27 April 2005

Miripolsky Creates Two Murals For Performing Arts Center At California State University, Northridge

Northridge, CA: ArtsNorthridge at California State University, Northridge is proud to continue to present the work of internationally acclaimed artist Andre Miripolsky in the lobby of the Performing Arts Center. This is the second phase in what is expected to be a series of presentations between the artist and the CSUN Performing Arts Center in association with LTM Artists, Inc. The murals will be debuted at the first performance of the Limon Dance Company on Saturday, April 30 at 8 pm. The mural paintings and “Fear No Art” lithographs will hang thru the fall of 2005.

Born in Paris, Andre Miripolsky lived in a series of exotic landscapes including Iran, Thailand, Austria, France, Indonesia and Korea. He was immersed and surrounded by art since his youth. By age eight he was working with oils and by age ten he sold his first painting to the American Ambassador of Indonesia. After graduating High School in Seoul, Korea, he headed to the California Institute of the Arts. The artist left after two years to pursue a classical acting career before finally centering his creative axis on the canvas and all things visual.

Throughout his 30 year career, Miripolsky’s keen understanding of pop imagery and energy has resulted in pop icon collaborations with Elton John on the infamous “piano key” jacket, Bette Midler’s album covers, Quincy Jones, The Rolling Stones, a 6,000 square foot basketball court for MTV’s Rock and Jock Basketball Jam, a worldwide billboard advertising campaign for Absolut Vodka, the upcoming 25th anniversary of the Chabad telethon and over 150 episodes of NBC’s The Tonight Show, which commissioned Miripolsky to design and paint backdrops and floors for the show's visiting musical artists. For over 7 years, everyone who played on The Tonight Show (from Ringo Starr to Clay Aiken) has performed on a Miripolsky design.

Each mural is 8’6” tall. “Look Up Two Yourself” is 7’9” wide and “Life Without Limits” is 8’4” wide. They are painted on a white backdrop paper with tempra paint. These works were created to hang in the PAC. Though Miripolsky never explains his work, he did describe what his hopes were for these two new murals,

I did think that the subject matter was appropriate for the venue. I hope they will stand as positive life affirmations to the people that walk through that hallway into the theatre.

The materials I used are very simple, just backdrop paper and tempra paint, I wanted the execution of the paintings to seem very fast and simplistic but the statements to be very strong and positive.
–Andre Miripolsky April 22, 2005

The Miripolsky exhibit will remain in the Performing Arts Center lobby throughout the fall of 2005. For more information on Miripolsky, please visit http://www.miripolsky.com/.

The Performing Arts Center is located on Zelzah Avenue, between Prairie and Plummer Streets in the Student Union Complex. Patrons should use Parking Lot G4 and are required to purchase a $4 parking permit for all performances on the CSUN campus.

For limited press seating and information contact:
William C. Martin, Artistic Director and Marketing for the Performing Arts Center:
818-677-7687, Fax 818-677-6617 or e-mail: william.c.martin@csun.edu

High-resolution photographs (300dpi) are available for download at http://www.cvpa.csun.com/newsflash_imageArch.html