Wecataloguespreadsversion by Otis College of Art and Design

WE ARE MAKING PEOPLE’S DAYS AS MUCH AS WE ARE RUINING THEM! 2013 Otis FINE ARTS BFA Degree Exhibition May 5-12, 2013

C atalog S taff

F ine A rts D epartment

MANAGING EDITOR

CHAIR

PROJECT MANAGERS

ASSISTANT CHAIR

TEXT EDITORS

DEPARTMENT COORDINATOR

Holly Tempo

Hallie Breene, Wendy Silva Carlos Ochoa, Lacey Stoffer, Daniel Verret

Meg Cranston Alex Slade

Kate Harding

OFFICE MANAGER PHOTO EDITORS

Banty Castellanos, Ji Sun Kim, Tonya Rodriguez

Michelle Chong

FUNDRAISING

Esmeralda Gonzales, Jenna Hanson, Nikkolos Mohammed DESIGN

Kelly Dawn Noel Hopkins, Julie Kwon, Tyler Morney

T ypefaces Caviar Dreams DIN

S enior S tudio SENIOR EXHIBITION COORDINATORS

Nick Kersulis Alex Slade

EXHIBITION DESIGN COMMITTEE COORDINATOR

Nick Kersulis

SENIOR STUDIO MENTORS

Carole Caroompas Scott Grieger Soo Kim Holly Tempo Chris Wilder

SENIOR STUDIO VISITING MENTORS

Sarah Lehrer-Graiwer Kori Newkirk Kim Schoen

OTIS College of Art and Design 9045 Lincoln Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90045

T A BL E O F

C ONT E NTS

catalogue essay : "O n the of I nfinite P otential "

P recipice

F rancis B. A lmend Ă rez

D evin R ylan A ndersen

H allie B reene

N ikkolos M ohammed

M abel L. M oore

L ily R amirez

W endy S ilva

D iana M aria F elix

K elly W all

M iles L awton G racey

L acey S toffer

S amantha G reenfeld

P aul U lukpo

N ick H iggins

D aniel V erret

K elly D awn N oel H opkins

R icardo I barra

A ngela M arise J ohnson

K yle D. J ordan

N omi K adetz

A shton B rooke L arson A ida L ugo J ulia M arasa C hanning L. M artinez

70 72

M ona S heybani

J essica L. D illon

J os Ă&#x2030; G uadalupe S anchez III

C arol D equech

D avid A lexander R oy

Q uan D ang

T onya O rozco R odriquez

B lair B annan D alby

R honda P urdom

A lexander C ollins

L uciana P inchiero

A ndy C hau

S ung S oo (I ven ) P ark

N ina C astro

A lyssa L auren P aine 8

B anty C. C astellanos

C arlos O choa

R obert C layton B urney

44 46 48 50

J oshua V illalobos

74 76 78 80 82 84 86

On the Precipice of Infinite Potential As many of us know, the suburban population in North America exploded during the post-war era of the 1950s, and consumption became synonymous with being an American citizen. In other words, to be an active member of society meant that it was your individual responsibility to purchase things; which gave rise to the suburban super market and shopping malls. The title of our show, We’re making people’s days as much as we are ruining them! (an antislogan that flirts with idea of success and failure), was conceived during a conversation about two works that are included in it, works that mimic a bookstore and a kiosk. These are two forms that, many of us thought, are reminiscent of mainstream mall-life, and, oddly enough, today’s museums, and art fairs. In many ways, The Bretton Woods System, established in the mid 1940s, created the economic conditions that allowed the specific brand of consumption that I am referencing to exist. Bretton Woods is an area within the town of Carol, New Hampshire, United States. Located in the middle of the White Mountain National Forrest, it includes no significant structures other than the Mount Washington Cog Railway and the Mount Washington Hotel. Towards the end of WWII, delegates from 44 nations gathered at the Mount Washington Hotel, on the precipice of infinite potential, and set up a system of rules to regulate the international monetary system. They also established the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank of Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), which today is part of the World Bank Group. The former was designed to monitor exchange rates and lend reserve currencies to nations with trade deficits; the latter, to provide underdeveloped nations with needed capital. In an effort to free international trade and fund postwar reconstruction, the member states agreed to fix their exchange rates by tying their currencies to the U.S. dollar. U.S. politicians assured the rest of the world that its currency was dependable by linking the U.S. dollar to gold. Nations also agreed to buy and sell U.S. dollars to keep their currencies within one percent of the fixed rate; The 15 years that followed are most commonly referred to as ‘the age of affluence’ (made possible by the supremacy of the U.S. dollar). This, in turn, led to the manipulation of currency. The system finally collapsed in 1973 after the link between the dollar and gold was severed. In 1971, the direct convertibility of the U.S. dollar to gold was ended. Since then, the U.S. dollar has been a fiat currency; in other words, any currency deemed legal by a government (state-issued money which is neither convertible by law to any other thing, nor fixed in value in terms of any objective standard). The abstraction of currency inevitably led us to where we are now, and while questions concerning currency manipulation were prevalent in the early 2000s, leading up to the housing crisis in 2008, they are not as definitive today as they were then. Progression, be it toward something positive or negative, is occurring at a blistering pace, and the distinction between what is a right or wrong question is as unclear as the immediate answers that lay at the edge of our present. Today, there is a great amount of uncertainty when considering the meaning of events. It is frightfully easy to misinterpret them, which leaves us open to the possibility of being misled. The 44 students featured in this show are immersed in world that is confused and faced with a multiplicity of possible anomalies, on the precipice of infinite potential.

D aniel V erret

` FRANCIS B. ALMENDAREZ

My work deals with the effects of power, its abuse and uneven distribution. It embodies the views and experiences of the disenfranchised and liminal Other. As I meander through life, my personal experiences fuel my artistic practice. Simultaneously the work gains agency to render visible, re-present and re-historicize Otherness: our histories, cultures and overall presence.

I use the mediums of video and photography to record from a perspective somewhere between the vantage point of both the insider and outsider. I utilize captured diegetic sound, as a composer uses sound and silence, to create a musical composition. I observe and I listen. I collect what I see, hear, feel and experience. Then, I transform it from the personal to the political and finally to the poetic.

DEVIN RYLAN ANDERSEN

My work often combines aspects of my life as a Los Angeles artist and my involvement in the local bicycle community. My associations with communal living projects and a minimal waste lifestyle also inform the methods and materials that are used to create the work. I want my art to engage a viewer on a personal level as well as an intellectual one. My work also involves elements of physical interaction between the viewer and the guidelines I have set in place. Whether the viewer is given the simple choice of taking a right or a left turn to navigate around an obstructive object to see the larger space; or if they are asked to exit their comfort zone and learn how to ride a circus-like tall bike, they are given the choice of participation. The goal is to create a fun and abnormal experience to make people think differently about how one should interact, move or engage with a space and ultimately the world around them. If youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not having fun in your life, then what the hell are you doing?

HALLIE BREENE

My work consists of ceramic objects and paintings that draw reference from nature and biology, utilizing cellular forms and carved textures. I am interested in the playful and nonsensical aspects of art making, and the relationship between art and humor. I identify as a feminist and that context influences how I approach making work. My series of ceramic works, “Pissflutes”,

deal with gendered attitudes toward urination by appropriating the playful male-bonding aspects of a pissing contest and giving that potential to those of us with a vulva. Functioning both as sculptures and utilitarian objects, “Pissflutes” seek to take the act of urination from private to public and from shameful to playful.

ROBERT CLAYTON BURNEY

To me, making art is similar to writing a suspense novel. Like Thomas Harris’s The Silence of The Lambs, or a Steven King novel, a good sculpture, painting or artifact keeps the viewer enthralled for reasons they cannot explain in the moment. There seems to be enough information to keep the audience captivated; however, enough is withheld so that one feels suspense. Through a process similar to meditation, viewers may be able to transcend representation into experience, physicality and sensation. Both the body and person are creators and are essential to the process of art making. I like the idea of people looking at my work and then thinking about themselves with or against the object they are seeing. I find that

this type of self-informative reaction is what excites me and is what makes me think art is so valuable. I am trying to transcend the viewer’s potential inclination to associate artworks such as my “Self Portrait” vessels with gender or sex, and think about the body as a whole. I want the viewer to see the value in our shared experience, which is life in a body. The work I create comes from a response to something (feeling, experience, daily life). It is through the act of making an object that I better understand what it is that I am responding to and feeling. This reaction then translates to the viewer in whatever way they feel the need to respond, creating an interaction between him/her and myself.

BANTY C. CASTELLANOS

A Journal Entry “I’ve been having uncanny memories but I’m not sure if they’re my own. I’d say flash backs but I can’t recall ever experiencing this scenario. It’s always been something like a sunny afternoon, well a windy one, kind of like fall. The brown and orange leaves are blowing in the wind. I can feel them crunching under my feet as I walk down the street. I take a deep breath and can smell autumn air all around me. It sounds like any fall day but the feeling I get with this memory makes my heart beat faster and is nearly indescribable. Growing up I would imagine how I would have liked my life to be. Not anything like having abundance of riches or anything like that, smaller things. Things like being able to take a walk in my neighborhood or having a back yard. I always knew I wouldn’t get it though, I knew where I stood in the social structure and that was okay with me at the time. But this displaced memory I’ve been experiencing, I’m not sure if it’s my memory or if it’s just something I made up in my head. I try and think back at a time where I could have experienced this moment but in the end my recollection of memories seem like hopeless fragments. Maybe it is all in my head, but I guess that’s what makes it reality.”

NINA CASTRO

Discarded photographic and filmic remnants of anonymous histories are a pivotal point of interest to me. The remains of what was once whole are in a state of revealing and withholding information. This intrigues me and as a result I investigate what narrative can be derived from these disembodied bits of information. I want to explore how I can take the found material and make it into something new.

ANDY CHAU

My work is a process-orientated response to the amorphous nature of my ideas. I let the ideas stay in this constantly changing state driven by an indeterminate rhizomic mindset that leads me to more interesting abruptions that awaken my creativity. A rhizome is identified Deleuze and Guattari as “ceaselessly established connections between semiotic chains, organizations of power, and circumstances relative to the arts, sciences, and social struggles.” The rhizome sees culture as a map or large array of interactions and influences with no specific origin or genesis. I create mixed media sculptures and paintings that are recontextualized as hegemonies. I combine found objects, images and materials from nature to explore our relationship to things and ideas. As the philosopher Merleau-Ponty wrote, “Man is invested in things and things are invested in him.”

ALEXANDER COLLINS

Everything is a little tilted in the Dog House I just really hope she sounds like a Tourist

BLAIR BANNAN DALBY

The principles of Feng Shui have been an unintentional impetus for my current project. Feeling suffocated by clutter and closed off from a clear and open mind (an integral part of my work), I stopped painting and sculpting and began using my brain more then my hands. People tend to work better when their brains are not flooded with thoughts--as I discovered when I started clearing my space and my head. The disarray in my space had become a major hindrance to my process, being both the result of and a source of great anxiety. One night I just started throwing stuff away, virtually purging my life of all but

necessity. My thoughts started to become much more simple and unadulterated. Feng Shui is the reorganization of energy to produce an environment that is unfettered by clutter. Good Feng Shui produces a blank canvass. This has informed my creative practice, which has always grappled with issues of labor-intensive production and the disquiet that can come with it. The driving force of my inspiration is my surroundings. I prefer working in my studio apartment because the space and everything in it is mine. I suppose every project starts with setting up the space where the work is made.

QUAN DANG

Through the use of abstract, geometric forms, my work investigates the relationship between figure and ground. The painted right trapezoids that float on a surface of flat color represent the idea of shallow space. This space is reinforced by how the paintings function on the wall, which itself becomes a ground of sorts. The forms challenge the viewersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; perceptions of physical versus depicted space. The surfaces emphasize the qualities of a painting that make it an object, rather than a window to look through. Utilizing cuts on the surface of the canvas like painterly marks, I reveal the

stretcher bars and gallery wall. The optical illusions generated by this process are then incorporated into my compositions. By cutting my canvases, I call attention to the simultaneity of creation and destruction. I compromise the original form while, at the same time creating something new. I aim to prompt a sense of ambivalence in the viewer, and disrupt their experience of twodimensional space.

CAROL DEQUECH

This work revolves around identity. The freestanding objects are reminiscent of room dividers, but also function as spaces for people to activate through their participation. The use of mirrors and cutout â&#x20AC;&#x153;windowsâ&#x20AC;? creates an optical illusion that initiates a relationship with the viewer by creating visual confusion. This is much like what can happen when one begins a relationship with another person and attempts to understand who they are dealing with. I have juxtaposed these objects with video footage of myself in various roles to reinforce the notion of the body as a structural object. In one sequence, I am featured in a sped up version of a YouTube workout video that

I was hired to do as model; and in another, you will find fragments of myself disguised in special effects makeup and wardrobe as an old lady. Although I have found a source of income and independence through modeling, as an artist I have recently developed strong internal conflicts with how the modeling profession portrays me. By appropriating this imagery into my art practice, I attempt to define my identity by what I love and not through age, gender, symmetry, or body-type. It is relevant to emphasize this about women today, since in social media we repetitively define ourselves and are perceived by others through the filter of digital images.

JESSICA L. DILLON

Los Angeles is the stage; blurred and coaxed through time and space. I have history here, five generations. I did not grow up in Los Angeles. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania in the forest, on a hill, looking out over rolling green protrusions and dull yellow patches of corn. A yearly migration from east to west brought me here, gradually, over time. I am dealing with an art history that is personal. Decisions that were made by a family, for a family. I live in Los Angeles. I am here, building my family, making my art. Los Angeles is a set, a muted field of black and yellow speckled light, activity and life is seen from the air, upon our descent, at night. I am imagining through the sea to its floor, to detect some motivation of its space.

DIANA MARIA FELIX

I’d like to state that these flowers are a product of a very strenuous artistic process. I’d like to state that the process involved reconciliation with my need to control everything. I’d like to state that the process also required that I work many different jobs. I’d like to state that the final form that these flowers took was a nice resting ground. I’d like you to know that I have always been a drama queen. I’d like to state that the Spanish telenovela was an influential part of my multicultural upbringing. There is no need to state that I have spent a great deal of my life looking for love, indulging in romances, and as frequently indulging in a broken heart. I will also needlessly state that my grandmother grew roses in her garden in East Los Angeles, and now I have a deep admiration of flowers. There really was no need to state anything I have stated here. I have simply done so because this is what I wanted you to know.

MILES LAWTON GRACEY

Proposal for Architectural Intervention Otis College of Art and Design Ahmanson Building Re-alignment Project Miles Lawton Gracey 2013 The Ahmanson building of Otis College of Art and Design is a large cube. This democratic allocation of exterior walls, however, conceals its segregated, hierarchical structure within. Once existing as IBMâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Aerospace Headquarters, the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s original design was to keep its bureaucratic extremities separate. The building then exists on principles of isolated workers answering to directors above, with little transparency and a pyramid-like infrastructure. I propose a re-aligning of the Ahmanson building. The building itself exists as a hegemonic remnant with vertical orientation. Upright integration always assumes an entity exists above and below, with upward mobility at an aim. I propose to flip the Ahmanson building on its side. What was once above is now neighboring. What was underneath is now next-door. The path information once traveled (upward) is now diffused outward. Where segregation once existed between floors, between majors, is now replaced by mobility and fluidity. Community can now transgress delineations and labels and the corporate structure gains transparency; aligning what was once a precarious amalgamation. Collaborations between majors could blossom and the new orientation of the building may foster interdisciplinary growth. This my also be a step towards ending discrimination planted by xenophobic architecture.

SAMANTHA GREENFELD

My work is an exploration of and engagement with objects, materials, and physical phenomenon related to mark making. I am interested in the way marks carry the trace of memory or the presence of an absence. Where does presence reside when it is no longer at hand? Does it dwell in our memories or somewhere within the physical artifacts that index the past? My recent works use diverse processes that record the interaction of my hands with different materials. The handprint, historically, culturally, and even forensically, is something that is intrinsically linked to us. It is a lasting cultural analogue for the self, whether specifically or generically. The use of my hand as a tool references the relationship I see between the imprint of the artist and the human trace. In the same way an artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s brushstroke on a canvas is the identifying tag of the maker, the handprint is the signature that marks the presence of the individual. I want my work to act as a metaphor for the human desire to hold memory and time in the tangible space of the here and now. The ability to contemplate the finite nature of mortality is what instills within us a need to leave behind some sign of the self in time. When we are gone, whether dead or just simply not present, the traces we leave behind speak for

us, communicating a record of time, history, memory, and experience.

NICK HIGGINS

My work is an exploration of the symbolic value of form. I create templates out of assembled and layered pieces of Plexi-glass that become the basis for series of work, exploring how origin and meaning are constructed. The objects highlight a lack of singularity within an objectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meaning. A constantly shifting frame of reference allows for forms to exist simultaneously as different manifestations such as wall works, prints, drawings, and architectural maquettes. These forms become sites where a given symbolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meaning may slip or overlap with that of another. Authenticity and validity present the contextual comparison inherent in meaning. I see the body of work contained not within the objects produced, but instead within the forms themselves. My work seeks to remove the concept of an ideal. There is a consistent attempt to undermine the fetishizing of surface, detail, and perfection. Instead, I allow a sense of mechanical objectivity to reveal some inherent truth within each object. I am a process artist, and performance is my research. I am interested in how recovery, implication, time and authority generate interpretation of meaning. I imbue abstraction and form with the capabilities to transcribe immense information within its inherent sparse-ness. Meaning is flexible.

KELLY DAWN NOEL HOPKINS

Through an interdisciplinary exploration of photography, graphic design, mixed media, and book design, I create interactive artwork and construct social spaces. I aim to induce the viewer to question his/her perception of the self, relationship to others, and cultural environments. I am fascinated by the idea that each of us holds a completely unique perspective on every aspect of life. I am interested in understanding and observing this. I strive to create a space for the audience to consciously experience its own expectations, judgments, and observations of the world around it; and, perhaps, to question its reactions. In “For Sale”, I have created a collaborative installation and “store” piece that is site to the senior show. I and two other artists have built a space in which the viewer is invited to purchase items made by artists in the exhibition. My generation is overwhelmed by consumer culture. We are constantly being bombarded by sales, advertisements, and new technology. We are pressed to mindlessly spend and obtain. Through For Sale, we address the question of where art falls in the midst of that cultural and social chaos. The intent is not to declare an opinion or state a fact, but to simply create an awareness and a space for the audience to consider and dialog about their relationship to this issue.

RICARDO IBARRA

ANGELA MARISE JOHNSON

In my photographic work, I use the languages of sculpture and painting to create a space where the ordinary becomes mysterious. I am interested in the constructed nature of the photographic image, and how framing and process can alter how an image is perceived. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Glaciersâ&#x20AC;? is a series of analog photographs that depict an ice form made from tap water melting over a period of time. These photographs refer to vast, remote landscapes as well as the intimacy of an imagined spaces.

KYLE D. JORDAN

To put it simply, I am interested in truth. I feel as though any time a person engages in a conversation or asks a question, they are only scratching the surface of a larger philosophical question: what is the truth? We examine the world around us as evidence of the force that created us. I make paintings, prints and sculptures that operate as social commentaries based on my observations. A lot of my subject matter resides in the realm of the ideological. This entails anything from belief systems and cultural practices to sociological tropes about the human condition and its many subdivisions. I am interested in ideology because it is abstract; and yet, so concrete. It does not exist in real time/space, but it makes up the whole existence of the social experience. It is for these reasons that I examine and question ideologies through my work. But the real goal is to create work that provokes thought and illuminates the correlations between the ideas I critique and the physicality of the objects I make.

NOMI KADETZ

I am interested in destabilizing the perception of space. I attempt to reconstruct experience in real space through site-specific installations and altered photographs. In the installations, I disrupt how one experiences architecture at the site, and perceives its function, by mimicking existing structural forms. By visually exaggerating what already exists, I hope to prompt the viewer to question the locale. Likewise in the photographs, mimetic gestures promote uncertainty. Through a process of destructive construction I scratch into each photograph at various stages of its production, simultaneously negating and affirming the image with marks. By doing so, I call the image into question and demonstrate the uneasy relationship between it and the viewer.

ASHTON BROOKE LARSON

My work deals with the movement of paint on a surface and relies on the viewer to give it context. The paintings are reflections of an experience between the artist and the work; and they refuse to give precise answers. The viewer sees only the aftermath of the moment that was created during the process. A closer

look at the paintings might reveal sexualized figures on abstract grounds covered with stains and splatters. Titles such as â&#x20AC;&#x153;Dick Troutâ&#x20AC;? hints at the sexual undertones of the pieces; and encourages the viewer to dialogue with paintings that playfully investigate the line between art and porn.

AIDA LUGO

In my practice, I enjoy using site-specific installations to contemplate our relationship to objects and how that informs our reality. My installations contain a variety of mediums and materials, including sculptures, paintings, assemblage altars, performance and video. The mostly unseen emotional and historical attachment we have with the physical world is magically depicted with reference to spirituality, origin, and mystery. I am interested in expressing an experience in which mass-produced, found objects are contrasted with handcrafted objects of reflection and subjective intention. I attempt to reconnect the present perception of the material world to the original sacred use of objects via ritual, sensory experience, applied skill and building of wisdom. By hand molding clay, painting and carving, I infuse the work with my presence. I hope that by experiencing the work, the audience is encouraged to contemplate time through performance and placement of marks and objects in space.

JULIA MARASA

This final group show of my classmates and I presents itself to me as the accumulative exercise of my undergraduate career. Both a dedication and a proposition to my peers, mentors and visitors of this show, this work is an illustration of the academic and social environment of guidance, influence, and challenge that has fostered my creative practice while in art school. When met with the final scholastic task of this show, I decided two things. I would make artwork about the past four years; and I would do something I havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t done in a while: make a collection of oil paintings. The paintings exist neither as a means to an end, nor as summary; but, instead within a sense of duty to my own curiosity that sits amongst what I see as an innumerable amount of people who also donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want most things to end. The persistence of hot colors amid wavering suspicious neutrals appear as swatches for choices in waiting. The paint sits atop the faces of these canvases as though to ask for permission, to jump out and demand, or simply to shrug and wink for the sake of fun. An allowance of naivety, humor, and exploration has let this work become a celebration of what it means to feel young, unsure, devious, and tender--all at once.

CHANNING L. MARTINEZ

Identifiers such as masculinity, femininity, nudity, boy, boi, clothing, culture, race are all constructs used to maintain a certain level of power over people. The body is a tool that has been overly used in history, particularly when it comes to that of the female body as represented in photography. Unlike much of that history, which is impregnated with misogyny, I am interested in the nature of the conditions that make these representations possible. For example, I explore the nature of the ideology of male versus female, masculine versus feminine, Caucasian versus Black versus African-American versus African, and gay versus straight. I am interested in the edges of those meanings. What comes first: one’s sexuality or one’s race? And why, is that question only relevant when speaking of a person who is not Caucasian and male? As a black man, as I am called, the nature of race has played a large role in my life. As a gay man, my sexuality has played an equally important part in my life. Many gay men are concerned with their body image; in the same way that many women are expected to care about their beauty. With my artistic practice I seek to ask the questions that dare not be asked. I aim to facilitate the building of confrontation where inconsistency and discrimination exists. In the I Am Every Man” self-portrait series, I use my body to question stereotypes about gender, race and sexual orientation.

NIKKOLOS MOHAMMED

Tension Contrast Conflict Harmony Anthropology describes cultures and the way they are cultivated, sustained and destroyed; or evolved. Balance Dispute Friction Battle Remix

MABEL MOORE

A high horse eating its way through hair A high horse eating its thorough hair A high horse having thorough hair A high horse having homey hair A high horse has hat hair A high horse has hot hair

A high horse

Hi ho ha has hot Hi ho ha ho ha Hi ho hi ho hah Ha ha ha ha ha

CARLOS OCHOA

I create paintings with the idea of labor in mind. I use everyday objects such as mops, toilet brushes, brooms, and bricks to make marks on canvas or paper. In making the paintings, I mimic the gestures of mopping, sweeping, scrubbing and dragging to create abstract compositions. By doing so, I pay homage to the genre of Action Painting but with a twist in that the “action” becomes a

sign for a political act that aligns making with working. The process by which the work is produced negates the assumed privilege associated with the creation or acquisition of abstract painting. My body guides the tools to “paint”. The resulting color choices and composition to guide the viewer into new realms of experience.

ALYSSA LAUREN PAINE

My work is a social commentary and exploration of the place of humans in nature. The fast-paced culture that we live in alters our perception of landscape and place. While constantly on the move, we forget to acknowledge the beauty around us. Instead of paying attention to the fine details, we only view the landscape as a vague whole. We need to remember to slow down and not just look, so as to really see what is around us. The process for this work is incredibly important. I take photographs of up-close moments in nature that strike my attention time and time again. These instances are unformulated, completely unique, and opposite of the concrete world we experience

daily. I focus in on the formal aspects that also inspire my work, such as color, texture, form, and biomorphic patterning. These things appear in nature, yet are so often destroyed, taken for granted, and overlooked. My mixed-media paintings are meant to be experiential: they affect the senses. The built up layers of different materials evoke touch, while scents are embedded in the surfaces as another awakening element. Each component of the work is carefully added to grab the viewerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s attention and initiate a sense of acknowledgement. My work is meant to signal the potential ecological disaster that will take place, if we continue to misuse our environment.

SUNG SOO (IVEN) PARK

I like looking at the ocean on Google satellite map and think about Yves Kleinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings. I like thinking about things that have no answers. I like talking about things that have no answers. I love two cats that I sent away a month ago. I like Vegemite with honey on the toast. I love people who love me back. I like drinking a glass of liquor. I love you, Kristi. I like Mono-ha. Iven Park Art

LUCIANA PINCHIERO

My transcultural experience and intrinsic outsider status as an Argentinian living in the United States, has led me to focus on the impossibility of language. I developed “The Language Project” by confronting my inability to adequately articulate ideas in both Spanish and English. This struggle drove me to explore other forms of communication, to attempt to make something out of nothing and understand the outcomes of failed conversations. Through this process, linguistically scrambled words, writings, performances, and hybrid assemblages acquired value and potency. “The Language Project” merges the fragmented concepts produced by the disconnection of languages and cultures. The gap between meanings in different languages transcends translatability and speaks to the dilemma of the dislocated mind. I question and challenge the essence of language and communication by looking for ways to give voice to what is trapped in between. “My Mother doesn’t Speak English” and “Frag Lang” are the central pieces of “The Language Project.” They reveal opposing ways to cope with language, one from a position of power and the other from one of weakness. “My Mother Doesn’t Speak English” is the documentation of a Skype conversation I had with my mother, who lives in Argentina and speaks only Spanish. I translated into English and read to her a letter she wrote to me when she divorced my father. She could not understand a word, but nonetheless responded in her own way. “Frag Lang” is its counterpart.

RHONDA PURDOM

In my work, I create a contemporary dialog between African tribal art and found objects. I search for discarded items, usually made of wood or metal; and, thus, reference the materials, geometric forms and symbolism used in traditional tribal sculpture. Back in the studio, I assemble the things I find into new forms and paint everything black to create a unified aesthetic. I also sculpt ceramic heads that investigate the relationship between the sensuous aspects of trance and spirituality through gestures and facial expressions. The materials used possess formal qualities of a graphic nature that suggest narratives and explore the unconscious. I use the re-imagined found objects combined with ceramics to create whimsical yet minimalist sculptural installations. With the current emphasis on sustainability, I find the ideal of discarded objects experiencing a new life through art to be very inspirational. My passion for both past and present histories and cultures propels my interest and curiosity as to how and why the two are inextricable. How our past informs our future is a recurring question that seems to be a collective wave of consciousness permeating contemporary society. As an artist, I am on a journey to find new ways to re-present and re-historicize our past presence as humans, especially in an era driven and overwhelmed by technology.

LILY RAMIREZ

I don’t think of the paintings as representing an altered state of mind per se, but maybe there is an element of that type of experience, or loss in the way that they depict the landscape. I am not consciously trying to make hallucinatory paintings although some of my experience of the landscape as a teenager was under the influence of various forms of narcotics! I think the way that the paintings come out is more a way of trying to depict an image that is not about a reality, but one that is somehow in between the actuality of a scene and something that is in your head. I often use heightened colors to create a scene of the experience or mood or feeling of being there, but it’s not a scientific process. We’ve all seen incredible sunsets We’ve all experienced the sensation of light dropping and producing strange natural effects. I think in a way I am using these natural phenomena and applying them through the materiality of paint and the activity of paint.

TONYA OROZCO RODRIGUEZ

My work deals with non-fictionalized narratives of locale and identity. I am driven by how much objects and locations can inform about a subject without the subject being present. In my recent work, I photographed the beds of people I know as a form of unconventional portraiture. I wanted to explore how recently vacated spaces can become a form of signifier for the person who was there. Similarly, I documented the exterior spaces of an abandoned hospital and its immediate vicinity. The images of street names and signage serve as powerful markers of neglect of the property and of the passage of time.

DAVID ALEXANDER ROY

My work is a dialog with history brought to the present and preserved in pictures. It is a celebration of obsolescence shown through derelict (and future-derelict) manmade objects, which are my favorite photographic subjects. In the objects I photograph, I see a myriad of histories; personal, esoteric, collective, and global.

I believe in the artist as experimenter, facilitator, organizer, teacher, leader, collaborator, instigator, entrepreneur, rebel, craftsperson, problem-solver, producer, and polymath.

` GUADALUPE SANCHEZ III JOSE

For this show, I have created two bodies of work on paper: a quartet of silk-screen posters and a series of six acrylic paintings. The posters are constructed of two forms of visual communication that are super-imposed to create a discourse. The foundational layer consists of a vintage family photograph that is then covered by text that references “Cholo” or gang style graffiti tagging. With the posters, I explore my personal relationship to Mexican immigration, Chicanismo, and gang culture in Los Angeles. By posting my reconstructed images on newsprint around the city, I attempt to communicate with local taggers, gang members, artists, or anyone interested. I aim to open a street-level conversation about our current socio-economic status, our romantic views of abstract histories, and how these concepts inform who we are today. Along a similar vein, I collapse two highly legible forms of cultural representation to compose the paintings. Each picture has specific characters rendered in acrylic on watercolor paper that reference Social Realism. The environment the figures exist in look like the background sets of American cartoons from the 1950’s such as Roadrunner and Speedy Gonzalez. In the paintings I conflate notions of representation and cultural identity and investigate

their relationship to one another. More often than not, I find that our perception of reality is heavily influenced by pre-idealized conceptions. Through these paintings I intend to start a dialog about the ability humans have to construct realities that can become so powerful that they surpass natural law.

MONA SHEYBANI

As a photographer, negatives are an important part of my work. I attempt to push the boundaries of photography by transfiguring the negative. The destruction of precious negatives and the content they contain create a sense of loss that is a necessary part of the process. The burnt negative itself is significant, both as an interesting artifact and as a compelling sacrifice. The image is simultaneously destroyed and created, thus allowing for a whole new experience with the medium. These negatives became sculptural objects. My photographs provide visible evidence of fire, which has many layers of meaning. The fire symbolizes the emotional light that manifests through love, compassion, honesty and justice. Because of this, I believe that a part of me is in the pictures. Fire generates destruction while simultaneously providing light. Alexander The Greatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s conquering army burnt the city of Persepolis; and fire has played a central role in many religions especially in Zoroastrians. I am also connected to this content as an Iranian. Through my photographs, I reveal the tragic status of the cultural history of my country of birth. In doing so, I also create something new.

WENDY SILVA

I am an LA artist, who has used my practice to explore various techniques and mediums to create works that deal with preservation, memory, experience, and identity. Growing up in a household with traditional values, I have struggled with the social pressures of fitting into a culture that is constantly changing and pushing the boundaries. My work is a journey through various genres that I explore through sculpture, photography, and painting. Although the work is based in the personal, it also offers others a way to discover that which makes them unique. I have currently been focusing on painting on wood panel. These paintings have various stages in their creation that typically embrace an earthy palette and have a gothic feel to them. My paintings are often worked from dark to light, and then reworked to have high contrasting tones. My use of mediums and techniques to make the paintings becomes a metaphor for the layers of years, experiences, and memories that come in life.

KELLY WALL

What shapes our perspective? How does this guide our lives and what we understand of the world? How can we shift this? • • • • Tunnel travel Tunnel travel Cross country guide of the states Follows the tunnels that connect the country Allows participant to follow along and identify tunnel shapes Collect 82 shaped tunnels available Combine shapes to create your own tunnel Use shapes to move from one tunnel entrance to another tunnel exit Tunnel travel

LACEY STOFFER

When I make my art, a painting always seems to be the end result. Even when I make sculptures they tend to end up resembling threedimensional paintings in space, or they are in direct reference to my paintings. Most of my paintings are on linen because I am strongly drawn to its neutral color and the texture of the weave. Working on linen is also a way of limiting myself to focus on the bare minimum of what I must put on the painting. I can add a shape and look at the contrast between it and the neutral background. Then I decide how to balance the composition by adding another shape and sewing through the canvas, or by drawing on it with graphite and ink. I often make reference to shapes and colors from photographs I have taken of landscapes, creating new abstract terrains. The paintings read as minimalistic from afar. I want the viewer to take a closer look at the subtle details and possibly wonder why it is the way it is while getting hints as to the process. The thread sometimes signifies an action like pulling or hanging that seems to apply to marks and shapes on the paintingsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; surfaces. I like finding a balance between space and gesture within paint.

PAUL ULUKPO

I have always found myself to be interested in the seductive nature of photos and reductive nature of the camera. Images can confuse or answer questions about events or a place. I think of the camera as the magic box that can reconstitute a place once traveled and reduce it to photographic form. The camera can flatten out a scape by removing depth and altering a perspective. My recent work utilizes different strategies that question the realm of documentary and allude to the pictorial or hyper-real experience from looking at a landscape. This process is accomplished in the “Unique Landscape” series by cropping the image so that the horizon line appears within the

format of a diamond shape rather than the normative rectangle. I merge the observed with the unexpected in “Certain Possibility,” where land and sky coalesce in a startling diptych. Throughout my practice, I am interested in the idea of the locale and the journey. As part of this exploration I have created large-scale images that contain black voids of missing imagery. Scenarios are created where a portion of the terrain is obstructed and becomes a source of disconnect for the viewers. I aim to investigate the process of looking and how mediation of the image enhances the breadth of that experience.

DANIEL VERRET

My work examines American economic history through the use of narrative.

JOSHUA VILLALOBOS

My work is an investigation of painting processes and how they relate to cultural perceptions of the same. As each process is explored, it comments indirectly on the boundaries of the medium; the physical act of painting; the relationship between edge and surface, or support and wall; the physical structure of painting; art terminology and dependence on jargon; and an art market that favors pictures. I am interested in the past and recent histories of painting, and its unequivocal status as high art. All these things are related to the central position of authority/power/privilege as defined by economic and social class, and its relationship to the margins.

A lmend Ă rez , F rancis B. almendarez.f@gmail.com

A ndersen , D evin R ylan

Thebarbershop.art@gmail.com Devinand333@gmail.com 480.240.8706

B reene , H allie

www.cargocollective.com/halliebreene

B urney , R obert C layton www.claytonburney.com clayton_burney@hotmail.com

C astellanos , B anty

Banty.castellanos@ymail.com

C astro , N ina

Ninacastro09@gmail.com

C hau , A ndy

www.andychaustuff.com andychaustuff@gmail.com 714.232.6565

C ollins , A lexander

Alexandercollins11@gmail.com 951.551.5094

D alby , B lair B annan bbdalby@gmail.com 310.741.7777

D ang , Q uan

www.quandang.net qdang26@yahoo.com

D equech , C arol

www.caroldequech.crevado.com carolseda@gmail.com

D illon , J essica L.

www.jessicadillon.net http://servingorangesoup.tumblr.com jessicalouisedillon@gmail.com 310.924.2834

F elix , D iana M aria

M arasa , J ulia

G racey , M iles L awton

M artinez , C hanning L.

dianamariafelix@yahoo.com 562.900.6538

milesgracey@me.com

G reenfeld , S amantha

jmmarasa@gmail.com 309.335.2399

www.Channingphotography.wix.com/channingmartinez Channing.photography@gmail.com

www.samanthagreenfeld.com Sgreenfeld1@gmail.com

M ohammed , N ikkolos

H iggins , N ick

M oore , M abel L.

www.Nickhiggins.squarespace.com Nicholas.higgins.e@gmail.com

H opkins , K elly D awn N oel

www.Cargocollective.com/kellydawnnoel Kelly@hopkinsconsulting.com

I barra , R icardo

rdogprime@hotmail.com 310.297.0620

J ohnson , A ngela M arise www.Stolons.blogspot.com angelamarisej@gmail.com 310.498.9982

J ordan , K yle D.

Kylejordan90@gmail.com 310.713.7082

K adetz , N omi

nomikadetz@gmail.com 310.384.5116

L arson , A shton B rooke www.Ashtonlarson.tumblr.com My2wings@gmail.com

L ugo , A ida

Lugo_aida_nicole@yahoo.com 909.538.1109

nikko@nikkomohammed.com

Mabe437@hotmail.com 310.606.9453

O choa , C arlos

www.carlosochoa.com ochoacar@yahoo.com 323.803.4235

R oy , D avid A lexander www.droyphoto.com kj6zfv@gmail.com 323.208.9711

S alinas , D aisy

Dsalinas11@gmail.com

S anchez III, J os Ă&#x2030; G uadalupe Jgsanchez3@gmail.com 310.904.2290

S heybani , M ona

www.monasheybani.com msh@monasheybani.com

S ilva , W endy

www.wendysilva.net wendysilva@me.com

P aine , A lyssa L auren

W all , K elly

P ark , S ung S oo (I ven )

S toffer , L acey

P inchiero L uciana

U lukpo , P aul

www.alyssapaine.com alyssa_paine@yahoo.com

ivenpark@gmail.com 213.509.8387

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P urdom , R honda Rhonig07@gmail.com 661.974.6760

R amirez , L ily

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R odriquez , T onya O rozco tonyarodriguez90@gmail.com

kellywall@gmail.com 310.993.9940

www.laceystoffer.com laceystoffer@gmail.com

seyiphotography@gmail.com 954.873.1638

V erret , D aniel

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V illalobos , J oshua joshvillalbos@yahoo.com 954.708.8488