Monday, October 3, 2011

Paseo Cezar Chavez

This mosaic fountain was created by artist Elsa Flores in 1995.  It stands at Paseo Cezar Chavez in Los Angeles, at the MTA building, and is one of several pieces of public art there--including two more fountains. However, it's most clearly a mosaic work, while the other fountains are mainly made up of specially designed and painted tiles.

The bench pictured below (two views) is also at Paseo Cezar Chavez, and was designed by Elsa Flores, Roberto Gil de Montes, and Peter Shire. The pictures are from PublicArtinLA, a wonderful website--although in this instance, they had very little information on the art.

I found more at the Metro Artwork page.  A team was appointed to create a corner park, and they designed three fountains, the benches, and planter walls for the Paseo.

Here's what that site--and a few other places--says about the artists:

Elsa Flores is a native of Las Vegas and studied at the Art Center College in Pasadena. She had a show in Pasadena late last year: Illuminada, at the Fremont Gallery--a 30-year retrospective of her work. Flores and her late husband, Carlos Almarez, created the mural "California Dreamscape" at 3rd and Spring Street, on the Ronald Reagan State Building. (Here's a picture--scroll down to the bottom of page)

Roberto Gil de Montes s from Guadalajara, Mexico, and came to L.A. as a teen. He earned both a BFA and MFA from the Otis Art Institute and was for a while a professor at UCLA--not sure if he's still there.

I don't see a website but here's a link to his paintings at the Jan Baum Gallery. He also has a painting in the Ciudad Juarez Consulate.

Peter Shire was born in Echo Park and went to the Chouinard Art Institute. He was a member of teh Memphis Group in the 1980s. While Flores and Gil de Montes are painters, Shire is mainly a sculptor, although he does portraits on ceramic tile as well. The Frank Lloyd Gallery has his bio.

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