‘Spacey’ Art Graces a Public Place

The Blue Line’s Wardlow Road Metro station has a fiberglass, bronze, stainless steel and cement sculpture that “looks like the sky dropped a couple of giant pods in the parking lot,” the artist said.

“It’s very spacey.”

Jacqueline Dreager’s work, one of the first pieces of public art to land in L.A.’s Metro stations, combines modernism with history. Atop a pod-shaped table are a bronze globe made into a sundial, two bronze books and the Wallace Stevens poem “Planet on a Table.” Resting nearby are three more abstract, pod-shaped objects. The largest is 9 feet by 5 feet.

“I’m sure it’ll get a lot of comments,” Dreager said. “But that’s good. I want people to expand their minds.”

To give the community a sense of how art transforms from idea to reality, the FHP Hippodrome Gallery in Long Beach on Thursday will open an exhibit of drawings, models and design materials used to create Metro pieces, including Dreager’s sketches.

The exhibit, called “From Studio to Station: Public Art on the Metro Blue Line,” is the first and one of the largest events in a series of concerts, openings and theatrical performances that make up the Long Beach arts festival “October Is Arts Month ’92.”

At the Hippodrome, viewers will see “what the artist thought versus what is created,” said Jon Moynes, who helps oversee the Metro art program. Dreager’s piece, called “Great Gathering Place,” integrates the site’s Indian history and the neighborhood that surrounds the station, Moynes said.

“So far, people have responded well,” Dreager said. “Only one person said he didn’t understand modern art, and he’d rather be at the Parthenon. You’re always going to get that one person.” Still, she said, the prospect of unveiling her work to the public “is very, very scary.”

Dreager, 51, has exhibited in galleries in Los Angeles and Chicago and has a piece on view at the Santa Monica Museum. The other artists at the Hippodrome are Terry Braunstein, June Edmonds, Jim Isermann, Joe Lewis, Patrick Mohr, Ann Preston and Paul Tzanetopoulos.

The Blue Line show continues through Nov. 21, with a special opening night reception Thursday featuring the Joey Sellars Quintet. The gallery will also sponsor a discussion from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Oct. 24 called “In the Public Eye: Issue/Opportunities in Public Art,” and from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Nov. 14, a special tour and artists’ discussion, “Blue Line Talk and Tour.” Both will be at the Hippodrome, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach.

Events are free. Regular gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call (310) 432-8431.

In addition to the Metro art exhibit, arts month is sponsoring “The Registry Exhibition,” a show featuring members of the city-funded Public Corp. for the Arts, one of the main organizers of the monthlong festival.

About 110 artists will exhibit work at three locations, beginning Oct. 8 at Long Beach Arts gallery, 447 Long Beach Blvd.; the art museum of Cal State Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Blvd., and the art gallery at Long Beach City College, 4901 E. Carson St.

Music, too, is part of the arts month offerings, and several downtown restaurants have put together a concert series of new and alternative music, rock, jazz and pop called “Day of Music” from noon to midnight Oct. 12.

Performance artists Linda Albertano, who recently toured with Alice Cooper, and Ana Homler, along with jazz pianist Horrace Tapscott, the campy Del Rubio Triplets and the alternative rock band Wood and Smoke, are among 26 acts on the bill.

System M, Mums, Blue Cafe, Birdland West and the Williams-Lamb Gallery will have shows; admission to all is $7.50. “That’s 30 cents a band,” said Moins Rastgar, owner of the restaurant System M. “It’s ridiculously reasonable.” For tickets and information, call (310) 435-2525.

For more information on arts months or a calendar of activities, call the Public Corp. for the Arts at (310) 499-7777.