Artwork Detail

In a departure from Frank Matranga’s previous Los Angeles County Library murals, this artwork was carved directly into the Marina del Rey Library’s outer brick wall. To achieve this effect, Matranga worked with the Library’s brick masons and sculpted his design into the wet bricks before they were fired. Each brick was then numbered and installed by the masons with the other conventional bricks as the building was being completed. The artwork depicts boats sailing under a sunny sky.

Frank Matranga received his BA and MA from Los Angeles State University. While working on his MA, he was offered a job teaching ceramics at a local high school. This led him to discover a lifelong love affair with clay. He completed his master’s degree in art and later studied at the University of Southern California under Carlton Ball. In 1961 he started his own ceramic studio in Redondo Beach (later moved to Manhattan Beach) and began to teach in the Los Angeles Community College system, which he would do for the next twenty years. His public art career began in 1970 when Sears, Roebuck, and Company commissioned him to create seven murals for Sears stores in the Southern California area. In the following decades he has completed over 50 ceramic mural commissions for libraries, private companies, and homes. In 1977 and 1979 he was invited to be an artist in residence in Japan, where he exhibited at the American Embassy Gallery in Tokyo. His work has also been shown in Australia and Germany.