Local L.A. Artists Bring New Installations to Intuit Dome
Six local Los Angeles artists have revealed new installations now outside the Intuit Dome, L.A. Clippers’ new home in Inglewood. The artists represented in these six pieces are Refik Anadol, Glenn Kaino, Patrick Martinez, Michael Massenburg, Kyungmi Shin, and Jennifer Steinkamp. The new campus has been designed by Hood Design Studio, and a seventh piece will be released shortly by Charles Gaines.
These new murals, digital installations, and sculptures were photographed by Iwan Baan and will also be on view alongside other bespoke works located inside of the Intuit Dome by international artists. Among them is world-renowned photographer Glen Luchford, who has been commissioned to create portraits of players. Visual artist Jonas Wood designed the court floor and the L.A. Clippers City Edition uniforms. At the Intuit Dome’s formal opening this August, a photography exhibition by Catherine Opie will also be on view to the public, on loan from MOCA.
In a project spearheaded by Gillian Zucker, Halo Sports & Entertainment CEO, the opening will be a community celebration. Ruth Berson of Berson Studio, an art consultant, stated the goal of the project was to make the Intuit Dome’s plaza unique, bringing world-class art to Inglewood. The pieces are placed in the people-friendly plaza, allowing the inclusivity of all citizens to enjoy the art.
“In commissioning these works, we began conversations with extraordinary artists deeply connected to Los Angeles, ” said Berson, “As with the rest of the Inglewood community, we provided them with the model of Intuit Dome and its campus. They chose their sites and at the start of a yearlong process, refined their ideas into the major new artworks that make their debut today.”
Unique Artworks Celebrating Sports and Social Justice
Among the pieces, artist Glenn Kaino has created a contemporary work showcasing the spectacular fusion of painted steel and wood. The piece, modeled after a clipper ship, includes sails made from the backboards of basketball hoops. This piece was made under the influence and guidance of Ambassador Andrew Young—one of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s closest associates. He explained that Kaino felt Sails was an attempt to capture the history of basketball as a unifying force and catalyst for social justice movements.
Steinkamp’s piece projects five fluid animations across the surface of the dome, kaleidoscoping across the geometric panels of the structure and lighting up the night sky. Another compelling narrative is that of Refik Anadol’s work, Living Arena, cast onto a 40-foot tall and 70-foot wide LED screen.
Next to Living Arena is another piece by Patrick Martinez, Same Boat, which uses neon as the medium to recreate the powerful message of late Civil Rights leader Whitney M. Young. He is quoted in the artwork, “We may have all come on different ships but we’re in the same boat now.” Referencing the ships plays cleverly into and amplifies the nautical theme for the Clippers. And on an adjacent wall, Spring to Life, a 23-by-8-foot stained glass mosaic by Kyungmi Shin, conjures the lost Centinela Springs as the life-sustaining water body South L.A. relied upon that once boasted the agricultural ecosystem of the Tongva.
Finally, the Intuit Dome welcomes all with a huge 25-foot by 100-foot mural by Michael Massenburg, filled with visualizations of basketball, tennis, and soccer players cohabitating with singers, musicians, and dancers. Massenburg noted, “The two most profound things that unite people are the arts and sports.”.
