Take Your Sweet-art to the LA Art Show Opening February 14th

Posted on by Diversions LA

With exhibiting gallery spaces from New York to New Mexico, the U.K. to Peru, the LA Art Show roars into the Los Angeles Convention Center from February 14 to 18. Along with the enormous mix of galleries – over 120 of them –  offering a far reaching collection of mediums and artists, there are a variety of other offerings to engage attendees.

Among the standouts this year are 7 participating non-commerical art institutions exhibiting in DIVERSEartLA.  Exciting solo projects  explore the intersection of memory, humanity, and AI. These include:

The Museum of Art and History in Lancaster with the lustrous multi-media work of Osceola Refetoff, “Repairing the Future,”  focusing on global sea level rise. The work includes a large-scale immersive projection of the artist’s 8-minute film Sea of Change shot by Refetoff in Svalbard, Norway, near the North Pole. His visuals are paired with those of NASA satellites and AI-generated animation of possible future climate outcomes. The original soundtrack is written and performed by award-winning composer Paul Cantelon. The exhibition will be accompanied by a performance from Hibiscus TV artists Kaye Freeman and Amy Kaps on February 17.

The Nevada Museum of Art presents “The Journey” by contemporary artist Guillermo Bert, curated by Vivian Zavataro. The installation features a series of 20 highly-detailed, life-sized wood sculptures of actual immigrants employed as frontline workers. Bert’s multimedia work explores how ancient traditions and modern technology merge to create narratives of
identity, human memory, immigration, culture, and humanity.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Bogotá offers “Mythstories” by multimedia artist Carlos Castro Arias and curated by Gustavo Adolfo Ortiz Serrano. Appropriating the style and iconography of medieval tapestry, Castro uses anachronisms and the re-
contextualization of found objects to create connections across times and cultures. His work experiments with myth, history, and AI, and explores individual and collective identity.

MUSA Museum of Art University of Guadalajara, Grodman Legacy and Guadalajara Foundation (Mexico) presents “Fake Memory of a True Past” curated by Moises Schiaffino. This project seeks to create a reflection on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to generate a historical archive. This video installation tells the same story from two different visions: the human and the artificial, making a visual comparison of the memory that the human being has preserved with the one that, through algorithms, the AI ​​has generated.

AAL Museum (Santiago, Chile) is exhibiting the visual narrative, “Be Water” from contemporary artist, Antuan. The immersive installation explores the significance of this vital element with Antuan’s creation of the Human Net, a human geometric structure,
symbolizing the symmetry of the universe. The characters within represent humanity’s urgent need to address the global water crisis, highlighting the essential collaboration between humanity and AI to create a new network of human consciousness.

Raubtier Unicus Productions (Los Angeles) presents “Bridging Emotional and Digital Landscapes,” exploring the intersection of human emotion and advanced technology to create a digital mural of individual and collective experiences. The audience engages with a touchscreen to input words or phrases that resonate with their memories. Through the utilization of AI-driven word-to-image conversion, tangible printing, and large-scale projections, the evolving correlation between personal memories and their emotional and physical manifestations is revealed.

Red Line Contemporary Art Center (Denver, Colorado) presents Laleh Mehran’s “Entropic Systems,” an immersive installation that considers the politicization of ideologies. In this work, a drawing machine inscribes a sort of memory into the mineral bed, much like a rudimentary hard drive. Each day the past is erased, but at the same time, the grains will never sit the same again, containing remains of history much in the way that AI is trained with billions of words and yet “remembers” none of them.

Celebrating Black History Month, the Tanya Weddemire Gallery will exhibit four pioneering black artists, exploring a range of themes, including identity, culture and resilience.  LP Gallery from South Korea will feature renowned artist Dain Yoon known for painting on her skin to create surreal self-portraits that trick the eye with 3D shading.

LA’s own Fabrik Projects Gallery  welcomes The Soul of Your City exhibition, the culmination of a global photography competition aimed at capturing the hidden spirit and true identity of cities through the lenses of local photographers.

The Young Masters Art Prize, presented by Cynthia Corbett Gallery, London, represents an international initiative committed to supporting emerging talents from diverse backgrounds, with strong representation of female-identifying artists in 75% of the works.

In a new collaboration, the LA Art Show, Expanded Learning (EXL) and Athletes for Life (AFL) Foundation—founded by former NFL running back Greg Bell– launch the Southern California Art ‘n the Schools Art Contest, inviting SoCal students to submit their artwork. The result should be fresh and exciting.

Finally, opening night attendees take note: “We’re grateful to Lucy Hale for joining us as the official host of the 2024 LA Art Show Opening Night Premiere Party,”  Kassandra Voyagis, LA Art Show Producer and Director has announced. “Ms. Hale’s support
and influence will encourage and inspire a new generation of art collectors and shine light on the important work of the American Heart Association, which funds research that improves health outcomes for heart disease and stroke patients as well as supports lifesaving CPR education.”

Hale herself adds “It’s an honor to host the 2024 LA Art Show Opening Night Premiere Party and bring further awareness
to a beautiful evening that unites the importance of art, culture and philanthropy. On a personal note, I couldn’t be more excited to celebrate Valentine’s Day with the American Heart Association whose mission touches people all across the world.”
Lucy was introduced to the LA Art Show by its inaugural charity beneficiary, the American Heart Association, which is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.

And, speaking of heARTfelt love – this publication will publish opening night photos of LA Art Show later this week.

For tickets to the event, visit here.

  • Genie Davis; photos provided by LA Art Show

 

Exploring the Spiritual Realm at Wonzimer

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Curated by Khang B. Nguyen, the just-closed exhibition at Wonzimer Gallery invited viewers to enter a new world of the mystical, spiritual and metaphysical with the exhibition.

A wide range of work from the sculptural to painted images shape an exhibit that looks both ethereal and mysterious. The sculptural work above from Sandeep Mukherjee (pictured with gallerist Alaia Parhezi) serves as an entry portal into a new space and time. Using a retired dancer as his subject, Mukherjee molded his glowingly otherworldly, fossil-like images from light aluminum.

Curator Khang B. Nguyen offers meditative paintings that are layered and complex as in his dimensionally fascinating work below. His sharp use of dimension is at play throughout the curation as well.

Other exhibiting artists include Russell Crotty, Tomory Dodge, Sharon Ellis, Nancy Evans, Lia Halloran, Charles Long, Linn Meyers, Patti Oleon, Lisa Wedgeworth, and Marcus Zuniga.

Summoning the spirit of 13th century Zen master Eihei Dogen, the art is a transformative experience, one that questions and embodies notions of time, space, and spirit, adding in compelling ideas about time and self, consciousness and a realm beyond it. This is a thoughtful and compelling exhibition thematically, with unique and often trippy art works that defy category.

Lia Halloran’s oil on wood spirals evokes an expanding universe…

Marcus Zuniga’s “Chuparosa” is multi-dimentional wall art that fractures and multiplies vision using reflective glass, acrylic, and aluminum.

Charles Long’s surreal and wonderful aluminum sculpture “Endinglessness,” dazzles with shapes rooted in fantasy and dusted with holographic glitter.

Linn Meyers’ large-scale acrylic on linen provides a blissful port of entry to a rift between rock and sky on the gallery’s back wall; while Russell Crotty’s suspended fiber glass sphere “Milky Way Over Hull Mountain,” below, shapes a hypnotic journey into the sky, one that is well-paired with Patti Oleon’s “Blue Circle Lobby.”

Melting with moonlight, Nancy Evans “untitled” acrylic on canvas, below, is a study in motion caught in stillness.

 

Each artist’s work gives out a meaningful vibration of art and spirit, in which the viewer’s “time being” can, at least for a moment, pause and refresh. If you missed entering this beautiful exhibition in person, the exhibition is available for viewing online in 3D on the Wonzimer website.

  • Genie Davis; photos by Genie Davis

Alice Esposito Focuses on Connection

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As photographic artist Alice Esposito’s work evolves, she is focusing on evocative portraiture and scene. Noting that connection has always been an important element of her photography, she says that she rarely photographs her subjects without having a conversation with them first.

“I want to understand the person I’m about to photograph, their mannerisms, their posture, their passion, their happiness and their sadness,” she says.

As has been the case for many of us, the pandemic changed many of the ways in which she connected to people. “Being immune compromised, I had to isolate myself for almost two years, and my photography paid the price for this lack of connection.  Once I was able to pick up my camera again, I noticed that my photographic process changed with me… I decided to dig dipper into my fears and the sense of solitude, nostalgia and belonging, and the result were darker images.”

Esposito also decided to simplify her photographic techinque, now utilizing only a single light and less equipment, creating work that was more about ambience and mood.

“When you understand the soul, the essence of a person, it becomes easy to capture their attitude and presence with the camera, and the absence of light instead of the abundance gave me the perfect set up to do so,” she relates.

The artist is currently working on two different projects, one a research documentary concerning religious rituals and the other focusing on reflections.

Travel and experiencing a variety of cultures are both intrinsic parts of her research documentary projects. “I am only going to bring my Rolleiflex film camera with me. I intend to minimize my equipment as much as possible and try to remain anonymous. This camera gives me the perfect tool do to so.”

She eschews a current photographic approach that utilizes big cameras, lenses, and flashes, as well as social media hype.

“Shooting with the Rolleiflex forces me to look down as if I’m bowing or praying and therefore paying my respect to the people in front of me,” she says, something that should work well for her in regard to her religious subject. “People will always be the center of my work, but I’m trying to remain in the shadows and let the photograph speak for itself.”

Her second project, Reflections, will be realized in part through creating a small, dark, and private portrait studio. “The idea is always for me to disappear and let the subject feel relaxed enough to engage with atmosphere and create their comfort zone, instead of me trying to to do it as in the past. I give the person in front of me full freedom of expression, no forced pose, just the freedom to act.”

Esposito is simplifying her work overall, with one camera, one light, and one set up. Her goal is to let her subjects dictate and play in the studio or whatever location she and they choose. “They will be the actors and I’ll be the audience following their process, observing and experience their journey, and how they connect to the environment surrounding them.” She says she is looking forward to seeing how this new approach will change her photography and her world view.

She attests that she wants her photography to be “polite and respectful, not abraisive or forceful.  I want to be a silent observer, and let the world show me the beauty of it instead of forcing my view on others.”

While acknowledging her presence will always be a part of the images she creates she wants to “feel surprised and be there to catch the moment.”  Her artistic expression is focused on meeting and working with others who have experienced a journey similar to her own and reaching beyond her own comfort zones to use different media in new locations. She attests that she is not “trying to force myself to have ideas or create specific projects. I’m letting my emotion and my passions dictate the next step.”

Esposito herself, above

This is a new approach for Esposito. According to the artist, “Usually I need to be able to control every aspect of my work. I’m always extremely organized in every aspect of my work in every detail. Now,  I’m trying to let it go and be more spontaneous and let others and the world surprise me.”

  • Genie Davis; images provided by the artist

Artist Edwin Vasquez Creates a Vibrant Passion Project About the Endangered Joshua Tree

Posted on by Diversions LA

A powerful installation by Edwin Vasquez now at Angels Gate Cultural Center marks the fulfilment of a grant received by the artist. As a part of the Seven Visions X Seven Artists exhibition, Vasquez offer a compelling work created through the MRH Fund for Artists program, which supports artists to expand their creative reach.

The work at Angels Gate is part of the artist’s multidisciplinary series expressing the rich significance of the Joshua Tree, otherwise known as the Yucca brevifolia. Vasquez’s realization of the massive undertaking he calls The Joshua Tree Chronicles grew from an initial written account to one that includes a widerange of visual art including multimedia.

His work combines photography, mixed media, recycled material, digital art, images generated through AI, video, and poetry. His purpose is to reveal the tree itself in an accessible way that also allows viewers to experience it with fresh eyes and become more aware of the variety of problems facing the tree in the Antelope Valley.

Calling the Joshua Tree “an iconic symbol of endurance,” Vasquez informs his work for this project with the tree’s unique profile, revealing its strength despite the harsh desert environment in which it grows. Having successfully survived in that environment now its resilience is challenged due to climate change, loss of habitat due to increased human encroachment, and wildfires, all of which threaten its survival and reflect the larger ecological crisis facing us today.

Connecting the Joshua Tree with human experience is one of Vasquez signature themes in this project, revealing both its graceful beauty and extreme vulnerability in his diverse works. While some images emphasize the interconnectedness between the tree and humans, others present potential futures and new perspectives, or unfold a motion-centered narrative that lead viewers through a journey that is both empathetic and a contemplative, designed to raise awareness for necessary conservation. Vasquez has grown more aware of this need himself after a Plant a Tree event organized by Transition Habitat Conservancy at Portal Ridge Wildlife Preserve, at which he and his family planted some 40 baby Joshua Trees.

His work represents what is truly a passion project for Vasquez. He relates that “Last year, the laws protecting the Joshua Tree made headlines, and one of our local politicians claimed that we have a housing problem. He voted against the protection of the tree in our community, the Antelope Valley. Unfortunately, some of the best real estate is filled with trees, and in order to build these natural landscapes get destroyed, along with the ecosystem that serves as the tree’s home…Determined to make a difference, I decided to initiate [what I describe as] the #JoshuaTreeChronicles on my own.”

Vasquez explains that he’s documented the Joshua Tree through photography “for quite some time,” but his current project offered “a new opportunity to craft a comprehensive body of work” encompassing many different artistic practices. “In a sense, this marks a new direction in my artistic practice,” he says.

The installation at Angels Gate Cultural Center is one riveting aspect of it. Inspired by a visit to a private property in Lancaster, Calif., which he documented with video and photographic art, the instalaltion creates an entire landscape for the tree itself and the fraught environment it now faces.

Vasquez uses a rich and vibrant palette, which he describes as “inspired by Guatemalan textiles which are colorful and profound. I also find those colors in the desert while hiking, while observing the sunrise or the sunset. The colors represent the distinctive light changes in our area from the softest pinks to the fire reds.”

The installation includes three main components: “Joshua Tree 1,” mixed media on canvas, “Joshua Tree 2,” also mixed media on canvas, and “Joshua Tree” (above), a mixed media installation that includes canvas, found objects, and sand.

At the base of “Joshua Tree,” the largest image of the three in the exhibition, there is a carved totem, an orange safety cone, abandoned water containers, and a rainbow painted tire – the detritus left by man in the desert,.

A sculptural work to the right of this central installation image features abandoned digital components, in a robotic interpretation of what could be a future Joshua Tree.

The sides of the sculpture’s base, featuring painted desert images, can be illuminated in a magical incandescence by the use of a portable black light. A video of Joshua Trees plays on a small wall monitor behind it.

On the opposite side of “Joshua Tree”, the other mixed media on canvas works are hung bracketing another sculptural work, this a series of arrows buried point down in a foam block painted with graffiti and also holding a can of fluorescent spray paint. At the bottom of the block there is a radiant blue and gold image of a Joshua Tree rising from the glow of city lights. The colors and its illumination resemble an icon image of a Catholic saint. At the base of the foam block, another traffic cone, a foam recreation of a Starbucks cup, crumpled papers, and another abandoned water container lie.

Each of the canvas and mixed media wall art pieces contains distinct elements, with “Joshua Tree” featuring a found-object yellow lizard, with a grid-like pattern of orange, blue, gold, and greens as the tree’s limbs, and mandala like shapes representing its leaves. On the ground around the tree are glowing rocks and flowers. “Joshua Tree 1 and 2” each visualize the branches and trunk of the tree as a solid green, with a grid-like pattern forming the sky and a ground-scape in greens, yellows and reds speckled with white and orange flowers in the first image. In the second, representational leaves grow from the tree’s arms, a golden-pebbled road leads out to the dark desert hills in the background. Spikey greenery and white and orange flowers cluster on the sand. In the near distance, desert houses float on the skyline and a multicolored moon hangs above them. The details of each unique work are both reverent and edged with the abstract and surreal, not unlike the mysterious, alien, and beautiful nature of the trees themselves and the chaos of human response to their preservation.

The masterful and passionately elegiac installation also includes a QR code for a moving short video, “Expect the Unexpected,” which can be viewed here, on the artist’s YouTube channel, edwinvasquez100.

Vasquez says that he wants viewers to see his project “in a positive light. Perhaps the best analogy I could use is that much like immigrants who may lack a voice, these plants in the Antelope Valley also face a similar predicament. Someone must at the very least bring attention to the issues they are confronting within the community. As an artist, I believe it is my responsibility to create art that highlights the significance of this unique tree in our community.”

Art in Residence nominated Vasquez for the installation’s commission, with Georgia Freedman-Harvey, the founder and director of MRH Fund for Artists, selecting the project as a part of the impressive collection of works in 7 Visions X 7 Artists. It’s a radiant start to exhibiting Vasquez’  Joshua Tree works. At UCLA Chicano Studies, the artist recently installed 20 other art pieces which are a part of the same mammoth project.

Here’s to Vasquez and the Joshua Tree continuing to grow and blossom. The Angels Gate exhibition closes with an artist talk and reception on February 24th from 2 to 4 p.m.

  • Genie Davis; photos: Genie Davis, and as provided by the artist