Tag: social practice

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Blue Roof Studios Arts Festival: A Day of Encounters and  Discovery

Saturday, June 23, 12:00pm to 5:00pm

 

June, 2018:  Blue Roof Studios is pleased to announce Blue Roof Studios Arts Festival,  celebrating the summer solstice, will take place on Saturday, June 23 from 12pm to 5pm, at 7329 S Broadway. The festival highlights the richness and diversity of the arts in South Los Angeles and beyond, reflecting Blue Roof Studio’s commitment to fostering and amplifying creativity, connection, and inclusion within the community.

Blue Roof Studios and festival founder Galia Linn describes the vision of the festival, “In the current climate of increased tension and isolation, melting away the barriers is the duty of those who care. We come together and see each other in a joint celebration of art.”

Offering an immersive multidisciplinary art experiences the day will feature artwork by over 60 artists and 20 Artisans reflecting the diversity of Blue Roof Studios neighborhood as well as greater Los Angeles. Local tacos, homemade popsicles, pizza by Delicious Pizza and other culinary treats will be offered by neighborhood businesses and community members as well venders from the greater LA area.

Spreading over Broadway avenue sidewalk, Blue Roof’s parking lot and the entire building – The day’s rich assortment of offerings will be a drum circle lead by master drummer Aboubacar Kouyate – whos talking drum can be heard on the Black Panther soundtrack; free cooking demonstrations by RootDown LA; music by local DJ Joaquin Romero /DJ Wordamouph;  a participatory performance utilizing three rocking chairs and three people by interdisciplinary performer Nehara Kalev; an Art Makers Bazaar curated by Kaleidoscope Kollective featuring handmade clothing, henna tattoos, unique objects and work by local and LA-based artists and artisans such as Alexandra Grant X-Artists’ Books and GrantLOVE project; art workshops by Barnsdall Arts; CAAM, and Blue Roof Studios resident Beverly Morrison.

The art installations will include: RADIANT a group exhibition curated by Leonardo Bravo / Big City Forum celebrating how we honor the light, our connection to the earth, the sun, and to each other; an exhibit curated by Bettina Hubby from Curatorial Hub featuring  a diverse selection of works under $500 by well-known and emerging artists from Los Angeles and beyond; and Kristine Schomaker of Shoebox PR will curate “IMAGINE” a show of works by artists from her community of artists. In addition, Blue Roof Studios resident artists  Diana Sanchez, Terri Klass, Jacqueline Palafox, Zemer Peled and Beverly Morrison will open their studios for the event. Guest artists installations by Corazon Del Sol in collaboration with Marguerita Drexel and Linda Franke.

About Blue Roof Studios

Founded in 2016 by artist Galia Linn, Blue Roof Studios is a new multidisciplinary art hub located in South Los Angeles that offers a place for artists to work in an environment that fosters creativity and community. We are dedicated to developing long-term relationships, opening doors to meaningful experiences in the arts, growing accessible programs such as free art workshops, screenings, artist talks, exhibitions, and festivals.

The Blue Roof Studios Arts Festival is funded in part by the LA Department of Cultural Affairs, CANNDU/Empower LA, LACI CleanTech incubator, Maker City LA, and the generous support of friends of Blue Roof Studios. Additional support provided  by Councilman Curren D. Price, Jr., the California African American Museum, BardoLA, On Broadway Tattoos and social.experiment.

For more information and a complete list of of participants and schedule of events,

visit https://www.blueroofstudios.org/blue-roof-studios-arts-festival/

Diana Sanchez: blueroofstudios6@gmail.com

Follow us on: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BRSarts/

Instagram: @blueroofstudios

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“ECHO ENIGMA” – SCOTT FROSCHAUER’S NEW SOLO EXHIBITION CONFRONTS DIVISIVENESS IN AMERICA

AN ARTIST TALK SUNDAY, MAY 20TH, 3-5 P.M.
ALTADENA OPEN STUDIOS TOUR, JUNE 3RD 11-5 P.M.
CLOSING RECEPTION ON JUNE 10TH, 2-5 P.M.

Ark Gallery and Studios is pleased to present a solo exhibit with Los Angeles multimedia artist Scott Froschauer. The artist explores themes of social connectivity, community and complexity. Froschauer gained notoriety with his “The Word on The Street” series of subversively positive street signs.

In Froschauer’s latest exhibit at ARK, the artist reflects on America’s increasingly polarized climate, etching distressed mirrors with portraits of various historical American figures. The artist injects elements that complicate otherwise one-dimensional narratives. He states that, “Deciding how to categorize them becomes more of a statement about the viewer, who is reflected in the distressed surface of each piece.” Hero and villain become blurred in the complex reality of the subjects humanity.

That complexity becomes the underlying fabric of the shows centerpiece. The exhibit’s focal point is a model for a large-scale artwork entitled United Divider that proposes a size of 15 feet tall by 20 feet long. Reminiscent of Richard Serra’s Tilted Arc that infamously overtook Federal Plaza in New York in the 1980’s, the 120-foot-long curved steel panel divided an otherwise open public space and was eventually taken down due to public outcry. Froschauer proposes a monument of polished stainless steel, waving, and etched with the likeness of the American flag. When viewed up close, the flag’s stars and stripes consist of lines of text bearing the names of historical Americans, human beings who we might find ourselves simplifying into heroes or villains, but which are actually more complex. Again, the polished surface reminds the viewer that their impression of these individuals is more of a reflection of their own preconceptions. Froschauer comments, “The epic scale of this piece gives it a stance as a wall, separating those who might stand on either side of it. The reflective quality of the piece denotes that this idea of America is a reflection of all who observe it. The symbol of the flag brings us all together and tears us all apart. It is the United Divider.”

Several related events will follow the April 29th opening from 3-6 p.m. including a May 20th artist talk from 3-5 p.m., an Altadena Open Studios Tour day on 3rd from 11-5 p.m., and a closing reception on June 10th from 2-5 p.m.

Ark Gallery and Studios is located at 2599 Fair Oaks Ave., Altadena, CA 91001

 

 

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SEARCHING
Kathryn Hart

May 2-30, 2018
School of Visual Arts Project Spaces CE
NY, NY

The School of Visual Arts (SVA) presents Searching, a solo show by artist Kathryn Hart. The exhibition will be on view from May 2-30, 2018 in the Project Spaces CE locations at 209 East 23rd Street, Main floor, and 380 2nd Ave, 8th floor. This is Hart’s first solo show at the SVA.

In this solo exhibition, Hart explores the web of emotions confronted in the search to begin anew, and the burden of choice. She continues her dialogue with evolving identity and the hope for new beginnings amidst a maze of emotional conflict, pain, and self-doubt.

Hart offers, “after life leaves us tumbled upside down, completely derailed, we pick ourselves up and begin the search for…personal truth, enlightenment, growth, love, connections, a place to feel comfortable, a place to call home. We even search for the place to start the search. My flightpath was obliterated by an onslaught of happenings – my husband’s cancer, the deaths of both my parents, and my own struggle with an ongoing disease and trauma. How do I move forward?

The search starts with one intent, one thought, one moment, one breath, one catalyst, one cell, one dot. A series of dots, actions, sparks, ideas, or energy becomes a line, a trajectory. Lines reveal potential paths ahead and scars of the ones just followed.”

Kathryn Hart presents this theme across an array of media, which further illustrates the plethora of options for the journey. An on-site installation of hundreds of lines, wires and embedded glass lenses explores the miasma of available routes, some more circuitous and arduous, some involving forced self-reflection. Hart uses these laboriously hand tied knots and line to translate a period of unsettling uncertainty into a path to move forward. Shadowy lines hover behind the actual as beacons or footprints. Ink drawings, reminiscent of ancient cave drawings, indicate the inception of thought and movement. Abstract black and white photographs of found bones allude to structure, life, and an archeological excavation for hidden meanings. There is simplicity and strength in their starkness. The exhibition also includes complex hanging sculptures with line and objects embedded into dense surfaces. In all the presented artworks, Hart examines the dichotomies of movement and stillness, contemplation and decision, and space and line, and the importance of the duality in the search.

“Line represents journey, connections, strength, simplicity, scars, tethers, and choice. Knots can be entanglements, junctures, bindings, obstacles, hurdles, gates and coupling.  I learned suture knots from my plastic surgeon father. His knots would both join and conceal.”

Hart delves into the tension between the search and choice, and ultimately, personal accountability. “We are bound by the choices we make. In the end, my search and its discoveries are all up to me.”

“I am inspired by many artists, particularly the poetry and bravery of Eva Hesse, the bold structures of Lee Bontecou, and the power and personal revelations of Louise Bourgeois.”

Kathryn Hart is a multi-disciplinary artist who exhibits frequently in New York City, throughout Europe, and most recently, Los Angeles. Museum, solo and group shows include Ateneo de Madrid (Madrid, Spain), Howland Cultural Center (Beacon, NY), IDEA Space/Colorado College, Andre Zarre Gallery (NYC), the Chelsea Art Museum (NYC), ArtHaus (Denver), Galerie SD Szucha 8 (Warsaw), Galeria 33 (Poland), Zamek w Goluchowie, (Poland), Myslenice Cultural Center (Poland), the Oceanside Museum of Art (CA), Museo de Castello de Estense (Italy), The Mitchell Museum (MD), Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Arts (Las Vegas), and the Colorado History Museum.

Her artwork is in the public collections of the Ministry of Culture of France, the Ministry of Culture of Poland, the Southern Nevada Museum of Fine Arts, the Myslenice Cultural Center (Poland), and many private collections worldwide.

International awards include scholarships from the Council of Europe (2016), and the Ministries of Art and Culture of France and Poland (2015, 2014), and the United Nations Harmony for Peace Award (2010).

Hart is a member of A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a B.A. from Boston University, an MBA from the University of Texas at Arlington, and has extended studies in art from the School of Visual Arts in NYC and the City of London Polytechnic. Hart lives in Colorado.

For more information, contact Nika Lopez at ceartwork@sva.edu 212-592-2050. http://www.sva.edu/ce

Hours are Monday-Saturday, 9am-9pm. The artist is available for private discussion and tours from May 20-May 29. Contact Kathryn Hart directly at 214-363-4025 or hart.kathrynd@gmail.com. Visit http://www.KathrynDHart.com for more information.

 

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Randi Matushevitz

Conundrum Solo Exhibit

March 17th-April 20th, 2018 Opening reception: Saturday, March 17th, 6-9 p.m.

LAAA | Gallery 825 825 N. La Cienaga Blvd., CA 90069 Ph. 310.652.8272

Randi Matushevitz’s unmasked expressionism

(Los Angeles, California) – Gallery 825 is pleased to present a solo exhibit with L.A.-based artist Randi Matushevitz whose works on canvas deliver an unmasked view of humanity within our current socio-political climate. Matushevitz’s themes of social inequities seen from the point of view of the homeless and technologically-mobile paint a stark portrait of humanity.

Matushevitz further draws upon contrasts materially, through dense networks of markmaking, stenciling, spray-painting, and traditional painting in oil and acrylic. The works’ charged positive and negative spaces illuminate her subjects conflating tender vulnerability with violence and dislocation.

Matushevitz draws upon and resonates with the aesthetics of German Expressionism whose adopters reacted to the rise of academic art, nationalism, and militarism leading up to, and during World War I. Expressionism’s narratives advanced humanistic ideas of social displacement, alienation, urbanization and eschewed formal conventions of Impressionism and academic art. In her 2017 essay Expressive Intensity, writer Betty Ann Brown articulated in Matushevitz’s art, an essential expression of the “…the human condition, our quest for connectivity, and the pain we all suffer in this earthly existence.”

The public is invited to attend Matushevitz’s opening reception on Sunday, March 17th, 6-9 p.m. where the artist will be on hand to discuss her techniques and questions.

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Cynthia Minet
Migrations

International Museum of Art and Science (IMAS)
1900 W Nolana Ave McAllen, Texas 78504
http://theimasonline.org
http://cynthiaminet.com/

April 14th to September 2nd, 2018
Public reception April 14th 3-5pm

Open Studio at the Brewery
660 South Avenue 21 #10 LA Ca 90031
Sunday March 4th 2-5pm

Facebook event

 

(McAllen, Texas) – Los Angeles artist Cynthia Minet is pleased to present Migrations, a one-person exhibition at The International Museum of Art and Science (IMAS) in McAllen, Texas, from April 14th to September 2nd, 2018.

Migrations takes borderland regions of the Rio Grande Valley as its point of departure and specifically uses the Roseate Spoonbill, a large bird native to the Southeast coastal region as an artistic surrogate for human experiences. Minet is well known for the creation of large-scale sculptures of animals constructed from repurposed plastics—detergent bottles, water containers, found toys, etc. that are then illuminated from within by glowing LED lights. She creates magnificent aesthetic objects that metaphorically call attention to our dependency on electricity and petrochemicals. Her conceptually and politically astute artworks draw the audience in, and then prompt them to thoughtfully consider and question contemporary society and lifestyle.

In Migrations, Minet will exhibit five suspended sculptures and one floor piece in addition to select wall-mounted drawings. Like most of her installations, this work is site-responsive, and uses recycled plastic debris from Los Angeles in addition to found materials gathered from the borderlands region of the Rio Grande Valley. The center piece of the installation is a graceful representation of the Roseate Spoonbill in various stages of flight. These sculptural birds are accompanied by light sequencing and motion activated sound that consists of wing beats, running water, bird calls and footsteps through grass that create a sense of mystery and movement in the darkened space. In addition, embedded into these sculptures are artifacts dropped by migrants who have crossed the border fence or the Rio Grande River into Texas. Minet’s visually accessible, meaningful and richly layered works call attention to the fact that plastic will erode but never disappear, that habitats and species will be lost to climate change and pollution and never return, and that people will risk everything to escape intolerable situations only to be denied entry into a new land.

Cynthia Minet’s artworks have been exhibited both in the USA and internationally. Her recent solo exhibitions include: Avian, Vita Art Center at the Bell Arts Factory, Ventura (2016); Beast of Burden, USC Fisher Museum of Art, University of Southern California (2015); Packing Caravan, the Los Angeles International Airport, (2013), Unsustainable Creatures, UC Riverside’s Culver Center for the Arts (2012), as well as installations at the Anchorage Museum, AK (2014), the Huntington Beach Art Center, the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and at GATE Projects, Glendale. International group exhibitions include museum and gallery shows since 2000. Minet is professor of studio art at Moorpark College, Moorpark, CA.

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Monica Wyatt
Continuum

Solo exhibition

Opening reception: January 20, 2018 6-8pm
On view: January 20 to March 3, 2018

MOAH: Cedar
44857 Cedar Ave
Lancaster, CA 93534

lancastermoah.org
monicawyatt.com

(Lancaster, California) – The Museum of Art and History in Lancaster, California, is pleased to present Continuum, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles based artist Monica Wyatt.

The curator of the exhibition, jill moniz, writes in an essay, “Monica Wyatt is an artistic alchemist, collecting materials and turning them into precious objects. In this process, Wyatt fuses the history of the materials together to create new beginnings, representing the cyclic nature of all things. This exhibition is a metanarrative of this practice, where Wyatt continues to reimagine objects and compositions that speak forcefully about her inspirations, interventions and intentions.

Wyatt is passionate in her hunt for materials, honoring the histories of these elements whilst stripping them bare so that her reworking feels organic and never forced. She dissembles organs, pianos, cables, sieves and other utilitarian items from a past when people valued human production and craftsmanship. Her objects honor that past and create a new language on an aesthetic continuum that conveys the resonance of an alchemy that we all possess, and reminds the viewer that identity and community are made from diverse elements brought together in harmony.

In another layer of synergy, Wyatt is interested in transforming inorganic materials into shapes that signify nature. Her assemblage is filled with both organic and manmade materials and she challenges the viewer to consider the aesthetic qualities of each as they contribute to her compositions. She makes electric capacitors look like plant life and zip ties mimic deep sea life in order to further a dialog about preservation of all the things we should hold dear.”

MOAH Cedar presents Continuum, Wyatt’s first installation at the museum and the ongoing collaboration with curator jill moniz. Wyatt’s assemblage has evolved from the early influence of Joseph Cornell to a more outside of the box approach. She credits Betye Saar, Claire Falkenstein, Ruth Asawa, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Lee Bontecou with giving her the courage and impetus to pursue engaging themes and compositions that reflect her love for materials, and the new life and meaning she gives them.

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Scott Froschauer’s “Word on the Street” public art project featured on ABC7 news

 

Scott Froschauer
Word on The Street

 

On ABC7 News

In the LA TImes

scottfroschauer.com
shoeboxpr.com

For more info and a map to the signs

By utilizing the materials and visual language of street signs, Los Angeles-based artist Scott Froschauer is able to harness the power of authority while playing with viewers understanding and perception of public space and the role of art in it. By replacing the traditional controlling language on public street signs with positive life-affirming statements, The Word on The Street seeks to provide something that is missing from our hum-drum daily visual diet.

Scattered throughout and sponsored by the city of Glendale, California, Froschauer has placed 20 different custom street signs all over, hoping to engage and inspire city visitors and residents to see the world just a little bit brighter. The signs range in message and tone, but maintain the standard directional sign styles and shapes. Touching on positivity, curiosity and absurdity, Froschauer’s signs are evocative, supportive and whimsical, inspiring a smirk or smile to all those who view them.

Juxtaposing the expectations of passersby, Froschauer is particularly fascinated with the role of the public space—hoping to combat the common thought that public space is meant to host signage and messaging to control and conform people in order to keep things copasetic and peaceful among the masses. Froschauer has utilized this expectation in order to produce a positive and shocking response from his viewers. Applying the power of street art to the concept of public signage, he has found an untapped area of captivation in contemporary art where the street art is not a visually rebellious statement, illegally operating and going against the system. Instead, Froschauer employs a contextual rebellion from the mundane messaging but still utilizes the government-approved signage style in order to gain proper attention from viewers as well as utilize the positive shock value of his opposing messages.

These signs are so similar to the traditional street signs that many people pass right by them without even realizing the signs say something different than they expected. This aha moment is a mandatory aspect of Froschauer’s work, demanding the viewers’ participation to complete this experiential artwork.

Aiming to give viewers a positive yet momentary emotional lift, Froschauer hopes that people who see his signs start to expect extraordinary things in ordinary places more often, evoking greater imagination and positivity by the masses. His messaging in The Words on The Street are simple yet thought provoking, with self-love and compassion at the core of his sign statements. With just 20 new additions to the city’s public space, Glendale now offers all visitors and residents a boost of positive energy and personal empowerment.

In the LA TImes

About the artist:
Scott Froschauer is a experimental artist and art fabricator in Los Angeles. His background consists of a structured education in Engineering, Photography, Computer Programming and Business. He earned a B.A. in Theoretical Linguistics from Syracuse University and has broad practical experience in Fabrication, Design, Non-ordinary Reality, Experiential Narrative, Venture Capital, Counterfeiting and Breathing. His background in the motion picture industry as a Key Grip has given him the skills to rapidly deploy large engineering projects for television shows, feature films, commercials and music videos. His fine artwork covers a broad range of subjects and materials from ephemeral street art and experiential narrative events to gunpowder illustration and alternative technique photography to practical sculpture and many large scale pieces for the Burning Man Festival, including the fabrication of The Church Trap, a large scale sculpture which was featured in numerous publications. Scott also fabricated RuckusRoots’ 2015 Wild Art sculpture, for the LA Zoo.