Metro Unveils New Neighborhood Posters on Bus and Rail Fleet

• To request poster art for publication contact Kim Upton.

On display on Metro buses and rail cars through early December are two new posters celebrating Los Angeles County destinations customers can travel to via Metro. Commissioned by Metro Art, the new posters are “Pomona” by Sonia Romero and “Alhambra” by Phung Huynh.

Inspired by the design of orange crate labels, Romero pulled together a wide variety of cultural icons from the history of the city of Pomona, including the L.A. County Fair, Antique Row, the Art Colony, the Wally Parks Motorsports NHRA Museum and the Roman goddess Pomona.

Huynh took her inspiration from the city of Alhambra -- the first city in California with an iron pipe irrigation system. In her design, pipes frame the cultural icons and symbols of the city, including founder B.D. Wilson, and depict the community’s diversity, commerce and history.

Romero is a graduate of Los Angeles County High School for the Arts and received a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design. Her works have been exhibited locally in group shows and she will have her first solo exhibition this month at the Avenue 50 Studio in Highland Park.

Huynh received a B.F.A. from Arts Center College of Design in Pasadena and an M.F.A. from New York University. Currently teaching at East Los Angeles College, Huynh has exhibited her works locally and nationally and is also the artist for the Metro Orange Line Laurel Canyon station.

In the tradition of celebrating transportation through colorful travel destination posters, Metro commissions a diverse range of Los Angeles artists to create original artworks for the Metro Neighborhoods poster series. The intent of the series is to convey the distinctive character and vitality of neighborhoods and destinations served by the Metro network. The posters are displayed throughout the Metro system, including in trains, buses, stations and at various other locations.

Initiated in 2003, the Neigborhoods poster series has commissioned 16 original artworks and garnered a Print Magazine Regional Design Annual Design Excellence Award, a Tranny Merit Award, a “Fresh” Illustrator Award from Illustration Magazine Annual and a Los Angeles Society Illustrators Award Silver Medal. Artists are selected by responding to a Call to Artists issued by Metro Art and review of past artwork by a selection panel that includes arts professional and Metro representatives.

Established in 1989, Metro Art has commissioned more than 250 artists for a wide variety of both temporary and permanent artworks throughout the Metro system. For more information about the Metro Art Program and free docent guided tours, visit metro.net/art or call Metro Art at 213-922-4ART.

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Editor’s Note: Metro is the proper name in referring to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of Los Angeles County. For the past three years Metro has been changing all its signage and other materials to reflect the name change. If you need a current Metro logo, please call Metro Media Relations at (213) 922-2700.