Only in L.A.: Mall Art in Culver City

One of L.A.’s newest retail meccas goes mall out with a series of eye-grabbing art installations

Most suburban mallrats approach their shopping trips with only one kind of visual stimulation in mind: the kind that’s found dangling from plastic hangers.

But since the Westfield Culver City (6000 Sepulveda Blvd., Culver City, 310.390.5073) opened last October, its visitors have been greeted with three brand-new art installations, commissioned specifically for its common spaces to the tune of $1.2 million.

Jeff Kopp’s Punctuation Station “sculpture park” is a primary-colored playground of outsized question marks and asterisks; David Trubridge’s Neptune’s Necklace, an amorphous halo of polycarbonate and LED lights, glows over a bank of comma-shaped wooden benches in Center Court; while local citizens and landmarks are immortalized on disks dangling from Chris Doyle’s mobile, Culver City Currency.

It’s not just the area’s artsy bent that has sparked this collision of culture and consumerism—thank Culver City’s decades-old Art in Public Places Program, which requires public art exhibits to be included in new building projects.

"Only in L.A.: Mall Art in Culver City" is part five of a five-part series.

Monday: "Only in L.A.: Sunset Marquis' Photo Studio"
Tuesday: "Only in L.A.: Los Angeles Athletic Club"
Wednesday: "Only in L.A.: the Great Outdoors"
Thursday: "Only in L.A.: L.A. Opera's The 110 Project"
Friday: "Only in L.A.: Mall Art in Culver City"