The mission of the Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture is to advance arts, culture, and creativity throughout LA County. We fulfill our mission by providing services and support in areas including grants and technical assistance for nonprofit organizations; professional development opportunities; commissioning civic artworks and managing the County’s civic art collection; implementing countywide arts education initiatives; research and evaluation; career pathways in the creative economy; free community programs; and cross sector creative strategies that address civic issues. This work is framed by the County’s Cultural Equity and Inclusion Initiative and a longstanding commitment to fostering access to the arts.
The two artworks at El Cariso Regional Park are in the tradition of land art, in which artists integrate natural materials like stones, concrete and landscaping in the design.
The nearby San Gabriel Mountains provided source imagery for Stephen Glassman when he created Dos Picos. Made of Gabion baskets—wire containment structures filled with rocks typically used for creating retaining walls—the sculpture features two 20-foot-tall angular peaks atop a gentle slope of long grasses, designed to guide the viewer's eye to the mountains on the horizon. A team of 20 engineers, fabricators and landscapers helped create the art.
About the Artist:
LA-based sculptor Stephen Glassman first came to international attention in the early 1990’s when he began creating freeform, large-scale bamboo installations in urban sites devastated by the Rodney King Riots, Malibu Fires and Northridge Quake. These works became local symbols of resiliency as well as a springboard for the permanent, monumental-scale public works he creates today — art for art’s sake in a social contex. Glassman’s work has been published worldwide, and been awarded with an NEA/White House Millennium Fellowship, a Chrysler Design Award nomination, the London International Creativity Award, and more.