This Friday, February 9th, Just in time for Valentine’s Day, The Main and The City of Santa Clarita are presenting, Heartopia, an exhibition featuring selected works from artist Jennifer Korsen. Heart themed art, cocktails, and an interactive installation – a fitting celebration of five years of community outreach showcasing past collaborations from Korsen’s What’s in Your Heart Project.
The event will feature installations, new mixed media work and pieces from the artist’s private collection which will be sold in an online auction hosted by Bid27. There will also be T-shirts and posters for sale featuring the event’s signature pattern, above. The evening’s proceeds will go towards What’s in Your Heart Project, a platform created by Korsen to connect community with charitable organizations inspiring creative expression through art, which began as an exercise with a leadership group of high school girls in South LA.
Korsen says “Heartopia is really different than anything I’ve ever done! It features my largest installation to date, as well as a few other fun interactive installations and surprises. I created an immersive world of hearts, and am highlighting some of my favorite pieces from my collection to raise funds for my community projects. We will have live screen printing from Family Industries and I’m hoping for a really unique and special evening.”
The event is a fundraiser, and Korsen is auctioning off some of her personal collection to help raise them. “For every $500 in art sales, I will be donating a workshop to a local school or institution that can be chosen by the buyer, if they like. It’s a new way of doing this, but I’m excited to get my work in some new homes and further that by bringing my art to the community as well. It’s kind of like a buy one, give one kind of thing,” she says. “They get original art at a great price and the workshop gets donated to people who would benefit from it. And I get some room in my studio to create more art.”
The heart shape is the common thread that connects all of Korsen’s work. “I have everything from sculpture to installation to paintings, mixed media pieces and more. I love exploring new mediums and pushing myself to stay creative and find new ways to incorporate my heart. I do a solo show every February, so keeping it fresh is a really fun challenge.”
She began creating hearts 9 years ago. “I was doing a lot of anatomical collages, and after doing one heart out of some fancy paper it kind of just stuck. I got obsessed and kept doing more and more. I haven’t run out of inspiration yet and I’m hoping I never do!”
The event takes place February 9th, 7 – 11 pm at The Main, 24266 Main Street in Newhall.
Genie Davis, Photos: Fanny Chu