Search Results

2022 < View Public Art Projects Dan Droz's The Greeting 2022 Permanent Art Project By Dan Droz The Greeting , a new permanent, public art sculpture by artist Dan Droz, is now installed at the corner of Lancaster BLVD and Ehrlich Avenue. In collaboration with the Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) and Droz, the museum commissioned the new public art sculpture to engage and elevate the public space around the museum. The sculpture will serve as a defining landmark for the community, where people can gather and create meaningful connections between the museum, public space, and community members. The sculpture depicts colorful, abstract figures gathering to meet at MOAH, but from a different angle reveals other images like people high-fiving one another. The color palette is also an essential part of the design for the sculpture, connecting the story of the desert landscape and the diversity of the Antelope Valley community. Droz believes that sculptures like The Greeting help people understand that art is not just about the aesthetic but can speak to a story that is relevant to peoples’ lives. Droz is a full-time sculptor that engages with themes surrounding relationships, family, and the community. Before becoming a sculptor, Droz had a 45-year career as a design and marketing consultant and was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to being shown at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History, Droz has been commissioned for work at the entrance to the Heritage Trail in downtown Pittsburgh, and Oxon-Hill Sculpture Park in Washington, DC, among others. Take home your own miniature The Greeting , available in The Vault Store. Purchase Now

Samantha Martinez < Back Rosemary By Samantha Martinez Name Rosemary, Rosemary they say originally from the Mediterranean which in Latin means dew of the sea. Date of entry unknown: I remember being sprouted from a tough, dry ground, only receiving water once in a while, allowing me to expand my roots slowly. Around me were my three older plants, and later on, the pitiful woman I call mother gave birth to seven more despite my pleas. I would plead to her to stop sprouting because we were poor, POOR something she could not grasp. I was forced to take root much faster than my family as I was in charge of nourishing my siblings and washing their aromatic leaves, feeling how they were connected by a delicate stem pricking myself each time. However, after 21 years, I had my own seed to worry about. I still remember coming home each day, being unnourished from traveling miles in a pot, somehow finding my way home each time only to find that there was no food in the garden knowing better than to ask my mother plant I would withhold the pain I felt in my stem. The only thing my son received daily when in my womb was water and the nutrients my soil provided me with. In two years’ time, my sunshine was pulled away from me; I was being ripped away from my sprout by a man who picked me up from my roots and confined me until we reached what was known as “ the land where dreams came true.” I had made it; I had escaped my poverty but at what cost. The cost of leaving my tiny sprout behind with the motherly plant I hated? With the plant, I had promised to shelter him from? NO, NO, I could not accept this reality, so I went back, back, back on my own terms. I remember hiding through the bushes that seemed familiar, the sunshine that became the fear of being caught, the abuse I had to withstand each day ripping my long, skinny, and once beautiful leaves from my stem, allowing me to feel each emotion and temperature brush my skin. Then when I had given up all hope, I started to smell an air that I had grown to find comforting; I had made it, I made it back to my land to see my bud. Forwarding a couple of months, the MAN returned, pleading for me to grab my once rejected bud and go back to America. My innocent and fragile self back then thought it was the best thing to do. So I go back except this time my flowerlet is feeling the way the dirt becomes an accessory on our delicate green leaves, how the ground goes from cold to hot from dry to wet—counting the days that would go by, by taking note of when the sun rose and when it set. In a week’s time, we made it; I had successively done the impossible Twice. Nevertheless, life was not all sunshine and daisies but more like pouring rain and thunder. I was getting physically and mentally abused by this MAN who swore he was going to change. Plumule, my plumule, was asking for a sister because he felt lonely and unwanted, but I had learned from my momma plants flaws. I had learned not to bring an innocent seed into a world full of neglect. Then my Plumule told me something that shattered my heart; he missed his “mom,” he missed the motherly plant I had grown to hate. So we returned, we went back to the tunnels of darkness, the place where chills ran up and down your peduncle no matter the weather. The mountains that stunk of fear and desperation reminding me of my once comforting smell of bitterness with a slight sweetness. An aroma that would start to burn if you stood and smelt it for too long. Again my bud and I found ourselves in our Tierra, Linda, y Querida (land), and this time; I promised myself that I would start a life in the land I wanted to escape from so severely. But it is said that once you see shadows, they will never leave your side, and in 6 months, the man returned, and I was back by his side in the promised land. Again how could I be so naive to believe his trancing words? He would leave for months on end, leaving me alone in a tiny room in a city I did not know with no nourishment and no one to talk to. It got so bad that I felt as though I was shriveling and drying up in the corner I called home. One thing, however, did stay true about my promise to myself, and that was never neglecting my flowerlet as my mother plant did to me, which is why for ten years, I would attempt the impossible just to see my plumule for a few weeks until his wish came true and my daughter sprout was born. She was born, and the bud who wished for her so badly could not enjoy the blessing God gave me. He gave me this blessing to have someone to talk to in my solidarity and a guardian angel to guide me through my torment life. Always remember my kids the Name is rosemary, rosemary they say originally from the Mediterranean, which in Latin means dew of the sea. A journal that is written using the stories my vigorous mother told at “storytime.” By the daughter that became familiar with neglect through a different path. Previous Next

Hispanic Heritage < Return to Exhibitions September 13 - November 9, 2014 Guillermo Bert: Encoded Text Main Gallery Juan Delgado & Thomas McGovern: Vital Signs South Gallery Linda Vallejo: Make 'Em All Mexican East Gallery Johnny Nicoloro: Virgin Mary Education Gallery Luis Fileto: Pasajeros Vault Gallery Pageantry: Roping, Riding, Escaramuza Andrea Kaus, Leslie Mazoch, Omar Mireles, Libby Wendt & Robin Rosenthal Wells Fargo Gallery 2-_Cover-CatalogLowRes Vital Signs Book cover 047 Edited BobsBigBoy-Muchachote photo 1_edited Boyle Heights Guillermo Bert: Encoded Text Guillermo Bert's Encoded Textiles creates hand-woven, large-scale tapestries that combine electronic scanning codes with Indigenous design methods and the first-person voices of Native peoples. The series was inspired by the artist's observation that QR (“quick response”) codes, which electronically read data, closely resemble graphic designs in the textile arts of Native peoples. Using software that translates words into barcode patterns, the personal stories of indigenous participants become woven into the tapestries, forming new designs and relationships. By combining high-tech software and industrial processes with Indigenous design and loom techniques, and then translating spoken narratives into tapestries themselves, the artist highlights the interaction of the “ancient” and “modern” in our intertwined globalized world. Through the weavings, laser cut cubes, podcasts and film clips that comprise the exhibition, the artist offers his commentary on the issues of identity and cultural loss in our global society. Guillermo Bert and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History would like to thank Michael and Francis Weber and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation for their support in making this exhibition possible. The narrative thread that forms the baseline for the project began through Bert's own personal journey as a Chilean artist among the Mapuche people of his home country. There, he interviewed weavers and other community members, bringing to light the relationship of symbolic culture, environmental concerns, and the impact of economic interventions on the Indigenous land base. By enlisting the input of Indigenous weavers to re-insert the codes into traditional design motifs, the artist collapses the duality of Indigenous/Contemporary and enables a new and more timely conversation to take place. The conversion of a poem or piece of spoken history into a high-tech bar code - and then its re-conversion back to a traditional weaving - represents the creation of an innovative cultural artifact that celebrates and revives traditional art forms. The Incubator cubes that form the sculptural element of the series derive from the same principles of recognition and reconciliation. Drawing from similarities in ancient symbols and contemporary matrix bar codes, the laser-cut cubes and their associated designs explore the link between the cryptic and the quotidian. Entering through the portal of the bar codes and QR codes, the viewer is transported into the world of oral traditions, poems, and first-person narratives from the Mapuche community of Southern Chile, Zapotec weavers from Oaxaca, Mexico, and Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico. In effect, the artist Guillermo Bert serves as a visionary and curator to a much larger project – one that connects international communities through the forms best known to their own traditions, while centering our current modes of technological communication and commercialization into a growing awareness of the need to use them for greater purposes of inter-connectedness. Thomas McGovern and Juan Delgado: Vital Signs Vital Signs is a collaborative photography/poetry project about the Inland Empire region of Southern California, starting with the City of San Bernardino. The combination of images and words suggest the expansive nature of art-making where seemingly unrelated things, memories, impressions and relationships coalesce through the shared sensibility of the artists and viewers. The project began in 2006, when Thomas McGovern started photographing hand-painted signs and murals throughout the Inland Empire. His photographs are emblematic of the rich cultural heritage of the community and region and represent the recent past, when hand painted signs were an inexpensive way to advertise a business and decorate a building. As digital technology brings printing costs down and makes vinyl signs affordable, these unique icons are becoming obsolete. Unfortunately, as neighborhoods develop and prosper these signs— and the vitality and shared cultural heritage they represent—are painted over or destroyed, homogenizing what was once unique. Like Thomas McGovern, Juan Delgado has lived a major part of his life in San Bernardino, writing about the region for decades. His poetry for Vital Signs evolved through extensive discussions while the collaborators were driving, walking and celebrating their city. In Delgado's poetry, narrators focus on the unappreciated, exploring the relationship between identity and place. One poem celebrates vecinas (neighborhood women) who fight to regain their streets. Another narrative points to the closing of a local grocery store and the burdens of change on families. Some lament the tragic lives of people deeply rooted to this place, and others tell of journeys of migrants whose stories are uplifting because they embody the best of the human spirit. The fusion of cultures and the shared sensibilities of the artists are apparent in both the book and exhibition, which are a tribute to the region and a celebration of cultural diversity, ingenuity, and entrepreneurship. McGovern is a photographer, writer, and art professor at California State University, San Bernardino. His photographs are in the permanent collection of The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Museum of the City of New York; and The Baltimore Museum of Art, among others. He received his BA from Empire State College, New York and his MFA from California State University, Fullerton. Delgado is an English professor and director of the MFA program in creative writing at California State University, San Bernardino. He has won the Embers Press Poetry Contest for A Change of Worlds and received the Contemporary Poetry Series Awards for his collection of poetry Green Web. He received his BA from California State University, San Bernardino and his MFA from the University of California, Irvine. The artists thank California State University, San Bernardino, for their support, and the Robert and Frances Museum of Art (RAFFMA) in San Bernardino for mounting the first incarnation of this exhibition. Linda Vallejo: Make ‘Em All Mexican Los Angeles-based artist Linda Vallejo consolidates multiple international influences gained from a life of study and travel throughout Europe, the United States and Mexico to create paintings, sculptures and installations that investigate contemporary cultural, political, spiritual and environmental issues. Critically acclaimed as breakthrough work, Vallejo’s Make ‘Em All Mexican re-contextualizes familiar iconography through a culturally personal lens by re-purposing objects ranging from postcards and posters to figurines and statues. Karen Mary Davalos, Professor and Chair of Chicana/Chicano Studies Department, Loyola Marymount University notes: “Vallejo has produced a provocative new series that re-appropriates Western and American icons. Using widely recognized images, such as Hollywood celebrities, Norman Rockwell paintings, Victorian figurines, classical European portraiture, and the school primer, Dick and Jane , Vallejo repaints the figures as Mexicans. From one perspective, Vallejo creates the fear of every anti-immigration activist and recolors the world with brown skin and black hair and eyes. Vallejo is conceptually performing two critical acts, first she defaces the work that she recolors, and second, she takes the image (and its history, power and meaning) and changes it for her own purpose.” Vallejo carefully selects her objects from antique stores, yard sales and estate sales then gives them new identities with auto body paints, acrylic, gold leaf, oil and Wite-Out. By transforming figurines of pop icons such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe into chocolate-skinned El Vis and Mariela , Vallejo imbues her figures with the polarities between the iconic and kitsch and tongue-in-cheek humor while questioning the politics of color. These transformed characters bring questions of race and class to the forefront. Each item is potentially comical and unfamiliar all in one glance. For Vallejo these issues hit close to home; she states “even as a third generation American, I remain invisible in the cultural landscape. Thus, Make ‘Em All Mexican creates a space that is inclusive of the Latino community while at the same time exposing its absence and the cultural divides that exist in our country.” Highly accomplished, Vallejo has enjoyed numerous solo exhibitions of Make ’Em All Mexican at the Soto Clemente Velez Cultural Center in New York in 2014, the George Lawson Gallery and the University Art Gallery of New Mexico State University and at Arte Americas in collaboration with the Fresno Art Museum and the Robert and Frances Fullerton Museum of Art at California State University, San Bernardino. In 2014, Vallejo received the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs COLA Individual Artist Fellowship. She has exhibited at the National Museum of Mexican Art, the Los Angeles Craft and Folk Art Museum, the Museum of Modern Art New York, the San Antonio Museum and Mexico City Modern Art Museum. She was included in two exhibitions associated with the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA 1945–1980 initiative: Mapping Another LA: The Chicano Art Movement , at the UCLA Fowler Museum; and Doin’ It in Public: Art and Feminism at the Woman’s Building , at the Otis College of Art and Design Ben Maltz Gallery. Her work is in the permanent collections of the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago, the Carnegie Art Museum in Oxnard, California, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the California Multicultural and Ethnic Archives at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Chicano Studies Research Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. The George Lawson Gallery in San Francisco, California currently represents Vallejo. Johnny Nicoloro: Virgin Mary Johnny Nicoloro is an award-winning artist who creates colorful layers of visual imagery by utilizing his signature technique of double-exposed compositions created entirely in his camera. Recently, the artist turned his lens to the Virgin Mary, one of the most revered and iconic figures in the world. In Virgin Mary , the artist layered images of the Virgin Mary with signs, objects and the commercial artifacts of urbanity in collages depicting the hardships and challenges of our times. Of note are his often-whimsical titles that share his deeply personal devotion for the protection and grace the Virgin Mary is honored for in communities across the Southern California landscape and beyond. His Virgin Mary series, showcased in the intimate setting of the Education Gallery, offers a contemplative space where the viewer may take in his personal and creative manifestations of the Virgin in relationship to contemporary times—times we all can relate to. The work of Johnny Nicoloro has been featured at the Farmington Art Museum in Farmington, New Mexico; The Latino Art Museum in the Pomona Art Colony in Pomona, California; The Annex @ Core New Art Space in Denver, Colorado and the Los Angeles Center for Digital Arts in Los Angeles, California. His work is also part of the permanent collection at The Latino Museum of History, Art and Culture in Los Angeles, California. Nicoloro, a native of Los Angeles with a BA in Theatre from UCLA and self-taught camera artist, has also taught Creative Photography for Personal Growth at The Village in Hollywood and has been an art and photography instructor for CoachArt, a non-profit charity providing free lessons in the arts to kids with life-threatening illnesses. Luis Fileto: Pasajeros Palmdale-based artist Luis Fileto’s current body of work is driven by action, emotion, intuition and his search for meaning through painting, photography and mixed media. Drawing from the legacy of abstract expressionist painters, his material application ranges from using nail polish to finger painting and action painting. In his work, Fileto embraces his connection to spirituality and the importance of family, friends and the big picture of life. Fileto has shown extensively across Southern California including KGB Gallery in Los Angeles, SCA Project Gallery in Pomona and Garboushian Gallery in Beverly Hills. Pageantry: Roping, Riding, Escaramuza A grand spectacle, a dazzling display—of flying manes and flaring nostrils, palpable air and rivers of dust, sun and shadow, silk and sweat, well-worn leather and glinting silver—this is the visual allure of rodeo. In a split second the unique moment is captured, and even what the camera can’t see—the smell of damp hide, the outburst of a bull’s wet snort, the skill, the pride, the centuries of tradition, the years of practice—the photographer knows, and all are present in the photograph. Pageantry: Roping, Riding, Escaramuza , guest curated by filmmaker Robin Rosenthal, invites the viewer to experience these sensory details and the timeless beauty of our shared rodeo heritage as seen through the eyes of photographers Andrea Kaus, Leslie Mazoch, Omar Mireles and Libby Wendt. Andrea Kaus first picked up an SLR camera under the instruction of her physicist father. “Those early lessons are mostly forgotten, apart from his introductory sentence that light is made up of photons and waves and a foreboding feeling that it gets a lot more complicated after that.” While undertaking fieldwork for a doctoral degree in anthropology, Kaus used photos as a way to connect with ranching families in northern Mexico. They taught her that a photograph is not taken but is instead a random moment captured as one might catch a wild horse. The thrill of photography remains for her the thrill of the hunt for a universally recognizable tick mark in time. Shooting rodeo allows Kaus to combine her own experience with horses with observations of people, in search of unpredictable and unrepeatable moments. The photos included in this exhibition were taken at rodeos across Southern California. Texas-born photojournalist Leslie Mazoch began her career on the Mexican border with a stint at The Brownsville Herald, and continued southward as an Associated Press photographer covering political, financial and social issues in Venezuela. She became a photo editor in 2007, and is now based at the A.P. headquarters for Latin America and the Caribbean in Mexico City. Becoming a photo editor has allowed Mazoch the time to work on personal projects, chief among them her documentary photography series on the Escaramuza (“skirmish”)—the women’s sport in La Charrería. Rooted in the cattle culture of Colonial Mexico, Charrería blends the equestrian skills, handcrafted tack, elegant costumes, music, and food of that rich heritage into a living folk tradition. Between the men’s riding and roping contests, the escaramuzas charras perform their perilous, precision horse ballets, bending and twisting their galloping reining horses around each other in intricate synchronized patterns. Mazoch’s Escaramuza photographs have been honored with awards from the National Press Photography Association, and will soon be published in book form. Ten images from the series are here at MOAH. Omar Mireles’s body of work documents the Charrería tradition and culture he grew up with and sees daily. In his birthplace of Jerez, Zacatecas, Mexico, Mireles’s grandfather schooled him in all things charro—horses, ranch life, coleaderos, charreadas. When his grandfather passed, Mireles devoted himself to photographing this lifestyle in his honor. From his current home in Oxnard, CA he began by shadowing the local escaramuza team Charras Unidas De Villa, and is now a well-known presence at charreadas throughout Southern California, capturing the characteristic combination of skill and artistry of all the participants —charras and charros alike. Mireles returns to Jerez every spring for his hometown’s Sábado de Gloria (Holy Saturday) celebration, a fiesta comparable to Mardi Gras. On the Saturday before Easter, charros gather from all over Mexico to break the Lenten fast. The main event of the day is a cabalgata (procession) of mounted charros numbering in the thousands. The photographs shown here are from a series taken at Sábado de Gloria Jerez in 2014. A tag-along to her best friend’s beginning photography class at Chaffey College in Alta Loma, CA started Libby Wendt down a 35-year path as a photographer—shooting everything from pro football to college and high school sports; newspaper features to breaking news; music concerts and CD covers to animal portraits. When her daughter began running for rodeo queen titles, Wendt put her sports photography background to good use, and started looking for those special moments in the rodeo events. Several of these photographs were taken at last year’s California Finals Rodeo at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, including two portraits of 2013 PRCA Specialty Act of the Year and Charro Ambassador Tomas Garcilazo and his matinee-idol stallion “Hollywood.” Guest Curator Robin Rosenthal is an independent filmmaker based in Littlerock, California. An avid horsewoman and rodeo fan, her most recent documentary, with Bill Yahraus, Escaramuza: Riding from the Heart , delved into the equestrian culture of La Charrería, deepening her appreciation for the connections between Mexican and American rodeo traditions. Rosenthal’s documentary practice draws from her background as an artist, educator, and motion picture industry professional. Rosenthal received her bachelors degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and went on to Queens College, City University of New York, for her Master of Fine Arts. She taught studio art at San Antonio College and the San Antonio Art Institute, and exhibited her video art throughout the Southwest, before moving toward documentary work. She edited Chamoru Dreams for Pacific Islanders in Communications' Pacific Diaries series, and the award-winning Mary Jane Colter: House Made of Dawn , both broadcast nationally on PBS. With filmmaking partner Bill Yahraus, she made the feature documentary A Circus Season: Travels with Tarzan (PBS) and the Eclipse-winning series On the Muscle: Portrait of a Thoroughbred Racing Stable . Robin also oversees a small niche market distribution arm for their company Pony Highway Productions. Bert Delgado Fileto Pageantry Nicoloro Vallejo View or Download the Hispanic Heritage Exhibition Catalog by clicking on the cover image or here.

< Back Mother Comes to Venus North Gallery Zackary Drucker Zackary Drucker is a Los Angeles-based independent artist, cultural producer, activist, and filmmaker. Drucker utilizes photography, performance, and video to break downs pre-conceived notions of gender, sexuality, and identity. Drucker’s work explores potentialities for queer and trans futures, utilizing both narrative and non-linear storytelling to imagine new modalities of queer and trans representation. Drucker uses her experiences as a trans woman and those of her collaborators to showcase nuanced and varied accounts of trans existence. Drucker’s photography often accompanies her film practice, functioning as a figurative nexus of her performance and video work. Her photographic practice includes highly personal portraits that explore themes of voyeurism, intimacy, and personal history. Drucker often collaborates with trans matriarchs to explore models of queer motherhood. Her film Mother Comes to Venus, 2018, portrays a fictionalized post-gender Hollywood, envisioning a world where queer and trans people control their own narratives. Powerhouse agent, Venus Allen, grapples with her newfound power and responsibility towards representation and is visited by her spiritual “mother” for guidance. Drucker’s film Unison, 2013-2017, explores multi-generational queer identity. The film’s cast includes the late Mother Flawless Sabrina, a drag queen and queer activist, as well as Drucker’s real-life mother, and Van Barnes, a trans woman and frequent collaborator with Drucker. Dreamlike non-linear sequences of these figures evoke a visual depiction of trans and queer identity over the course of a lifetime. Previous Next

< Back Bearing Witness Bozigian Gallery Sharon Kagan Previous Next

Listen Now MOAH Muse is your gateway to the world of creativity, hosted by museum curators, art enthusiasts and cultural connoisseurs. Dive into captivating discussions, interviews, and explorations of art, culture, and creativity. Immerse yourself in the vivid tapestry of human expression and let MOAH Muse inspire your creativity and enrich your cultural knowledge. Listen Now

< Back Holding On Bozigian Gallery and Lobby Atrium Nike Schroeder Nike Schroeder is a Los Angeles based, German born contemporary artist whose work explores process and materiality. Her unique approach to working with textiles, acrylic paint, and ceramic blurs the lines between craft, painting, and sculpture. Integrating mixed media such as porcelain, thread, and fabric, Schroeder utilizes rich symbolism to weave narratives about gender and identity. Shroeder’s most recent body of work explores womanhood, using references to the female body to examine themes of motherhood, sensuality, and power. She employs imagery of disembodied female breasts to speak to the objectification of women’s bodies while simultaneously highlighting their ability to nurture and provide. Her use of materials that are traditionally associated with femininity playfully questions the imposed binaries of high art and craft providing additional layers of meaning to her work. Previous Next

< Back Cinta Vidal Featured Structure Artist Multidisciplinary artist Cinta Vidal illustrates new perceptions of city landscapes by detaching and reimaging the architectural formations that function as the backdrops of life. For Vidal, depicting macro and micro levels of inverted apartment buildings and city structures illustrate the various ways the world is experienced by a mass population. Having grown up with an affinity for drawing, Vidal became an apprentice at Taller de’Escenografia Castells Planas, one of the most prestigious scenography ateliers in Spain and across Europe. There, she learned the trades of scenography, painting large-scale scenes and settings for theatre and opera backdrops. Utilizing this experience, Vidal uses acrylic paint on canvas to create what she describes as her “un-gravity constructions.” She paints each artwork with close attention to detail, fully realizing each structure and the unfolding scenes within. Vidal’s combination of saturation, detail, and balance work together to allow the viewer’s gaze to absorb these various and often intersecting viewpoints. Cinta Vidal’s architecturally-inspired paintings encapsulate the concrete formations that enclose the day-to-day turbulence experienced at the personal and community level. Too often people are focused on individuality instead of commonality, leaving little room to observe the surrounding hustle and bustle of city-life. Vidal challenges viewers to look beyond the self and broaden their perceptions of the physical and divided structures humans frequently occupy. By depicting individuality within an arrangement of occupied spaces, she captures the conflict between the multifaceted nature in which society experiences the world, internal perceptions of reality, and the inflexible architecture people inhabit. Vidal’s unrelenting yet inverted constructions symbolize the “mental structures” of the individual. Thus, Vidal’s unconventional portrayal of metropolitan architecture elevates these self-revolving structures, reminding viewers that they are not alone and to pay closer attention to the many pathways of life existing amidst the masses. Cinta Vidal went to art school at Escola Massana, Barcelona, Spain. She currently lives and works in a studio located above her family’s toy store in Cardedeu, a small town near Barcelona, Spain. Vidal has collaborated on large format backdrops for European and international operas and theater companies. Today, Vidal continues to paint large-scale backdrops in her art practice, while experimenting on new art projects ranging from public murals to made-to-color illustration. Vidal has exhibited paintings in Barcelona, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Melbourne and currently has murals installed in Long Beach, Hong Kong, Barcelona, Honolulu, and San Francisco. Previous Next

Kendall Segale < Back Ripped from the Ground By Kendall Segale Ripped from the ground Taken from my home Unable to fight back Transplanted to unknown territory No one here is like me Not even myself, unfamiliar Budded then flowered Seasons change, time passes I branch out to feel beyond But over time, I wilt Creatures hide beneath me Protecting them, I am mother Roots run deep Wind comes in hopes of lifting them Unsuccessful but never gives up Pushing past my breaking point I don’t give up Now I can fight back Breath, I tell myself Nearing the end weak and accomplished I see my wind planted sprouts The sun so hot on my branches I let the light in I am carried on Previous Next

Up Woven Stories Various Artists Featured Solo Exhibitions Ray Beldner, Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor, Victoria Potrovitza, Katherine Stocking-Lopez, Nicola Vruwink Installations Rebecca Campbell, Peter Hiers, R.Rex Parris High School, Meriel Stern, Victor Wilde Group Fiber Exhibition Orly Cogan, Mike Collins, Valerie Daval, Terri Friedman, Gina Herrera, Anne Hieronymus, Uma Rani Iyli, Sandra Lauterbach, Karen Lofgren, Suchitra Mattai, Art Moura, Maria E. Piñeres, Vojislav Radovanovic, Joy Ray, Leisa Rich, Samuelle Richardson, Cindy Rinne, Nike Schroeder, Annie Seaton Lisa Solomon, Sandra Vista, Dana Weiser, Diane Williams Ray Beldner Ray Beldner uses found imagery from magazines, books, posters, and catalogs to create his dense, textural collages. He then mounts the collages to museum board and cuts eat piece into a unique shape. Like many of Beldner’s past projects, these Untitled Shaped Collages explore the idea of value: each small clipping is stripped of its historical significance and is appreciated for its more formal qualities such as texture, color, pattern, and shape. The works are “woven” together to create a new, visually active image. Ray Beldner is an interdisciplinary artist whose work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and can be found in many public and private collections. Born in San Francisco, Beldner received a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from Mills College. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, and has taught sculpture, interdisciplinary studies, and professional practices at the San Francisco Art Institute, California College of the Arts, San Francisco State University, and the University of California in Santa Cruz. Elisabeth Higgins O'Connor In Blamethirst and Hate Stayed the Ending , Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor uses familiar animal-like forms to call attention to the struggles of the human experience, and the intersection between nature and culture. These creatures reach their physical and mental limits as they struggle to stand upright – bits of their armor-like coverings begin to unravel, their bodies distort, and their apparent fatigue lends an all-too-familiar sense of vulnerability. O’Connor gathered her materials for these sculptures from second-hand shops and thrift stores, reworking each element through cutting, sewing, ripping, wrapping, roping, tying, and stiffening, to create a surface that feels simultaneously distressed and beautiful. The salvaged materials (boxes, couches, bedding, blankets, pillows, Afghans) used by O’Connor rest on a skeleton of broken down furniture. The weight of these materials are quite heavy, and require “crutches” for support. Elisabeth Higgins O’Connor received her BFA from California State University, Long Beach, and her MFA from the University of California, Davis. She has shown extensively in group and solo exhibitions in California, as well as throughout the US and Canada. Her work has been featured in several publications including Juxtapoz Magazine, ArtForum, Artillery Magazine, and more. Elisabeth has taught studio art classes at the University of Washington, Seattle, Cal State University, Long Beach, and currently teaches as UC Davis. Victoria Potrovitza No Exit and Landscape by Dusk by Victoria Potrovitza were created by embroidering vibrant-colored thread into canvas and applying gouache or acrylic paint. Her background in architecture influences her abstract compositions, and she often references universal tribal symbols, drawing upon personal and shared history. Potrovitza is a contemporary abstract fiber artist with her MS degree in Architecture from UAUIM, Romania. A significant part of her career was dedicated to creating wearable art with a focus on hand-painted silk, and her collections have been featured at New York Fashion Week. During the last decade, Potrovitza shifted her focus from fashion to embroidery. Her artwork is featured online at Saatchi Art, and has been exhibited in the United States, Israel, and Romania. She lives and works in Lancaster, California. Katherine Stocking-Lopez Using natural forms, Katherine Stocking-Lopez investigates her personal experience of womanhood and motherhood, as well as the limits of gender and the human body. Inspired by the inevitability of change, Katherine stitches soft fibers, beads, and found objects together reflect on her struggles with anxiety, infertility, pregnancy loss, postpartum depression, and the imperfections of life. “Growth is inherently beautiful; seeds sprout, flowers bloom, love grows. But when things keep growing, or grow where they shouldn’t, growth can constrict and choke. Depression grows in the dark. Anxieties sprout from deep in the mind. Sickness clusters and bursts like spores. A garden can have both a tangle of thorns and a bloom of flowers. The duality of nature as creator and destroyer is present in my work.” Katherine Stocking-Lopez is a mixed media artist with a specialty in combining traditional drawing and sculpture work. She combines the family tradition of needlework with the complexity of emotions that family itself inspires. Katherine won Best of Exhibition at MOAH’s CEDARFEST juried art show in 2017, and first place in the 3-D/Mixed Media category at CEDARFEST 2016. Nicola Vruwink In Please and Your Everything, Nicola Vruwink crochets magnetically coated plastic film from cassette tapes, rather than the usual yarn. Employing obsolete materials such as cassette tapes is just one way that Vruwink draws attention to the loneliness of modern urban life, the fast pace of technological advancements, and the detritus that humans leave behind. The act of crocheting these typographical works provides the artist with a sense of symmetry and meditative order in the midst of our chaotic world. Originally from Iowa, Vruwink has lived and worked in Los Angeles for the past fifteen years. She received her MFA from the University of Washington, Seattle. Her work has been featured in solo and group exhibitions across the West Coast. She has also been featured in several publications such as the Los Angeles Times, ArtForum, and the Huffington Post. Vruwink is currently an assistant professor at ArtCenter College of Design, and is adjunct faculty at Santa Monica College and El Camino College. May 11 - July 21, 2019 Back to list

Gabriela Valiente < Back Reborn, Here By Gabriela Valiente Light miniature leaves sprout out of the ground, as one is fallen in the sea of dust and another is swept in dismay, the wind blowing and hushing planting the seed, in a land far away In the darkness of the tainted sky with flashes of white of distant stars that shine at night, may I not be reborn and rejoice in my own delight? In the light of a new day, of a new sun, of the new morning air, like the dew on my leaves which tranquilize me with a light glare. Will I not rejoice in my own fight? I grow and grow in this desert of land, find the skittles and sudden stops of rustling animals in the dry grass, and there I stand, tall and mighty as a trunk that surpasses the storm, so rare and so bold. When the dry season comes, the air becomes an acid that burns down my walls, leaving me weak and wilted. My interior rejoices as the warmth of the water particles surge within me, in the echoes of my stem. Should I not rejoice for the season that brings me mellowie air? All around me, the vast land, glistens like the sunlight on ripened grain, or like the moonlight night reflecting its glow over the horizon of the waters, or like the crystal gleams on snow. I too, glow, with an olive-drab colour, like the multiple feathers of greenie highlights of the birds picking at the dust, The dust picks back with the dry taste of dirt, in cases Picking at small ants coming out of their small homes. The more I live through the seasons, the more I appreciate this nature, Will I not rejoice in the death of my life? Will I not be again reborn into tiny sprouts each time more and more? Thankful I am to nature, Thankfully I live in this far away land. Previous Next

Om Baboolall < Back Taking It All In By Om Baboolall From the day I can first sprout, I knew it was gonna be an interesting one. I can still see the remains of my ancestors all around me. Well, the ones they forgot to pick up. These new guys were always the lazy type. When the little one used the pool as a beach, her little plastic shovel remains to be found in her secret spot behind the slide. She used to barely step over the rock to get to her secret place, but now it's just like any other rock, nothing special. The boy was always big enough to step over the rocks, but now he's climbing to the top like it was never an issue. Sometimes I see him in the backyard late at night huffing and puffing when the rest of the house is asleep. I was there when the little girl snuck in some boy, laid down, and watched the stars till the sun came up. I hope she realizes he's texting "zoe" and not just scrolling Instagram. He sprinted out of there when he realized someone was awake in the house. I was in anguish when the little girl almost got caught; she doesn't deserve it. I hardly ever see the people who paid for the house. I overheard their conversations and that they're too busy to go in the pool or go in the backyard, or go on the swing and sit around the fire, or reminisce about the old apartment while sipping their drinks. I know these people won't be here for long. You always get that feeling about the owners when they first move in. Are they here for a long time or just because the brochure looked nice? These guys are just like the rest of them. I can't complain. I get watered every now and then. I mean, I'm next to the peppy rose bushes. I get whatever they don't drink. I wonder what the subsequent owners are going to be like. Are they gonna spend their nights hard at work or get drunk and throw up over by daffodils? Even better, maybe these new owners will fight back if the next-door neighbors try to bully them. The last time that happened, the cops were called. I hope that we can have an owner who cares about the house more than the rest of these mediocre families one day. Word gets out quick around here. Someone heard the front yard talking about getting a new pond. That's one thing nice these guys have decided to do. Who knows, maybe they can fix up the one back here too. Perhaps by then, my time will come. Maybe by then, I can have an owner that waters me first instead of just getting runoff. Until that time comes, I'll just be waiting here with nothing to do but take it all in. Previous Next