FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 2026
Paul Tzanetopoulos: LAX Gateway’s Kinetic Light Installation
The new solo exhibition situates the iconic LAX Pylons within the artist’s larger practice creating artworks of human connection
LAX Gateway’s Kinetic Light Installation, Paul Tzanetopoulos, courtesy Los Angeles World Airports
Los Angeles, CA – Paul Tzanetopoulos presents LAX Gateway’s Kinetic Light Installation, a solo exhibition exploring the artist’s media-fluid practice and his work on the LAX Gateway Pylons, celebrating the project’s 25th anniversary last year. The exhibition is currently on view for LAX travelers at the West Gates at Tom Bradley International Terminal until spring, 2027.
Known for his conceptually-based practice utilizing a range of analog and digital technologies, Tzanetopoulos’ large-scale interactive works are ever-evolving explorations of human connection. Since the 1970s, light has been a central element of his practice through painting, sculpture, film, and interactive installations that illuminate both space and experience.
The exhibition situates the iconic LAX Pylons within the larger context of Tzanetopoulos’ career. Unveiled in 2000, his kinetic light installation transformed a series of 100-foot-high translucent glass pylons into a constantly changing display of color and movement. Tzanetopoulos envisioned the work unfolding through more than 30,000 colors to symbolize the diversity of Los Angeles, national identity and the planet’s ecology.
The works in the exhibition—from acrylic paintings on silk to video art installations—reflect how Tzanetopoulos brings these longstanding motivations into the public realm, using light, technology, movement, and scale to transform the experience of a place. At LAX, his interest in art as an evolving, immersive experience takes on a civic scale, turning an everyday point of arrival into a shared and continually changing encounter with light and color.
LAX Gateway’s Kinetic Light Installation, Paul Tzanetopoulos, courtesy Los Angeles World Airports
About Paul Tzanetopoulos
Paul Tzanetopoulos is a conceptually-based artist. His large-scale interactive work utilizes light, digital media, video, electronic and sound components.
Tzanetopoulos was the first artist in Los Angeles to present a video installation projection and computer-run-intermedia work (Ruth Schaffner Gallery, 1974). His work is included in many public and private collections, including LACMA’s Permanent Collection of 20th Century Art, the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, and the Permanent Collection of the United States Consulate General, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Tzanetopoulos also works in the realm of public art and has completed more than 30 public art commissions since 1992. In addition to the iconic Kinetic Light Installation which spanned 1.5 miles at LAX (untitled, 2000), he was the creator of “e/motion-3” (2004), a 49’ triptych video projection for the West Hollywood Gateway.
Tzanetopoulos received an MFA With Honors from the University of California, Irvine, and his BFA With Honors (Outstanding Fine Arts Graduate) from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His recent achievements include three solo shows at the as-is Gallery, Los Angeles, (2024, 2022, 2020) a commission for LA Metro (2024), a Video Installations and Projections Retrospective at the Moving Arts Theatre, Los Angeles, “Reeling 1974 – 2024” (2025) moderated by Jim Ovelmen, and, as he did with the original installation, is again working with the LAWA design team to create the new reimagined Gateway for the incorporation of his new kinetic light installation. Born in Athens, Greece, Tzanetopoulos’ home and studios are in Silver Lake.
About the LAX Gateway Pylons
The series of 100-foot-high, colorfully lit Gateway pylons have become a landmark and symbolic gateway of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) since they were unveiled in August 2000. Designed by the creative team led by architect Ted Tokio Tanaka, the series of glass and steel columns were brought to life by artist Paul Tzanetopoulos with a kinetic public art light installation that has illuminated the pylons from dusk to dawn in a variety of colors and sequences, echoing Los Angeles’ diversity.
The distinctive architectural structures were part of a construction and landscaping program designed to make the airport more welcoming for the millions of passengers who use the airport annually. In the unveiling ceremony, Mayor Richard Riordan flipped the switch and introduced the pylons not only to Los Angeles, but to the world.
Visible to airline passengers at 3,000 feet, the LAX Gateway pylons provided a landmark entry into the United States, Los Angeles, and LAX. For 25 years, the pylons welcomed millions of travelers from around the world and have been featured on film and television as a Los Angeles icon – a testament and tribute to the City’s vibrant identity and global reach.