Artist Peter Shire unveils his gateway to North Hollywood

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Anyone cruising down Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood will notice a colorful addition to the street’s already-bustling arts scene: a new public sculpture by L.A. artist Peter Shire at the intersection of Lankershim and Huston Street.

The NoHo Gateway is a large-scale, overhead street-span construction made mostly of steel. At the center, Shire has spelled out ‘NoHo,’ which will be illuminated at night. He has painted the gateway bright yellow and decorated it with characters who work behind the scenes in the movie and television industry.

Shire’s design was chosen from a field of 60 artists who submitted proposals for the project in 2000. The NoHo Arts Council said the goal of the installation was to improve the street’s appeal. The finished product also had to be publicly accessible and engineered for practical maintenance.

Based in Echo Park, Shire is best known for his ceramic and metallic sculptures. His work is in the collections of more than 40 museums, including LACMA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 2008, an outdoor exhibition of six of Shire’s large-scale sculptures opened on Santa Monica Boulevard.

‘I am a maker of things, a hand-skills guy,’ Shire told The Times in 2007. ‘[There] is no separation between art and craft. They are all one, and a daily living experience is worthy of aesthetic consideration.’

-- David Ng

Photo: Peter Shire’s NoHo Gateway. Credit: NoHo Arts