Kosta solo exhibition at Hilbert Museum - March 22-August 9, 25. Learn More
LOS ANGELES RIVER SERIES #2
Los Angeles River #2
Pink Horizon Downtown LA
Bandini Boulevard Bridge
Oil on Canvas 24" x 30” x 1.5"
Los Angeles River Series #2
(2019)
The Bandini Boulevard Bridge crosses the Los Angeles River in the city of Vernon, an industrial area that is home to one of the largest pork slaughterhouses in California. The beautiful sunsets and downtown skyline are a bucolic refrain from the industrial buildings and butchery stench. Nearby the landmark gargantuan if-not-creepy mural titled “Hog Heaven” depicts pigs with human-like features flying with wings and romping happily in heaven after their ordeal of being cut to pieces and processed into hot dogs for consumption all across America. Hog Heaven was painted by the artist Les Grimes who, in a sad twist of fate, died in a fall while painting the mural requiring the conscription of several other artists to finish the unusual work.
In the Los Angeles River painting 2 there are no flying pigs but rather cloudy skies, city skylines and the Soto Street Bridge as viewed to the north from the Bandini Boulevard Bridge. Winter rains have left enough runoff to attract shorebirds such as black-necked stilts and sandpipers. A pink horizon silhouettes a gray and rose skyline. Deep purple and peach clouds give way to cerulean blue skies. Ever-present high-tension electrical towers march in the distance.
If you are interested in this painting, you can view more details in the
Store. If you would like to learn more about the City of Los Angeles' River Project, explore the links below.
More on the Los Angeles Revitalization Project
An interactive map that highlights a number of the developments planned and occurring along the Los Angeles River.
Home of the Los Angles River Project, an organization dedicated to restoring the vital ecosystem along the river.
