital Partners