LAX Exhibtion - Now open to the public

Let's Get Lost... now on view at LAX

Let's Get Lost: Polaroids from the Coast, a new show of my work at Los Angeles International Airport, installed in October and is now open to the general public. Featuring a 30-year collection of photographs highlighting iconic architecture and personalities of Los Angeles and Hollywood, the exhibition will be on display in the Terminal 3 Arrivals Corridor through March 2013.

 

 

(left) Tim McGowan and Jim McHugh; (right) Scott Canty, Jim McHugh and Joe Lewis

Joe Lewis, the show's curator, is a nationally known artist, arts educator, and administrator. Lewis is presently dean of the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine. He has curated numerous exhibitions and performance events in the US and abroad, and is an editor and writer for many art publications and peer-reviewed journals. In his statement describing Let's Get Lost, Lewis writes:

McHugh's images of Hollywood’s stars and their habitats are permeated with intrigue and mystery; they read like historical texts. They frame perceived notions about the cavalier public face of the entertainment industry’s free-floating effervescence – a screen upon which many in the world project their own fantasies and illusions. They embody dreams about a sneak peek behind the curtain, the glittering simulacra, unimaginable power and neon riches.

The City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs is presenting Let's Get Lost at LAX in partnership with Los Angeles World Airports. The art program at LAX treats millions of travelers each year to both temporary art exhibitions and permanent public art installations.  

Scott Canty serves as the director and curator of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery and is also chief curator for the art exhibition program at LAX, and Tim McGowan is the arts manager for LAX. Both curators contributed years of tremendous experience in making this show such a success.

"Our purpose is to provide educational, entertaining, and enriching cultural experiences for the traveling public." – Tim McGowan, Los Angeles World Airports Arts Manager

My wife, interior designer Johnna McHugh, choose all of the exhibition colors. The colors are loosely based on the palette of English artist David Hockney, who has painted Los Angeles in such an iconic way.  Much gratitude goes to the painters and art installation team, who were all so painstaking in their installation of  Let's Get Lost: Polaroids From The Coast.

 

INSPIRATION: Jimmy McHugh, my grandfather, a prolific songwriter from the 1920s all the way through the 1960s,  composed "Let's Get Lost" with lyricist Frank Loesser. –  That song is the inspiration for the exhibition's title, and creates the perfect mood for a journey thru LA's past. – Many legendary artists have recorded it... Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosy, Judy Garland, Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald. and, of course,  Chet Baker, who made it the pop culture jazz classic that it is today.
 

 

Thank you to these generous sponsors and good friends: 

Illumination Entertainment
The Mark Gordon Company
Innova Digital Art
Delkin Devices
Wildcard Boxing
Beale Ash Distribution
Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine
Los Angeles Conservancy