Public Art Sprouts Along LA’s New D Line

New stations on Los Angeles Metro’s D Line bring fresh art that invites commuters to pause. At the Wilshire/Fairfax concourse, Ken Gonzales‑Day shows photographs taken from LACMA’s collection. He tweaked his camera work to make the pictures shift from dark to bright, echoing a journey up from underground to street level. Gonzales‑Day says the project lets him reimagine a museum setting in a way that reflects the city’s diversity, drawing on his Mexican‑American and queer identities. Across the platform at Wilshire/La Cienega, Soo Kim layers images of Wilshire buildings with foreign architecture. Above the platform she adds a large abstract map. Kim notes that commuters—who see the art daily—should find something new each time, and she loves that the work is free and open all hours.The Wilshire/La Brea station features Mark Dean Veca’s mural, originally a sketch that grew into twenty separate vignettes. Each vignette highlights different facets of the neighborhood’s past, present and people. Veca describes walking into the finished piece as a powerful experience, noting how well it lights and fills the space. These projects are part of Metro’s long‑standing practice of using a small share of construction funds to turn stations into art galleries. The installations pay homage to local history, nearby museums and even underground fossils. A director of Public Arts explains that anyone can visit the work for less than two dollars—money normally spent on museum tickets. Metro plans to finish the full D Line by 2027 and is already selecting more artists. QR codes on placards let travelers scan to learn about each creator.