Jen Snoeyink | Hope Trees
Solo Exhibition

Opening December 14, 3-5pm
On view December 14 to January 2, 2020
By appointment only

Geo Gallery
1545 Victory Blvd
Glendale CA 91207

ABOUT

Jen Snoeyink presents “Hope Trees,” an inspiring, richly immersive exhibition first conceptualized during the La Tuna Fire, which occurred near her own home. Snoeyink took fallen branches from drought-stricken trees wrapped in recycled yarn and fabric, and stood the branches on end as a symbol of hope for those affected by the devastating fires, and as a reminder that life will sustain and continue after devastation.

The artist says she sought to viscerally express the idea that “Nature’s strength is unbounded.” The fiber wrappings are lushly colored, patterned and designed with precision and grace. Standing like vibrant, poised dancers, the branches of Snoeyink’s wrapped trees rise as a counterpoint to an ashen landscape. She uses fiber as a painter’s palette, artistically articulating the form of a tree, and documenting nature’s poetic response to fire. By enveloping branches in what she calls a “makeshift blanket of repurposed textiles,” Snoeyink incorporates fiber art, assemblage, photography, and mixed media as an artistic expression of the environmental issue of wildfire, both in California, and elsewhere.

Snoeyink worked with Nature photographer Kerry Perkins to document the site-specific installations Snoeyink created in the Woolsey fire affected areas last February. These photographs, the trees and an installation will be on view in Snoeyink’s exhibition.

In August, Snoeyink created Hope Trees as a temporary installation for Burbank Schools. Since that time, she has wrapped Hope Trees for residents affected by the Saddle Ridge Fire. The artist’s vividly colorful, softly wrapped images of life rising from the ashes create a rainbow of light against darkened land. Snoeyink had started the project a few years ago when she had created yarn trees as a project with Thomas Jefferson Elementary School students; She has been “overwhelmed” by the support to create something new and beautiful through the fiber art experience, adding color and life to the trees.

Describing herself as an “arborist, optimist, and mindful maker,” Snoeyink shapes temporary art installations as tactile emotional responses to both social and environmental issues, with the intention of lifting viewers’ spirits and raising awareness.

About Jen Snoeyink

A multi-talented design professional, Snoeyink has worked in a wide range of creative fields from New York to Los Angeles. With a solid basis in design, she has created works in decorative painting, murals, and scenic art, and has most recently expressed her art through handmade fiber art and fine art paintings. Working in fiber, Snoeyink shapes art that includes felting, painted linen, silk, and lace flowers, as well as building evocative assemblages that include both recycled objects and woven fiber materials.

She shares her creativity with her community through public projects engaging both children and adults. She holds an MFA in Scenic Design from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Karin Skiba

Habitat

Solo Exhibition
November 2-24, 2019
Opening reception November 2, 5-7 pm
http://karinskiba.com/

29 Palms Art Gallery
74055 Cottonwood Dr
Twentynine Palms, CA 92277
https://29palmsartgallery.com/

Science tells us that our connections are one of the most important factors in a long healthy life. Connection to home is the subject of Los Angeles artist Karin Skiba’s solo show, Habitat, opening at 29 Palms Art Gallery on November 2.

Skiba’s past work often involved emotional and physical environments in visual form. The theme of Habitat arises from this connection. The gallery space itself represents “habitat” in a true desert way, says Skiba. She admires the adobe building built to shelter from the heat and sun in 1936. As an art gallery this home now offers relief in the form of art.

Born and raised in Detroit, Skiba says the architecture of that city evokes the comfort zone of her youth and experiences there.

“I always loved downtown Detroit,” she says, “taking the bus to Woolworth’s as a teen to buy lunch with my girlfriends. Or eating at the old diners during my art school days. The stately grand homes and churches in the downtown area are familiar and beautiful to me still and prompted me to photograph them many times.”

Those photographs in collages capture the comfort of the past and childhood memories. It connects with her ancestors who came from Europe to find a new life and draws a line to the new and revitalized future for the city. Skiba calls this an “ecofictional landscape” where photos evoke a visual reality into a painted picture plane.

The work in Habitat uses ladders and trees that reach to the future and to the roots of the past, leading to emotional environments that offer solace and safety. An escape, sometimes reminding us of places we left behind in a search for our home. Or they can be unreachable because of situations we find our society in.

Karin Skiba (Russo) attended the Center for Creative Studies in Detroit and Claremont Graduate University receiving her MFA. Her work was shown at Barnsdall Park Art Center, LACMA, Security Pacific and in galleries in LA, Oregon, Chicago and Detroit. Her includes solo exhibitions at La Verne University, Cal Poly Pomona, Joshua Tree Art Gallery as well as the Riverside Art Museum.

Habitat runs November 2-24, at 29 Palms Art Gallery with an opening reception on November 2, 5-7 pm.

Jeffrey Sklan presents images of rich beauty and loss in his botanical series, ELEGY, opening at Kopeikin Gallery June 22nd in Los Angeles. The exhibition, which runs through June 27th, features astonishingly detailed photographic images of flowers in tribute to victims and survivors of mass killings and murders.

The gallery is located in the Culver City Arts District at 2766 S La Cienega Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Jeffrey Sklan presents ELEGY, an exhibition focusing on floral photographic images in a radiant and transformative collection paying tribute to lives lost in mass killings and murders.

Opening Saturday, June 22nd at the Kopeikin Gallery in Los Angeles, Sklan’s inspiring works expand the boundaries of photographic still life with their lush and evocative depictions of natural beauty. In each image, he draws viewers into the singular world that his artwork represents.

First on view at Photo LA in January, the series draws from the solace the artist finds in the beauty of flowers, the moving poignancy of their all-too-short existence, and their use in memorials for the departed. Using a rich color palette that originated with his admiration for artists such as Velasquez and Rembrandt, Sklan creates depths to his work that resonate with inner light.

He has previously created other floral series, but in ELEGY, he is “paying tribute,” the loveliness of his images serving as a rumination on how all too quickly the beauty of life can be lost. The work has a graceful, deeply spiritual nature that belies the violent reason for its creation. His initial image, “Lily for Orlando,” was “literally created as the crime scene from the Pulse Nightclub was playing out in June 2016. There was no intention of it being anything but a one-off,” Sklan explains. But a month later, 87 people were killed celebrating Bastille Day in Nice. “The enormity of it resulted in another image. And — a project took form,” Sklan says. Recently added pieces memorialize Parkland student Sydney Aiello, Nipsey Hussle, and worshippers in both Sri Lanka, and Poway, Calif.

Sklan describes his most successful images as capturing emotional content to spark a visceral reaction, and reflect what the artist was feeling or thinking, as the shutter released. “I seek to memorialize the essence of what is before me.”

The exhibition is designed to be a traveling show, and Sklan hopes ELEGY will find new venues for exhibitions, defraying shipping and installation costs through print sales, so that “even more people can view it, and, ideally, inspire people to remedy the wrongs they perceive in the communities where they live.”

He notes “The message is simple: we are each, in our own way and according to our capacity, capable of effecting change.”

About Jeffrey Sklan

Jeffrey Sklan is a Los Angeles-based photographic artist shaping images that revere nature, the human experience, color, and natural beauty. He has exhibited at PhotoLA in 2016, 2017, and 2019; his limited edition fine art prints are in the homes of private collectors nationwide. The show at Kopeikin will serve as a proving ground for ELEGY, an exhibition which Sklan hopes will travel to many cities.

Sklan will be present at Kopeikin through the day starting at 12 noon on June 22nd. The opening day reception runs from 6-8 p.m.

For more information, visit http://www.JeffreySklan.com/

About Kopeikin Gallery

Kopeikin Gallery is dedicated to presenting thought-provoking contemporary photography and art. Founded in 1991, the internationally recognized gallery has offered a wide range of photography exhibitions from Diane Arbus to Lee Friedlander, Chris Jordan, and Jill Greenberg.

The gallery is located at 2766 S La Cienega Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90034

For more information, visit https://www.kopeikingallery.com

ELEGY runs June 22 – 27, 2019.

Open Studio @ FlechtroNEONics
Sunday May 19, 1-5pm

Featuring the work of Linda Sue Price and Michael Flechtner

7712 Gloria Avenue, #4,
Van Nuys, CA

RSVP to Flektro@aol.com

LINDA SUE PRICE

“I like to mix form, light, reflection and texture. I do this by layering and adding other elements such as clear acrylic rods and reflective backgrounds. While the viewer cannot know the simple and sometimes complex stories behind each piece, they can reconsider their perceptions of neon and the world around them. When I look at a neon tube, I don’t see a sign even if it is. I see a luminous glow. I want to share the beauty and playfulness of neon.” Linda Sue Price

I have been looking at and admiring neon since I was a child living and traveling through the western states. The intense colors and glow of the motel and business signs appealed to me and I thought they were beautiful. A visit to Las Vegas was always special because of extensive use of neon all over the buildings. There was a palm tree in front of one of casinos that I loved. In Southern California, there were special signs that I looked forward to seeing. Long Beach had a drive-in theatre near the traffic circle that had wonderful neon. Motel signs often had animation. I liked to look at them and try to figure out the animation patterns.

I started working with neon as an art media in 2004. I took a neon class through the Museum of Neon Art taught by Michael Flechtner. I wanted to explore a free form style and he encouraged me to try bending. I began studying the craft of bending with Flechtner in 2005.

Linda Sue Price lives and works in Los Angeles County, California. Price is known for injecting her personal reflections to stimulate emotion and to manipulate how neon is perceived as a medium. She began studying neon as a medium under Michael Flechtner at the Museum of Neon Art beginning in 2004, where she developed her particular technique of bending. Elements of historic neon signs, abstract expressionism, pop art and graphic design influence Linda Sue Price’s work.

Exhibitions include solo shows at TAG Gallery in Los Angeles, California; two-person exhibits at the Fine Arts Building in Los Angeles and several group shows in the Western United States. She serves as an advisory board member for the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, California.

MICHAEL FLECHTNER

Neon, more properly luminous tube, has been my medium of expression for nearly a decade. It has replaced the paint and sculptural materials I used as a student. I’m ever mindful of the compelling nature of this pure, colored, glowing light and the tendency of many to see “all things neon” as signage or kitsch. It is my experience that the more traditional viewer and critic resist seeing neon as a fine art medium.

My work reflects a fascination with the symbols of language, technology and how they influence popular culture. I describe animals, machinery, etc. and utilize various forms of language. The various “components” inhabit my internal landscape. I bring forth and arrange this highly idiosyncratic material to create pictograms, ideograms and rebuses, surely the effects of my unconscious. Through the creation of these pieces I work through and process personal issues and attitudes. Each piece is a complete record of that process. In spite of this focus on my “inner self”, this work is for everyone. To that end the figures are recognizable and the compositions are “pleasing to the eye.” And if the viewer wants more, they can apply there own meanings and interpretations which I feel are as relevant as my own.

Because many of the pieces are so enigmatic, I post an interpretation. Often the viewer has overlain their own meanings. Because of certain psychological theories, I believe their ideas and interpretations are as pertinent and valid in this exchange as mine.

I do not enjoin others toward a path to perfection, instead I endeavor to live my life consciously in the hope it will become a passive example to others trying to find their particular path. Hopefully the form of my work, not content, will suggest a framework for others. My goal is to continue along this path, passing on method and information. I believe that my work offers the viewer a new way of codifying the world and locating themselves within it. Through the exchange between artist and viewer, we become a little more comfortable to question, enjoy and suspend, even if only for a moment, the struggle we all face in everyday life.

Inherited Memories
a three-women art exhibition

Shula Singer Arbel
Dwora Fried
Malka Nedivi

Curated by Peter Frank

Castelli Art Space
5428 Washington Blvd,
Los Angeles, CA 90016
https://www.castelliartspace.com/

Opening Reception: Saturday, May 18 from 6:00-9:00pm
Artists’ Talk (moderated by Peter Frank) Sunday, May 26 from 3:00-5:00pm

The recent rise of white nationalism, anti-Semitism and hate crimes prompted three Los Angeles artists, whose mothers were Holocaust survivors, to come together in a group show. In Inherited Memories, opening May 18 at Castelli Art Space, Shula Singer Arbel, Dwora Fried and Malka Nedivi confront the viewers with the power of memory and remind us of the generational effects of trauma.

“More to the point,” says Peter Frank, “the mothers of these three women went through the ordeal, profoundly impacting their daughters and the art they make. The work of Shula Singer Arbel, Dwora Fried, and Malka Nedivi, however, manifests more than a simple acknowledgment of the tribulations their mothers underwent before giving birth to them: it embodies sensations experienced one way by the elder women themselves and another by their offspring. It is in this experiential slippage that the art finds its eloquence; and it is in the three artists’ diverse stylistic and discursive approaches that the exhibition finds its resonance.

The work of each artist tacitly denotes a different temporal relationship to the devastating event. Fried’s assemblages reflect on the normal life led by her mother’s family in prewar Krakow and the “post-normal” life her own family led in postwar Vienna– what was lost. Arbel’s paintings are based on photographs from the Bavarian Displaced Persons Camp where her parents met after the war – what was gained back. And Nedivi’s sculpted figures and objects muse upon the dysphoria her mother experienced in a painful present – what could be survived but not tolerated.”

About Shula Singer Arbel
Shula Singer Arbel was born in Israel and moved to Los Angeles at the age of three. She received an MFA degree from UCLA in Film Production and worked for many years in the film industry as an editor, writer, and researcher. Arbel was the first recipient of the Barbra Streisand Screenwriting Award. She wrote and directed short films, showing in the independent film circuit in the United States and Europe. After leaving film, she returned to her original love: painting. She is now a full-time artist and a member of the Los Angeles Art Association, Women Painters West, and the Jewish Artists Initiative. Shula received the Best of Show Award in the 2010 Gold Medal Exhibition at Valley Institute of Visual Arts (VIVA).
http://shulasingerarbel.com/

About Dwora Fried
Dwora Fried is an assemblage artist creating mixed media sculptural spaces in wooden boxes. Her small rooms evoke what it was like to grow up as an outsider in postwar Vienna: being Jewish, lesbian and a child of Holocaust survivors, she learned to see everything through the prism of loss, danger and secrecy. Dwora studied art at Avni School of Fine Arts in Tel Aviv, Israel. She has had solo shows in London, England, Venice, Italy at the Jewish Museum, Vienna, Austria (her art is in the permanent collection of Austria’s MUSA Museum ) and Los Angeles, California. She has exhibited in Chicago’s Elmhurst Art Museum, Grafiska Sällskapet in Stockholm, Sweden, San Francisco’s Arc Gallery and Orange County Center for the arts. Her work was shown at Launch LA/Korean Cultural Center, Irvine Fine Arts and the newly opened MASH gallery in Downtown LA. Her life size interactive installations were part of her solo show at the Los Angeles Art Association and a political group show at Fullerton College Art.
https://dworafried.com/

About Malka Nedivi
Malka Nedivi is an artist living and working in Los Angeles. She was born in Rehovot, Israel in 1952, an only child to parents who survived the Holocaust and emigrated from Poland. Studying Theater and literature at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, she directed plays and taught theater. Recently Malka had a successful solo show at the National Council of Jewish Women, had a solo exhibition at BOA Art Gallery in Los Angeles, and was featured in the LA Art Show at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Malka was also chosen as one of the top ten Southern California Contemporary Artists from Israel at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. Malka has had write-ups in the Beverly Press, Jewish Journal, Diversions LA, Filling the Negative Space, Tribe Journal, Trebuchet Magazine and she is the subject of a feature in the Huffington Post.
http://malkanedivi.com/

Elizabeth Tobias

Survivor! Share Your 98 Second Story
Short Film Premiere, Panel and Reception

April 25, 630pm at The Montalban 1615 Vine St LA CA 90028
as part of the We Choose Art: A Feminist Perspective Closing Reception

May 3, 7pm at The Expressive Arts Institute 2820 Roosevelt Road #204, San Diego 92106

elizabethtobiasarts.com

Artists who have been victimized by violence often lack the support and resources needed to come forward. For artists who have been affected by the trauma of sexual assault, there are rarely adequate opportunities to create work that addresses their stories within and beyond the larger art community.

Performance artist and expressive arts therapist, Elizabeth Tobias, has amplified her fusion of social practice, performance and film making to debut Survivor! Share your 98 Second Story, a short film blending art and documentary that shares the stories of 20 contemporary artists who have survived sexual assault and who participated in a workshop and performance project created by Tobias for The LA Art Show.

The Survivor! Project brings much needed awareness and advocacy to the sexual assault epidemic, one of the greatest human rights violations in the world. The screening of the 15-minute film will be part of the closing reception for We Chose Art, Feminist Perspective 2019, curated by Baha Danesh.

This immersive performance addresses the sexual assault epidemic, one of the most pervasive, yet most under reported crimes. Survivor! addresses the staggering statistic that every 98 seconds, there is a sexual assault in America.

Dr Jennifer Freyd, expert in the field of interpersonal violence has identified that the act of speaking out has a measurable impact on decreasing violence. Consequently, the performance and ongoing project have the potential to directly reduce the statistics. Survivor! Share Your 98 Second Story is a groundbreaking new project that addresses trauma, courage and continuance.

Elizabeth Tobias, MA, is an Expressive Arts Therapist, Interdisciplinary Artist, Feminist, Educator and Community Organizer. As an Expressive Arts Therapist, she works in private practice and in clinical settings. As an artist and community organizer, Elizabeth creates immersive works of art and public events that address timely social issues such as interpersonal violence, trauma, discrimination, food scarcity and climate change. Her multi-media projects leverage art to engage the community in cultural, economic and social advancement. Elizabeth earned her MA in Spiritual Psychology from The University of Santa Monica and her Professional Diploma from The Expressive Arts Institute in San Diego in accordance with standards set forth by The International Expressive Arts Therapy Training Network and in compliance with The European Graduate School in Saas Fe, Switzerland.

This project was made possible by The Los Angeles Art Association and DIVERSEartLA. Special thanks to Peter Mays, Kristine Schomaker, Steven Adams, Wes Chester and Judith Essex.

Participating artists to date:
Elizabeth Tobias
Dawniel Carlock Stewart
Naomi Tara
Jen Snoeyink
Robyn Alatorre
Tara Graviss
Felis Stella
Jennifer Korsen
Jessica
Joi Cole
Kayla Cloonan
Aliza Bejarano
Kellie Gillespie
Catherine Singer
Alexandria Yalj
Ryan Freeze
Ciana Lee
Yolie
Coco
Smile Garcia
Supporting Artists: Anna Cirronis, Danica Teyssier, Jared, Jennifer, Skandar Rassas
Choreography: Madison Hayes
Featured Cellist: Tara J. Atkinson
Photo by Dawniel Carlock Stewart
Video Production by LA Art Documents

Debbie Korbel
Strange Circus
A solo exhibition

debbiekorbel.com

Shoebox Projects
660 South Avenue 21 #3
Los Angeles 90031

shoeboxprojects.com

(Los Angeles) –Los Angeles artist Debbie Korbel didn’t set out to create the characters that one finds in a Strange Circus opening April 20 at Shoebox Projects. “They just came out,” said Korbel, “kind of like imagining what your children will look like and then having them look completely different than you expected.”

Strange Circus is a celebration of being different, a bit off center. The sculptures in this exhibition can be seen as metaphors for all of us who at times have felt that we weren’t fitting into standard social constructs. Korbel’s sculpted fantasy figures are all a bit eccentric, but not unhappy with who they are. They are different and they own it. They are comfortable in their own skin—even if it’s leopard skin.

Referring to the range of emotions that course through the human soul on a daily basis, Korbel says, “if I can get you to see or feel emotion from something I have created, then I have succeeded in making that human connection. We are no longer strangers, we are of like mind, if even just for a few moments.”

Strange Circus comes to town April 20 to May 5 at Shoebox Projects. There will be an opening reception April 20, 3-6pm and a closing reception and Artist Talk May 4, 2-4pm.

About Debbie Korbel
Debbie Korbel is an artist whose creativity has been applied to various media including painting and sculpture as well as writing television scripts, short stories and hip-hop song lyrics. Her sculptures have been exhibited in numerous galleries, collected internationally and appeared in television shows. In 2013, her work received awards in the Spring and Winter issues of Creative Quarterly Magazine. Recent exhibitions in Los Angeles include Gallery 825 and TAG Gallery “LA Open,” where her sculpture The Kiss was awarded second place. Korbel is a native Californian and works out of her studio in Los Angeles.