Art Lab x Metro Art

Join the Hammer Museum and Metro Art for a special Art Lab event with Metro Art commissioned artists iris yirei hu, Yunhee Min, Sandow Birk, Victoria Fu & Matt Rich. Explore the artists’ creative process through hands-on, art-making activities connected to their site-specific artwork commissions for the future D Line Subway Extension Project, Section 3 stations serving UCLA, the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center and beyond. All ages are welcome.

About Metro Art: Metro Art enhances the customer experience with innovative, award-winning visual and performing arts programming that encourages ridership and connects people, neighborhoods and destinations throughout Los Angeles County. A diverse range of site-specific artworks is integrated into the growing Metro system, improving the quality of transit environments and creating a sense of place. From photography installations to onboard posters, art tours, and live performances, our multi-faceted arts programs add vibrancy and engage communities throughout Los Angeles.

Learn more about Metro Art at metro.net/art

Learn more about the Metro D Line Subway Extension Project: metro.net/dline

Sandow Birk (b. 1962, Detroit) develops expansive, multi-media art projects that deal with a wide variety of contemporary subjects, including inner-city violence, graffiti, social and political conflicts, surfing, and skateboarding. Birk grew up on the beaches of Orange County, CA, and his sister is a 25– year Veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard. Notable public art projects include a 400 square foot ceramic tile mural in collaboration with Elyse Pignolet for Hey Rookie Pool, San Pedro, CA (2017), and three large-scale, hand painted murals in collaboration with Elyse Pignolet for SF Jazz, San Francisco, CA (2013). Birk earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Otis Art Institute of Parsons School of Design (now Otis College of Art and Design) in 1988. His many awards include an NE A International Exchange Scholarship (1995) to study mural painting in Mexico City, a Guggenheim Fellowship (1996), a Fulbright Scholarship (1997), and a Gottlieb Foundation Individual Support Grant (2021). His work has been exhibited internationally and i s in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Metropolitan Museum of Art, Harvard University Art Museum, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma in Italy, and Kunstmuseum Reutlingen in Germany.

Iris Yirei Hu (b. 1991, Los Angeles) paints, weaves, dyes, tells stories, and composts her lived reality into installations, public artworks, and intercultural, generational, and geographical collaborations, often working in community with artists, scientists, historians, keepers of traditions, and organizers. Hu earned a Bachelor of Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2013 and a Master of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 2017, and her work has been exhibited extensively. In addition to her projects with LA Metro, Hu has completed public art commissions for California State University, Dominguez Hills; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA-LA) and Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND); and LA County Department of Mental Health. Hu was selected for the internation ally recognized artist-in-residence program at Headlands Center for the Arts, Sausalito, California (2022). She is a recipient of support through the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans (2016), the California Arts Council’s Individual Artist Fellowship (2021), Foundation for Contemporary Arts (2018, 2021, 2022), and the California Community Foundation (2022).

Yunhee Min (b. 1962, Seoul, South Korea) explores the vast potential of abstraction through the application of color, materials, techniques, and scale—often in innovative site-specific installations that produce a range of effects. Min earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design in 1991 and a Master of Arts in Design Studies from Harvard University in 2008. She is a recipient of the KAFA (Korea Arts Foundation of America) Award (1996), the City of LA (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowship (1999), and the Guggenheim Fellowship (2022). Min’s work has been exhibited worldwide and is in the collections of the Hammer Museum at UCLA; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); and Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD). She is currently a professor in the art department of the University of California, Riverside.

Victoria Fu (b. 1978, Santa Monica, California) and Matt Rich (b. 1976, Boston, MA) are individual artists who sometimes collaborate as a duo. Fu earned a Master of Arts in Art History and Museum Studies from University of Southern California in 2003 and a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts in 2005. She is a recipient of the Art Matters Foundation Grant (2008 and 2013), the Guggenheim Fellowship (2015), and the Harpo Foundation Grant for Visual Artists (2016). Rich earned a Master of Fine Art s from School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2004 and is a recipient of the Terra Foundation for American Art Fellowship (2003) and the Howard Foundation Fellowship (2019). The two began a collaborative partnership in 2017, combining Fu’s sensibilities as a moving image artist with those of Rich as a painter. Their projects have been shown in the United States as well as Europe, and together they were awarded the San Diego Art Prize in 2017. Fu and Rich currently work as associate professors of visual a rts at University of San Diego.