LA JOLLA, CA.- The Athenaeum Music & Arts Library and Murals of La Jolla have installed Playing La Jolla (for all it’s worth), by Terry Allen at 7611 Fay Avenue.

Terry Allen's new mural, Playing La Jolla (for all it’s worth), is a photographic collage incorporating both the artist's personal biography and site specificity. Allen is equally accomplished as a multidisciplinary visual artist and as a musician, songwriter composer and vocalist, so this image can be viewed as a dual self-portrait. The motion of the artist’s hands playing piano mimic the musical nature of the ocean and waves. The combination of text, the human presence, and elements both naturalistic and man-made creates an expressive interplay between his related but distinctive worlds of art and music. The proportion of a keyboard and of the ocean with skyline are a natural fit to this long horizontal site.

Allen works in a wide variety of media, including musical and theatrical performances, sculpture, painting, drawing and video and installations, which incorporate any or all of these media. While his musical style is reminiscent of country music, it is far more progressive and alternative. He is the pianist and lead vocalist with his own Panhandle Mystery Band. As he so aptly puts it, "People tell me it's country music, and I ask 'Which country?' ". He has recorded 12 albums of original songs and has collaborated with many notable musicians including David Byrne and Lucinda Williams.

Terry Allen was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1943 and grew up in Lubbock, Texas. He received his BFA from the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angles, California. He has been the recipient of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship as well being awarded three National Endowment for the Arts throughout his career. His work is featured in many museums and galleries both nationally and internationally. He currently lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Murals of La Jolla offers tours the last Wednesday of the month (September 30 and October 28) starting at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library at 5:30 p.m. RSVPs are suggested.

To date, works by John Baldessari, Mel Bochner, Mark Bradford, Kelsey Brookes, Gajin Fujita, Anya Gallaccio, Robert Ginder, Ann Hamilton, Jean Lowe, Robert Irwin/Philipp Scholz Rittermann, Nina Katchadourian, Kim MacConnel, Ryan McGinness, Roy McMakin, Richard Allen Morris, Catherine Opie, Terry Allen, Julian Opie, Fred Tomaselli and William Wegman have been installed throughout La Jolla. Three of these have been replaced or temporarily removed. Overall, 21 murals have been commissioned since 2010.

Murals of La Jolla was founded by the La Jolla Community Foundation and is now a project of the Athenaeum. The goal of the mural project is to enhance the civic character of the community by commissioning public art projects on private property throughout La Jolla. Murals of La Jolla Art Advisory Committee is composed of the heads of the major visual arts organizations who commission artists to propose the intervention of an image on specific walls on privately owned buildings. The first two artworks by Roy McMakin and Kim MacConnel were painted directly on their sites. Subsequent artworks have been printed on vinyl and installed on billboard-like structures. Each work is on view for a minimum of two years and has been generously funded by private donations.