Artist Ken Gonzales-Day will discuss his artwork in Metro’s Wilshire/Fairfax subway station at LACMA on Aug. 20. (photo courtesy of LA Metro)

When the new Metro D Line subway station at Wilshire/Fairfax debuts in fall 2025, it will open a grand new portal for people to experience Los Angeles’ rich art and cultural institutions along Museum Row in the Miracle Mile.

Art is a key component of the transit experience and the design of Metro’s subway stations. Each station has three to five public artworks specifically reflecting the surrounding communities. At the Wilshire/Fairfax station, an artwork by Ken Gonzales-Day aims to capture the depth and diversity of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s expansive art collection and the environment in which it is displayed.

Gonzales-Day will join LACMA curators Eve Schillo and Rita Gonzalez for a special program on Tuesday, Aug. 20, from 7-8 p.m. to discuss the artwork and his collaboration with Metro and the museum. The artist’s exceptionally-long titled piece is called “Urban Excavation: Ancestors, Avatars, Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, Casts, Copies, Deities, Figures, Funerary Objects, Gods, Guardians, Mermaids, Metaphors, Mothers, Possessions, Sages, Spirits, Symbols, and Other Objects.” As the title indicates, it is comprised of images of dozens of LACMA sculptures from different time periods and cultures, many of which will be on display in the museum’s new David Geffen Galleries.

Gonzales-Day said the process of creating the piece dates back years, having initially submitted the idea to Metro in 2017 and going through a comprehensive approval process. Once Metro gave its OK, Gonzales-Day worked extensively with Rita Gonzalez, the Terri and Michael Smooke Curator and department head of Contemporary Art at LACMA, to obtain the images he needed to make his artwork a reality.

Gonzales-Day said he combed through more than 1,000 online images of sculptural artworks in LACMA’s collection before narrowing it down to approximately 100. With the help of Gonzalez, he obtained the approval of curators from many different departments to photograph the sculptures he planned to incorporate into his piece. The process was made even more difficult because it unfolded in early 2020 as the museum packed up for its planned closure to make way for the new David Geffen Galleries, which are currently under construction. Once the photography process was complete, Gonzales-Day set about preparing the images for fabrication into tiles that are being installed on the concourse level of the Wilshire/Fairfax Metro station. The resulting piece has two large components on facing walls – one approximately 120-feet-by-10.5-feet and the other 66-feet-by-10.5-feet.

“It’s very exciting to have it all come together,” said Gonzales-Day, adding that the Aug. 20 discussion at LACMA will offer insights into the process. “I am looking forward to sharing the work with the community of stakeholders and people interested in learning more about it. This is really the first chance for people to get a sneak peek at the artwork, and it’s also a great opportunity to learn more about LACMA’s collection.”

Curators at LACMA are also looking forward to the discussion and the debut of Gonzales-Day’s piece in the subway station. The artist said his work will be one of the first art pieces transit riders see when they arrive to visit LACMA and when they leave, so it was important to represent the museum and its vast diversity.

“We’re incredibly excited for Ken’s project. We have been working with [him] for many years,” Gonzalez said. “[We] helped Ken go deep into the collection and search his interest department by department … everything from Japanese art to art of the ancient Americas to modern to prints and drawings and on and on. He was excavating, in a way, working with a lot of different people who work at LACMA, from the registrar to curatorial to the people who were in charge of packing up and moving all of the collections because of the massive construction project that was about to begin.”

The collaboration with LACMA unfolded as Metro simultaneously worked on the D Line Extension Project, which will add seven new subway stations from Wilshire/Western to Westwood/VA hospital. The first phase of the project to Wilshire/La Cienega is expected to open in Fall 2025. The segment includes the Wilshire/ Fairfax and Wilshire/La Brea stations. The second segment through Beverly Hills to the Constellation/Century City Station is anticipated to be complete in 2026, and third segment to Westwood is planned to open in 2027 prior to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Holly Hampton, senior manager of Metro Art, Arts and Community Enrichment, said public art is an important component of the transit system. Artists apply and are vetted by a committee of art professionals from the communities where the stations are located, which then recommends certain pieces to Metro for inclusion. The D Line Extension Project will have 27 artworks at the seven new stations. Gonzales-Day’s piece is among three artworks at the Wilshire/Fairfax station including Susan Silton’s “We, Our, Us” on the platform level and Karl Haendel’s “Hands and Things” near the entrance.

“It’s very exciting because the pieces that Ken Gonzales-Day photographed for the artwork are pieces that are probably rarely seen [and] displayed at LACMA,” Hampton said. “Each museum has a storehouse of many items. This is an opportunity to actually bring those to the forefront. We’re really bringing artwork to our riders where they are so it really expands the opportunity to showcase the museum’s collection.”

Hampton said the subway artwork is currently being installed and will be ready for the station’s debut next year. Metro is keeping wraps on photos of the artwork, but the Aug. 20 event at LACMA will give a glimpse into what transit riders will see and experience.

“Quite a number of the pieces I photographed will be in the presentation at the new museum,” Gonzales-Day added. “It should be a really interesting conversation on how Metro and LACMA are envisioning the future of Los Angeles.”

The Aug. 20 event is free but reservations are required. LACMA is located at 5905 Wilshire Blvd. For information, visit lacma.org/event/evening-ken-gonzales-day.