See the new L.A. Film Festival poster that’s meant to brighten your day

Long Beach-based artist Yoskay Yamamoto has created the poster for this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival. This follows other festival posters in recent years by Los Angeles area artists Ed Ruscha, Noah Davis and Carolyn Castaño.

The 2017 edition of the Los Angeles Film Festival, produced by Film Independent, will run from June 14-22. The festival’s full programming announcement is scheduled for early May.

Born in Japan, Yamamoto moved to the United States while a teenager. The self-trained illustrator’s work as a painter and sculptor often blends the influences of Japanese heritage and contemporary popular culture with a playful sensibility.

“I found myself immediately falling in love with his work. It was unlike any of the art I was looking at up to that point,” LAFF festival director Jennifer Cochis said in an email. “There is something dreamy and even story-like about his sculptures and paintings that drew me in from the instant I saw them.”

For the poster image, done in a mix of acrylic and aerosol paint, Yamamoto decided he wanted to capture the colorful beauty of Los Angeles sunsets and the creative energy of the moon, tied together by a nod to the French artist René Magritte. (Hence the bowler hat.)

“And also I wanted to create an image that was peaceful and calm,” Yamamoto said during a recent phone interview from his studio. “I really feel like we are facing such a chaotic and difficult time that I thought it would be nice to have a peaceful image throughout the city.

“A positive image can help people’s mood or feelings. As an artist, a lot of times my goal is to lift people’s spirits, to put a smile on someone’s face or brighten up their day just a little bit,” Yamamoto added. “If people are overwhelmed by too much information or too much news nowadays, maybe they can just feel a short, brief peaceful moment.”

Yamamoto will have a solo exhibition later this year at the Giant Robot/GR2 Gallery on Sawtelle Boulevard. Passes for the L.A. Film Festival go on sale to Film Independent members Tuesday and to the general public on April 25. Individual tickets go on sale to members May 16 and the general public on May 23.

“When I first spoke to Yoskay, we talked at length about how this is a unique opportunity for an artist to be in dialogue with the city itself,” Cochis also noted. “This is art that represents not only the festival, but is being shown for free in public spaces, which feels like a pretty radical achievement.”

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Mark.Olsen@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus

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