Actor-Director Dennis Hopper Checks on Installation of His Famed Billboard Sized 'Double Standard' Photograph at New 19-Floor Residential Art Gallery in Marina Del Rey; Captures Beat, Surfer, Hippie Generations.

MARINA DEL REY, Calif. -- Colony Capital:

--Original Leader of 1960s "LA Art Scene" Has Azzurra's Third Floor Dedicated to His Documentary-Style Black and White Photography

--'Double Standard,' Circa 1961, Acclaimed as 'Quintessential LA Beat Generation On the Road Photograph'

Actor-director-screenwriter Dennis Hopper participated in the permanent installation of his acclaimed 10 x 15-foot photograph "Double Standard Billboard" in the lobby of Azzurra, a new high-rise residential art gallery in Marina Del Rey, Calif.

Hopper's most famous work, photographed in 1961 through a car windshield, is internationally acclaimed as a visual double entendre with two Standard Oil signs under the billboard "Smart Women Cook with Gas" at a gas station at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue and Doheny Drive.

The triangular corner where the gas station once stood is also the border dividing the two worlds of gritty West Hollywood and posh Beverly Hills.

Hopper was a member of the artist collective in the late 1950s and 60s that became known as the "LA Art Scene" before he shot to stardom co-writing, directing and starring in the classic outlaw biker buddy movie "Easy Rider." The entire third-floor of the 19-story residential waterfront tower is dedicated to his jolting, documentary-style black and white photography.

His photography that captures the Beat, surfer and Hippie generations are part of a collection of 160 works by 50 artists of the "LA School" permanently exhibited on every floor.

"Double Standard is certainly a Beat Generation photograph, taken not only 'on the road' but, as the (street) signs indicate, on legendary Route 66," wrote Craig Krull in "LA Art Scene, 1955 to 1975," the definitive book on the era when Los Angeles went from obscurity to worldwide recognition as a powerful force in the art world. "It is a quintessential LA image made from a driver's perspective, complete with a convertible top and traffic in the rear view (mirror)," wrote Krull who owns a Santa Monica gallery that's exhibited the work of LA artists for over 40 years.

Hopper, who still lives in nearby Venice, birthplace of one faction of the freewheeling "LA school," was acting in the late 50s in "Rebel Without a Cause" and "Giant," starring his friend, the late James Dean. But Hopper's passion for photography, his keen eye for the wry and absurd, won him artistic fame before his film career took off with "Easy Rider" in which he co-starred with Peter Fonda as alienated bikers on a cross-country journey "in search of America."

He currently stars as a buttoned-down Army colonel assigned to the Pentagon in the NBC weekly political drama, "E-Ring."

"Dennis Hopper was part of this band of hip, renegade, spontaneous, freewheeling artists, painters and photographers working in funky Venice and Santa Monica studios who gave birth to 'Light and Space' movement," said Tom Barrack, who created and envisioned Azzurra's 450 residences as a high-rise art gallery with a singular focus on Los Angeles artists and their "anything goes, free expressionism of Southern California's hang-loose life with all its coolness."

Santa Barbara art advisor and curator Julie Cline acquired and assembled the collection of works by 50 artists including Californians such as Ed Ruscha, Billy Al Bengston, Claes Oldenburg, Peter Alexander, Joe Goode, Alexis Smith and East Coast artists like Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol who flocked in droves to Los Angeles to join the flamboyant LA Scene.

Sixteen of the artists including Hopper have their own floor in the building dedicated exclusively to their works.

When Dennis Hopper photographed 'Double Standard' in '61," mused Krull, "LA was a very small art world, the (collecting) public didn't acknowledge their work and, in hindsight, these artists weren't aware they were making art history with their free expressionism of a very special time in Southern California. What started as a local movement exploded into a full blown art scene that grabbed headlines around the world."

About Azzurra

Azzurra, a 19-story contemporary high rise along the harbor at Marina del Rey, offers 450 one-, two- and three-bedroom Pied-a-Mer residences that range from 811 to more than 3,500 square feet. The luxury residences, available in August 2005, are priced from $550,000 to $3.2 million. The building is the first ever to feature a curator-assembled art collection of more than 150 symbolic works from the LA Art School of the 1960s and 1970s by artists such as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Frank Stella and Dennis Hopper installed throughout the public spaces and residential floors. Azzurra also offers an array of hotel-style services and amenities, including 24-hour residential concierge and valet services; full-service fitness club; an expansive pool deck with private cabanas complete with plasma TVs; media library and executive board room with video conferencing services, and two rooftop gathering spaces with sweeping views, the Sky Lounge Terrace with fireplace, intimate seating and barbecue entertaining area, and the Jacuzzi Terrace, with outdoor Jacuzzi and lounging areas.

About Colony Capital

Colony Capital, LLC is one of the largest real estate investors in the world, with 14 offices in 11 countries around the world. Additional information about Colony Capital may be found at www.colonyllc.com.

Sales Information

The Sunshine Group, Ltd., is the exclusive sales agent for Azzurra. For more information on the residences available at Azzurra, please contact the Azzurra Sales Gallery, 13700 Marina Pointe Drive, Suite 1901, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, 310-577-0101, or visit www.azzurra-delrey.com.