Hello IMAX fans and welcome back to this week’s edition of Friday Feature.
For today’s post, we are spotlighting a brand new art gallery unveiled last week at the IMAX Playa Vista Headquarters called The IMAX Gallery.
The brain-child of IMAX employee Max Keller (pictured above), The IMAX Gallery is a permanent, rotating collection of high-concept film art by artists from around the world, featuring art inspired by films including Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Avatar, Gravity, La La Land, and The Dark Knight Trilogy.
Keller said he selected the art based on several factors including the cultural significance of each film on which the art is based, as well as the importance of the film to IMAX.
“The ultimate goal was to make the wall as diverse as humanly possible,” Keller said.
The gallery includes 16 pieces by 16 different artists, representing 16 separate films released in IMAX.
“[The collection] is very reflective of who and what we are,” said IMAX Entertainment CEO Greg Foster. “It’s a little different, which is what we always strive to be.”
The featured artists, most of whom collaborate regularly with such well-known film and pop-culture art galleries as Mondo and Hero Complex, are highly regarded among film fans and collectors alike.
Kevin Tong, whose Gravity poster (a limited edition of 375 printed in 2013) is featured in the gallery, spoke with IMAX about his inspiration behind the piece, as well as his general love for movies and art.
“I think anything that Mondo does, and all the artists they work with, is always, in a way, in worship of the film, because these aren’t really being used as one-sheets or as billboards,” Tong said. “It’s more about celebrating the movie and providing a very specialized, unique product that hasn’t been mass-produced.
“That’s not just something you do when you do blast advertising,” Tong added. “It’s almost like, ‘Look, I made these 400 prints just for you.’ … Because you’re part of something special.”
— By Andrew Stewart, Manager, Corporate Communications