Center for Early Education Unveils Art Installation on La Cienega Boulevard

The Center for Early Education yesterday unveiled a new public art installation by artist Friedrich Kunath which prominently incorporates work inspired by Center students. The mixed-media installation, “Wake Up and Dream,” is now available for public viewing at street level on the corner of La Cienega Boulevard and Melrose Avenue and was designed for dedication to the West Hollywood Urban Art Program.

“In Wake Up and Dream, reality and fantasy meet, coexist and separate again,” said Kunath in describing the work. “There are no boundaries between the depicted locales – each blends into the next.” Center students ages 2 too 12 worked with Kunath to inspire a series of original emojis from which students selected for installation through a student-led vote.

“The Center is so proud that our students’ creativity can add to the vibrant cultural life of West Hollywood,” said CEE Head of School Mark Brooks. “Our students loved the shared process of creating and selecting the designs used in the installation.”

The work uses Styrofoam, aqua resin, gesso, glass, acrylic and latex paint and neon glass and bulbs to portray the dream-like state between sleep and wakefulness in a visual along La Cienega Boulevard. The sculptural elements, including a bird wearing shoes and a large hand holding a rainbow, inject the unfamiliar into the familiar. These objects were installed to seem as if they belong anywhere and nowhere at the same time like the “otter playing with a tennis ball” or “cloud with a cloud beard” emojis inspired by the students.

The Center celebrated the installation with an unveiling ceremony and viewing on Thursday. Artist Friedrich Kunath was on hand to pull back the curtain on “Wake Up and Dream” as were students, parents, faculty and administrators from CEE. Present also were West Hollywood Mayor John Heilman, architects Jim Favaro and Steve Johnson and members of the city’s Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission.

Kunath was born in Chemnitz, Germany in 1974, and studied at the University of Arts, Braunschweig. Kunath has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and is represented by Blum & Poe in Los Angeles. His work is represented in a number of permanent collections around the world, including the Hammer Museum and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Kunath lives and works in Los Angeles.