On Thursday, January 29th at Art Los Angeles Contemporary, Freeway founder and artist Alex Israel and ForYourArt founder Bettina Korek will launch the limited edition sunglasses created in collaboration with artist Raymond Pettibon and Freeway Eyewear, the third in the artist-designed series following Barbara Kruger and John Baldessari.

Pettibon’s work is universally known for its blending of high and low culture, taking points of departure from the Southern California punk-rock culture of the late 1970s and 1980s and the “do-it-yourself” aesthetic of album covers, comics, concert flyers, and fanzines. His iconic text “I thought California would be different,” which first appeared in his 1989 serigraph by the same name, appears here across the arm of the L.A. RAYS style sunglasses. Putting Pettibon’s longing text on the arm of sunglasses–LA’s ubiquitous accessory–highlights the darker side of the California Dream.