Renee Odoi < Back The Fern Plant By Renee Odoi I sat there day in and day out Looking and observing quietly The wind, my dear friend Oh, how you moved me The sun, my first love Oh, how you warmed me I sat there each day I sat there, and you all still came The blackness is near And yet I shall not fear I sat there day in and day out. Waiting for my time Oh, those shadowy creatures Once my true enemy Why must you wait Why must to stay I sat there each day Yet you still came Ripping out the vibrant one Cowardly waiting for my end Yet I do not fear I sat there day in and day out My memories stay flashing back The life I have lived The life I once lived My time has come The fire approaches Yet I do not fear Three Two One Done My life is now done Previous Next

Camilla TaylorThe KnotCamilla Taylor’s monochromatic sculptures often cite figurative and architectural forms through references of the human body and home. Her work features a subtle and limited palette of blacks, greys, and graphite. For Taylor, certain colors feel too “loud,” opting for a color palette that feels more intimate and introspective. < Back Camilla Taylor, The Eye of God, Detail Camilla Taylor, The Eye of God, Detail Camilla Taylor, The Eye of God, Detail Camilla Taylor, The Eye of God, Detail 1/4 Camilla Taylor The Knot Camilla Taylor’s monochromatic sculptures often cite figurative and architectural forms through references of the human body and home. Her work features a subtle and limited palette of blacks, greys, and graphite. For Taylor, certain colors feel too “loud,” opting for a color palette that feels more intimate and introspective. Through darkness, Taylor builds imaginative worlds, beings, works on paper, and sculpture that visually pull from human emotions like isolation, loss, and fragility. Taylor’s work often shares a consistent thread focusing on the interior experience of the individual. Her haunting creations play between the space of the perceived self and the physical body calling into the question the idea of identity. Previous Next

back to list Super A Stefan Thelen’s anti-superhero identity Super A is a Dutch artist who uses traditional painting technique and a knack for design to create compositions that manipulate familiar iconography into mind-bending and inquisitive pieces. His alter-ego, Super A is the filter with which the life and observations of Stefan Thelen are distilled down and turn into inspiration. All of his work evolves out of personal experiences or thoughts that grow into concepts which tightrope between fiction and nonfiction. Super A is a mystery that leans on the art doing most of the talking for Stefan Thelen, taking the viewer into a wonderland walking down a yellow brick road in which Thelen’s figurative and modern surrealist compositions are providing playful puzzles to decipher.

Upcoming Events & Engagement PST ART COMMUNITY HUB About Desert Forest Three organizations—LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, LA Commons, and the Lancaster Museum of Art and History—have joined Getty as Community Hubs for Art & Science Collide . Helping to bring the initiative to people where they live, the Hubs engage nearby grassroots organizations, public agencies, STEAM educators, and young creatives to develop and present their own programs on the Art & Science Collide themes. Offerings will range from art workshops to habitat restoration projects. RSVP links will be updated regularly. Please click here for our Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees Community Hub Eventbrite Collection. Header image credit: Jennifer Gunlock, Joshua Tree Series VII (Detail), 2023, Digital collage, 10 x 6 1/2 inches. Courtesy of the artist. September October A DAY IN THE DESERT November December SEPTEMBER 2024 Up SEPT 21 7 PM-9 PM VIDEO SCREENING FEATURING VIDEO WORKS BY CASEY KIERNAN, DIANE BEST, AND MONROE ISENBERG MOAH:CEDAR Hall A screening of Casey Kiernan’s “I Thought They Were Protected” a powerful video that documents the impact of climate change, development, and fires on Joshua trees. Also, featuring Diane Best’s “Tree Moves,” and Monroe Isenberg’s “Harbinger” performance video. RSVP SEPT 22 9 AM-11 AM WALK-AND-TALK: FIRE RECOVERY & RESTORATION POST 2020 BOBCAT FIRE Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area Walk-and-talk (with canyon hike option) at Devil’s Punchbowl Natural Area with County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation superintendents and naturalists Jonathan Numer and Olivia Miseroy, sharing stories about fire recovery and the major restoration effort Jonathan is part of at the Punchbowl. Please note: This event is subject to postponement due to local fire activity or changing environmental conditions. Updates will be provided if postponement becomes necessary. RSVP OCTOBER 2024 Up OCT 03 3 PM-7 PM MOJAVE DESERT TRADING CARDS WORKSHOP Museum of Art and History This engagement invites participants to create their own Mojave Desert-inspired trading card. The workshops are part of Lancaster MOAH's Monthly Young Artist Workshops and will be led by organization partner Art in Residence and supported by MOAH staff. RSVP OCT 12 2 PM-4 PM REGIONAL FLORA AND FAUNA ART WORKSHOP Prime Desert Woodland Preserve This workshop explores the relationship between residents of the Antelope Valley and its flora and fauna. The art workshops are centered around increasing knowledge, exposure, and awareness of wildlife that exists in-between and around existing areas of development/urban sprawl through artistic representations of data and STEAM-based education. RSVP OCT 20 12 PM-4 PM MOJAVE DESERT TRADING CARDS WORKSHOP Prime Desert Woodland Preserve This engagement invites participants to create their own Mojave Desert-inspired trading card. The workshops are part of MOAH Lancaster’s Monthly Young Artist Workshops and will led by organization partner Art in Residence and supported by MOAH staff. RSVP OCT 06 11 AM-1 PM HEY JTREE FALLING IN LOVE, ONE TREE AT A TIME Prime Desert Woodland Preserve Hey JTree (https://www.heyjtree.com ) is an ongoing participatory art research project and mock on-line dating site for meeting Joshua trees. RSVP OCT 13 2 PM-4 PM REGIONAL FLORA AND FAUNA ART WORKSHOP Prime Desert Woodland Preserve This workshop explores the relationship between residents of the Antelope Valley and its flora and fauna. The art workshops are centered around increasing knowledge, exposure, and awareness of wildlife that exists in-between and around existing areas of development/urban sprawl through artistic representations of data and STEAM-based education. RSVP OCT 06 4 PM-6 PM DESERT FOREST: PANEL DISCUSSION & BOOK SIGNING WITH SANT KHALSA, KELLY HERBINSON, JANE ROGERS, AND GEARY HUND Mojave Desert Land Trust Art, science, and conservation come together as we celebrate the release of Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees, a comprehensive collection of essays and artworks on the Mojave Desert’s most iconic plant. RSVP OCT 13 10 AM-12 PM WALK-AND-TALK: FIRE RECOVERY & RESTORATION POST 2020 FIRE George Bones Wildlife Sanctuary Walk-and-talk at George Bones Wildlife Sanctuary (99-acre reserve at West Avenue G and 205th Street West) with County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation superintendents and naturalists Jonathan Numer and Olivia Miseroy. Large stands of Joshua trees were burned by a fire that occurred one month before the Bobcat Fire and still remain upright. RSVP A DAY IN THE DESERT October 26, 2024 EVENTBRITE COLLECTION Up OCT 26 11 AM-12 PM GUIDED JOSHUA TREE MEDIATION AND PERFORMANCE BY EDGAR FABIÁN FRÍAS Prime Desert Woodland Preserve Edgar Fabián Frías will present a performance and lead a guided group meditation focused on the healing energy of the unique and iconic Joshua tree. Frias’ works are transformative, profound, and playful, often inviting audience participation. Their art explores historical legacies, resistance, resilience, and radical imagination, framed within Indigenous Futurism, spirituality, play, pedagogy, animism, and queer aesthetics. RSVP OCT 26 3 PM-4 PM CURATOR-LED EXHIBITION WALKTHROUGH WITH SANT KHALSA Museum of Art and History Gain insight into the Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees exhibition led by curator Sant Khalsa. RSVP OCT 26 12 PM-2 PM PUBLIC CLIMATE FUTURE READINGS BY ADRIENE JENIK Museum of Art and History Artist and ASU professor Adriene Jenik has created a tarot deck for the environmentally minded. Adriene Jenik blends climate sceince and tarot readings. Stop by for a personal reading of your climate future. RSVP OCT 26 2 PM-3 PM CO-CREATING NEW FUTURES FOR JOSHUA TREES PANEL DISCUSSION Museum of Art and History Multidisciplinary panel discussion with Sant Khalsa, Dr. Juniper Harrower, Brendan Cummings, Fred Brashear Jr, Matthew Brandt, and Chelsea Mosher, focused on the intersections of art, science, natural and cultural history, and public policy. RSVP NOVEMBER 2024 Up NOV 09 2 PM-4 PM HEY JTREE FALLING IN LOVE, ONE TREE AT A TIME Museum of Art and History Hey JTree (https://www.heyjtree.com) is an ongoing participatory art research project and mock on-line dating site for meeting Joshua trees. RSVP NOV 09 1:30 PM-3 PM DESERT FOREST: PANEL DISCUSSION & BOOK SIGNING WITH SANT KHALSA, BRENDAN CUMMINGS, J.D., LYNN C. SWEET, PHD, AND SEAN MILANOVICH, PHD Twentynine Palms Book Festival, Old Schoolhouse Museum Discover how the multidisciplinary project Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees sheds light on Joshua tree preservation efforts and the intersection of art, science, Indigenous knowledge and public policy. More info at https://www.29pbf.com . This discussion is part of the Twentynine Palms Book Festival. To RSVP for the festival, click here . To RSVP for the panel discussion, click the button below. RSVP NOV 10 10 AM-12 PM WALK-AND-TALK: FIRE RECOVERY & RESTORATION POST 2020 BOBCAT FIRE Near the Juniper Hills Community Center Walk-and-talk in Juniper Hills burn scar with Bryant Baker, Director of Conservation & Research at Los Padres Forest Watch. A chaparral scrublands expert, Baker has done tremendous research on fire recovery in desert-to-mountain transition zones like Juniper Hills, an area where many Joshua trees were destroyed during the Bobcat Fire. RSVP DECEMBER 2024 Up DEC 05 6 PM-7 PM DESERT FOREST: SCIENTISTS SHARE JOSHUA TREE RESEARCH VIRTUAL PANEL DISCUSSION Online via Zoom Scientists Juniper Harrower, Jeremy B. Yoder, Christopher Irwin Smith, Lynn C. Sweet and Daniel Oren Hastings discuss their fascination with Joshua trees and the Mojave Desert, and share their current research on the impacts of climate change RSVP DEC 07 11 AM-1 PM HEY JTREE FALL IN LOVE, ONE TREE AT A TIME Museum of Art and History Hey JTree (https://www.heyjtree.com) is an ongoing participatory art research project and mock on-line dating site for meeting Joshua trees. RSVP DEC 07 5 PM-6:30 PM THERE'S NOTHING HERE EXCEPT EVERYTHING MULTIMEDIA PERFORMANCE BY ROB GRAD Museum of Art and History “There’s Nothing Here Except Everything,” addresses our relationship with the desert, with an emphasis on Joshua trees, not only as a complex and crucial environmental ecosystem, but as a spiritual center with influence that reaches much further than its physical presence. RSVP DEC 29 11 AM-1 PM DESERT FOREST: LIFE WITH JOSHUA TREES BOOK SIGNING WITH SANT KHALSA Museum of Art and History Join us for the closing day of Desert Forest: Life with Joshua Trees at the Lancaster Museum of Art and History. Sant Khalsa, the exhibition's curator and co-editor of the accompanying book, will be present for a special book signing. The event will take place on Sunday, December 29, 2024, from 11 AM to 1 PM. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with the curator and celebrate the exhibition’s impactful themes. RSVP Life with Joshua Trees Desert Forest: About Desert Forest

back to list Lily Brick Lily Brick is a creative artist interested in design, street, and graffiti art, with an admiration for graphic expression. Brick’s art career started by studying Advertising Graphic Design and working for multiple companies and organizations. Upon leading the design team of a printing company, she initiated a new artistic expression with spray paint, leading to a hobby and soon professional trade. The discovery of her first works in the public gardens of Lleida, Spain, led to her first commissioned murals and over 300 pieces worldwide of her artwork. Notable locations include multiple cities in Spain, like Barcelona, Pennelles, and Alcarràs, as well as Germany, Morocco, France, Sweden, and others. Being recognized as having made the largest mural created in Spain by a single woman, Brick surpassed herself with the creation of another larger mural. Brick utilizes her work to represent and express visibly empowered women with strong and intense gazes. Lily Brick was born in Lleida, Spain, and has produced significant artwork globally.

Up Threads of Entanglement Orly Cogan Hand embroidery typically conjures up images of docile women, silently working on their expected domestic duties through their needle work. This traditionally feminine medium was once seen as an indicator of marriage suitability, teaching ideas of modesty, virtue, and obedience. Artist Orly Cogan reclaims the medium, using vintage fabrics as a foundation for her hand stitched explorations of modern women. Cogan challenges the idea of embroidery being a symbol of female domesticity and injects themes of sensuality, feminism, and power to portray the evolving role of women in society. Cogan’s love for embroidery stems from her early years in grade school where she would learn to knit and crochet with natural fiber materials. This fondness for the material was also encouraged through her mother's collection of samplers — pieces of embroidered cloth meant to represent a larger whole — and quilts. Cogan describes her work as intuitive, figuring out the stitching as she goes, utilizing an embroidery hoop, appliqué, and paint to bring movement within the stitches. The result is a dreamy and ethereal quality that speaks to the feminist fairytales she creates in her pieces. May 13 - August 20 Back to list

Up Photography: Beyond the Surface Various Artists Solo exhibitions: Matthew Finley Rob Grad John Peralta Melanie Pullen Christopher Russell Joni Sternbach Rodrigo Valenzuela Site specific installation: Kira Vollman Selections from the Permanent Collection The Lancaster Museum of Art & History (MOAH) and the Lancaster Museum and Public Art Foundation (LMPAF) invite Antelope Valley residents and visitors to its newest exhibition Beyond the Surface , a survey of contemporary photography. The exhibit will be on display November 9 through January 12, and the opening reception will be November 9 from 4-6 p.m. Beyond the Surface features the work of eight photographers, including a survey of Melanie Pullen’s work in the Main Gallery, Joni Sternbach’s Surfland series in the East Gallery, This Too Shall Pass by Matthew Finley in the North Gallery, Rob Grad’s Finding Foreverland series in the Wells Fargo Gallery, work from Christopher Russel in the Moore Family Trust Gallery, photographic installation by Rodrigo Valenzuela in the South Gallery, along with sculpture by John Peralta, and 16mm , a site-specific installation, by Kira Vollman. Photography has long been associated with its ability to document reality. As a medium, photography has neatly satisfied the human need to search for objective truth. But truth is not objective. Like photography, the truth is crafted, manipulated, and enhanced. In the digital age, with the advent of augmented and virtual reality, the blurring of the line that separates real from unreal has reached an unprecedented level. Beyond the Surface examines these permeable boundaries. Its artists, who each utilize traditional photographic processes, challenge the viewer to look deeper and find a greater sense of truth that lies just beyond the images’ surface. MATTHEW FINLEY: THIS TOO SHALL PASS Matthew Finley creates conceptual portraits that connect with the viewer on an intimate and emotional level. By using the handcrafted photographic processes of tintype and ambrotype, Finley harkens back to the fixedness and inerasable quality of his own personal history. He explores instant film as a way to create portraits as original and authentic works of self-examination, capturing elusive, often fleeting moments of self-realization. In the series, This Too Shall Pass , Finley reflects on his personal journey of coming out as a gay man after being raised in a religious household where being gay was not accepted. Each Polaroid acts as a looking glass, through which the viewer experiences Finely’s “past selves.” His memories, though fuzzy and impressionistic, are a vulnerable look into his youth, realization of his sexuality, and the persistence of time. Shame, fear, and rejection slowly transform into love, desire, and belonging as Finley takes the viewer through his journey to self-acceptance. His goal is to share these memories, set free the ghosts that have haunted his past and connect with andencourage others who are going through similar experiences. Based in Los Angeles, Matthew Finley has been a photographer for ten years and is a core member of the Advanced Photography Critique Group at the Center for Photography at Woodstock. His work has shown in galleries on the West Coast, New Orleans, and Cincinnati. His images have also appeared in publications including Fraction Magazine, Shots Magazine, and Plates to Pixels where he won the Juror Award in The Visual Armistice 10th Annual Juried Showcase. ROB GRAD: FINDING FOREVERLAND Rob Grad’s sculptures are photo-based mixed media. Each piece consists of layered plexiglass parts that combine painting, drawing, and photography in a variety of ways that highlight or conceal various elements. Grad uses his work to address existential issues, using the physical layers of his sculptures to tackle the multiple layers of each issue. These meditations give the viewer license to consider their personal histories and discover their own truth. Finding Foreverland reflects on his interest in nature and the evolution of humankind’s relationship with it. Grad says, “from as far back as I can remember, I’ve always felt at home surrounded by nature. It’s wise. And patient. It was here before us, and will probably be here long after we’re gone.” The artist’s inspiration comes from a poem he wrote while reflecting on the wisdom and authenticity of a flower’s life. He saw the flower as delicate, but also unreservedly tough and unapologetic. Each sculpture in the series is a metaphorical character that struggles to grasp the wisdom that the flower embodies so effortlessly. The complementary environments cropped into hand painted gestural shapes, fused together with colors and text and assembled into a three-dimensional wall hanging brings each character to life. Grad is a current resident of southern California. He won First Place in the “New Media” Category of the Beverly Hills Art Show in 2015. He has shown his work in solo exhibitions at Fabrik Projects in Culver City, California, Gallery 825 in Los Angeles, California, and the Frame Gallery in Agoura, California, as well as in group exhibitions throughout southern California and Florida. Grad’s work was included in Art Basel, Switzerland, and at SCOPE Miami in 2017. JOHN PERALTA John Peralta is a self-taught artist whose unconventional style of sculpture incorporates iconic mechanical objects and high-tech materials to produce beautiful and complex representations. His interpretation of what is known in engineering terms as the exploded diagram, is original and demonstrates his imagination, technical expertise, and inventiveness. Peralta’s The Mechanitions Series reverses the fabrication process by taking utilitarian objects from the past and turning them into sculpture. Each three-dimensional exploded diagram makes each object feel vulnerable and approachable, while also creating a sense of reverence as the viewer takes in the intricate workings of the device. It allows the viewer to connect their own intimate experiences with the object, “like the typewriter your grandfather used in the war, your grandmother’s sewing machine, your father’s pocket watch, an iconic electric guitar,” as Peralta explains. These memories evoke a strong emotional connection to these objects and invite the viewer to imagine the vast memories each object holds. Peralta is a native of New Mexico and, although he now lives in Austin, Texas, his New Mexico family and heritage remain major influences on his life and work. Some of his earliest memories are of him and his brother pulling their red wagon around the neighborhood, knocking on doors, collecting broken radios, televisions, tape players – anything they could get their hands on – opening them up to see what made them work. He received no formal training in the arts, and it wasn’t until his thirties that he found his creative voice. Peralta is currently represented by the George Billis Galleries in New York and Los Angeles, Galerie Goutal in Aix-en-Provance France, Wally Workman Gallery in Austin, Gerald Peters Projects in Santa Fe, and Cinq Gallery in Dallas. He has had major exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Austin, and Santa Fe. SCENE OF THE CRIME AND THE FASHION OF VIOLENCE : A SURVEY OF PHOTOGRAPHER MELANIE PULLEN Melanie Pullen’s photography tells a story in a single frame. Her work is cinematic and theatrical, often taking inspiration from film, photojournalism, forensic photography, and war journalism. This retrospective features work produced over the course of the last 14 years, including images from her High Fashion Crime Scenes, Violent Times, and Soda POP! series . Widely known for her work in the fashion industry, Pullen often uses fashion and media consumption as themes in her work to express the subtleties of her ideas. In her most extensive series, High Fashion Crime Scenes (2013-2017), Pullen outfits her models in haute-couture while staging them in re-enacted vintage crime scenes. The outfits distract and draw the viewer’s attention away from the gruesome scene of the crime. In Violent Times (2005-2009), Pullen focuses on the history of violence and its glamourization from early documentation in historical painting to the contrasting reality of modern photojournalism. Her series Soda POP! (2015) takes the idea of iconic soda ads and flips it on its head, making the viewer feel uneasy by placing the models in questionable nighttime settings. Melanie Pullen was born in New York City in 1975. She is self-taught and was raised in a family of photojournalists, publishers, and artists. Currently she lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Pullen has both exhibited and her work is in the permanent holdings of The Getty Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Art, The Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego, California and Museo Jumex in Mexico City. Pullen has been recognized in numerous publications including Art Forum, Art Review, CBS News, CBS Radio, Elle, Fortune, GQ, Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, New York Times Magazine, Nylon, Photo, Rolling Stone, San Francisco Chronicle, Vogue, and W. CHRISTOPHER RUSSELL: FALLS Christopher Russell analyzes the use of photography as technology has advanced over time. Originally, chemical photography was used to faithfully record people and places around the world, often feeling as if the viewer saw or experienced the actual place or thing firsthand. With the progression to digital photography, that sense of truth and reality is lost due to the complete malleability of images. Russell takes these digital images and emphasizes their changing position in the world from objective truth to subjective realities by scratching, cutting, folding and painting on the print, often creating his own narrative. In this series Falls , Russell fictionalizes a travelogue of a highly acclaimed Western photographer from the 1860s, Carleton Watkins. Russell travels to locations that Watkins previously photographed and photographs them himself, looking at them from the opposite end of a historical continuum. As he photographs each location, he manipulates the light that enters the lens to ensure they are fuzzy and hard to follow. As Russell scratches into the emulsion of the print, ghost-like patterns and fictional narratives begin to appear, warping Watkin’s original travelogue. Each of the images in this exhibition is “waterfalls.” This connecting theme is portrayed in a variety of ways throughout the work. It can take form in a sudden change in the flow of a pattern, an interpretation of a historical photograph of Willamette falls, or a muddle of ships approaching a watery precipice. Born in 1974, Russell received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Center College of Design in California. In 2009, he produced a solo exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California. He has also been featured in group exhibitions at the Tokyo Institute of Photography in Japan, The Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Florida, Armory Center for the Arts in Los Angeles, California, White Columns in New York, New York, De Appel Arts Center in the Netherlands, Oakland Museum of California in Oakland, California, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California among others. He has published numerous critical articles in addition to being a featured subject of positive review by the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Huffington Post, Artillery, Frieze, and ArtForum. JONI STERNBACH: SURFLAND This exhibition of tintype portraits was made during Sternbach’s visit to Oahu in December 2017 and 2018. It is part of a larger body of work, entitled Surfland, depicting various sized large format portraits of surfers, made on location around the globe. Surfland explores the real and conceptualized state of the surfer in the American imaginary. This project is a latter-day ethnographic document that unites different ages, genders, cultures and geographies through sport. The artist’s project places the everyday “soul surfer” (those who surf for the sheer pleasure of surfing) next to the elite, pro-surfing competitor just as they might exist in the water, waiting for the next wave. Sternbach’s work examines the ever-changing juncture between land and sea. This series was born out of her life-long desire to clarify the connection between humans and nature and her enduring love of the ocean. Surfland is an in-depth body of work that delves into the nature of identity and the character of portraiture. It’s an endeavor that can engage an entire community at any given time. What started as a local project on Long Island developed into a broader global study of people and place, sport and culture. Each tintype uses a liquid emulsion (collodion) that is poured onto the plate just minutes before it’s exposed and developed. All of Sternbach’s photographs are processed on site using a portable darkroom. The plates are fixed in daylight, allowing the image to be shared immediately with her sitters, which is crucial to her interaction and relationship with her subject. The attention to time spent making and evaluating each detailed collodion plate transforms the standard photographer/subject connection to a shared experience. Joni Sternbach is an artist and educator based in New York. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Photography from the School of Visual Arts and a Master of Arts degree from New York University and the International Center of Photography in 1987. She is an advisory board member and founding faculty at Penumbra Foundation in New York City, where she teaches wet plate collodion. Sternbach’s work is part of many international and public collections including the National Portrait Gallery in London, Joslyn Museum, MOCA Jacksonville, Nelson Atkins Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. She is the recipient of several grants including New York Foundation for the Arts and Creative Artists Public Service and Santo Foundation. Her monograph Surf Site Tin Type was published in the Spring 2015 by Damiani and is now sold out of the second edition. She is represented in Los Angeles by Von Lintel Gallery and in Paris, France by Galerie Hug. RODRIGO VALENZUELA: STATURE Rodrigo Valenzuela’s work in photography, video, and installation is rooted in contradictory traditions of documentary and fiction, often involving narratives around immigration and the working class. The artist often expands upon his own personal experiences, such as feelings of alienation and displacement, to inform universal concepts throughout his work. Valenzuela’s photographic technique involves orchestrating “performances for the camera,” which entails creating complex spaces by using his own photographic work as a backdrop against which additional installations are seamlessly built and rephotographed. The illusionistic quality of these spaces engage the viewer in questioning the way their own experiences influence their view on truth and reality. Valenzuela’s new series, Stature , is a progression of his previous studio constructions. In this series, the artist casts discarded electronics packaging in clay and concrete. These abstract constructions appear sterile, harsh, and sometimes even monsterlike, reminiscent of Brutalist architecture that was popular in the 1950s. None of these forms are glued or connected in any way. Instead, each object is precariously balanced in each arrangement. By taking these cast off items and making them permanent, structural and valuable, Valenzuela indirectly examines capitalist endeavors. Rodrigo Valenzuela was born in Santiago, Chile in 1982. He completed an art history degree at the University of Chile in 2004, then worked in construction while making art over his first decade in the United States. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Evergreen State College and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Washington. His work has been exhibited in a variety of museums and galleries including the Upfor Gallery in Portland, Oregon, New Museum in New York, New York, Laurence Miller Gallery in New York, New York, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City, Mexico, USF Contemporary Art Museum in Tampa, Florida, Kathleen O. Ellis Gallery, Light Work in Syracuse, New York and the Galerie Lisa Kandlhofer in Vienna, Austria. He is a professor of art at the University of California, Los Angeles and represented by Klowden Mann Gallery in Los Angeles. KIRA VOLLMAN: 16MM Kira Vollman’s installation, 16mm , combines photography, painting, sculpture, and sound into an interactive experience. Vollman collects refuse from scrap yards, thrift and surplus stores, combining these disparate objects and synthesizing new meanings in this next phase of their life. As a visual and sound artist, Vollman sees each medium in constant interaction with one another, as “parts of a whole” rather than separate entities. Byincorporating music into her work, she curates a connection between the artwork, the viewer, and herself,orchestrating a moment of unity via interaction. 16mm is an abstract, static film clip which takes the viewer on a narrative of their own choosing. As the viewer travels down the 16 foot piece, the provided score, along with the photography, collage, and painting invites the audience to imagine themselves on an adventure, drama, or even a romance. Vollman muses, “Danger might be lurking around the next corner. There are escape routes. There is a serious pitfall at the center of your journey. Can you avoid it? The red threads are your lifelines.” The undulating frames draw viewers deeper as the plot thickens. The score for the piece is incorporated via steel frames that have been woven onto diffusion frames used in lighting for film. Kira Vollman is a Los Angeles based artist, curator, and vocalist. She is currently the owner, director, and curator of ARK Gallery Studios in Altadena, California. She is also a composer and vocalist for the group, Non Credo. Her artwork has been shown in galleries such as The Neutra Institute Museum & Gallery, Sylvia White Gallery, SOPA Studios Gallery, and MOAH:CEDAR. In 2017, she won first place in the All Media Exhibition at the Irvine Fine Arts Center in Irvine, California. November 9, 2019 - January 12, 2020 Back to list

Adriana Orozco < Back Diary of Letitia By Adriana Orozco I am a plant, I have long branches and multiple leaves, I live in a big house, but I’m stuck in the dining room corner. I sit there all day with some water next to my pot. Though I come from a faraway place, a place call Ikea. But being at a place called Ikea was a nightmare; my past was a whole nightmare. But the past is the past. My slender leaves are everywhere; sometimes, it blocks me from seeing the small glimpse of the sun. It reminds me of hair, like a human’s hair. The family that lives in this house all have hair, but sometimes I wish my leaves were thin and long like the women. But not curly hair like one woman from the household, wasp, and spiders can fly into that mess. Though sometimes I wish I can have a chance in a personal change. A change of appearance, a change from my life, I want a new life. A house plant is boring; I sit there all day and sit there all day. Sometimes it is nice when there is food in the air to breathe into, but there is no use in being a plant; I wish to explore and travel! The only time I traveled was to enter this house that I have been there for too long. Like my past brought me here, and I am ungrateful for that. But I still long for a change in my life. I want to be different; I want to change the world, I want to learn how to write, but all I am is a plant. I am a plant with long branches, with small leaves, that live in a big house that longs for a change, but I am always a plant. Previous Next

Kiel JohnsonNotes on a Morning WalkThe idea of “work as play” is central to Kiel Johnson’s art practice bringing a sense of curiosity and exploration through his whimsical creations. His primary focus is on drawings and sculpture that speak to the travels and adventures of his everyday life. Johnson’s sculptures and drawings serve as a visual diary that captures his animated and vast stream of consciousness. < Back Kiel Johnson, Notes on a Morning Walk Kiel Johnson, Notes on a Morning Walk 1/1 Kiel Johnson Notes on a Morning Walk The idea of “work as play” is central to Kiel Johnson’s art practice bringing a sense of curiosity and exploration through his whimsical creations. His primary focus is on drawings and sculpture that speak to the travels and adventures of his everyday life. Johnson’s sculptures and drawings serve as a visual diary that captures his animated and vast stream of consciousness. Inspired by odd discoveries, coincidence and chance, Johnson seeks to personify inanimate subjects. Johnson brings a sense of curiosity and exploration to the viewer, utilizing the world and its curiosities as his palette and canvas. His creations are inspired by robots, Greek sculpture, Egyptian gods, boats, and spaceships, among others, are a visual language that is an embodiment of Johnson’s humorous and energetic mind and eye. Through his heightened level of inquisitiveness and playfulness, Johnson continues to explore places, objects, and spaces that exist within his imagination. Previous Next

Master of Ceremony < Back Previous Charles Arnoldi Master of Ceremony Charles Arnoldi is a multi-disciplinary artist whose varied body of work includes traditional oil paintings on canvas, bronze sculpture, monoprints, lithographs, “chainsaw paintings,” aluminum paintings, and polyethylene wall reliefs. Nurtured in Los Angeles’ burgeoning art scene in the late 1960s, Charles Arnoldi started his art career in Downtown Los Angeles and would move to Venice Beach alongside experimental Light and Space artists like Peter Alexander and Billy Al Bengston. During his early career, Arnoldi garnered notoriety for his abstracted compositions crafted from sticks gathered from orchards, ranches, and woods. His artistic expression would eventually expand working with non-traditional materials like tree branches and chainsaws. Charles Arnoldi: Master of Ceremony is a visual collection of Arnoldi’s metamorphosis throughout his five-decades-long career. His experimentation with line, shape, and color was first realized through his “stick paintings” that utilized tree branches to create lines in space. In Charles Arnoldi: Master of Ceremony, his breakthrough would naturally evolve from his Light and Space colleagues into the use of more organic materials like wood. For Arnoldi, this evolution is a part of his artistic process, saying, “In abstract painting an artist invents a problem and solves it.” Next

back to list Yolanda Glass Yolanda Glass creates visual fingerprints, giving a space it’s own unique DNA. A Decoded Narrative in Art, of sorts, that tells a story of something intrinsic, aesthetic and often thematic. A graphic artist by trade, Glass went to school at Howard University and graduated from the Art Institute with a BFA focus in Graphic Design. Glass created Y0GRAPHICART INC. for environmental graphics and large scale art installations and murals in 2020. The website launch is 2023.

DIVERSEart LA 2024 Up Repairing the Future Osceola Refetoff Lancaster Museum of Art and History (MOAH) is proud to present Osceola Refetoff: Repairing the Future , a multi-media exhibition focusing on global sea level rise. The centerpiece of the installation is a large-scale immersive audio-visual projection of the artist’s 8-minute film, Sea of Change . The film’s original footage was shot by Refetoff in Svalbard, Norway, near the North Pole during his The Arctic Circle Artist & Scientist Residency. These visuals are paired with NASA satellite images of the Earth and graphics depicting NASA’s scientific measurements of current climate disruptions. AI-generated animation envisions possible future climate outcomes. The project was edited with Juri Koll during Refetoff’s 2023 artist residency at Building Bridges Art Exchange in collaboration with Dr. Eric Larour, manager of NASA’s Earth Sciences Division at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The original soundtrack is written and performed by award-winning composer Paul Cantelon and Sultan + Shepard. Blending hard science, documentary video, and impressionistic imaginaries, Refetoff is known for using aesthetic strategies to define and communicate an urgent need for both personal and systemic engagement, leveraging the natural beauty of remote regions to command our global attention toward local climate issues. The exhibition will be accompanied by a performance from Hibiscus TV artists Kaye Freeman and Amy Kaps, and will also include a talk with Refetoff, curator Andi Campognone, and Rosanna Xia, L.A. Times climate journalist and author of California Against the Sea . LOS ANGELES CONVENTION CENTER – WEST HALL 1201 South Figueroa Street Los Angeles, CA 90015 OPENING NIGHT PREMIERE Wednesday, February 14, 2024 I 6pm - 10pm GENERAL ADMISSION Thursday, February 15, 2024 | 12pm - 8pm Friday, February 16, 2024 | 12pm - 8pm Saturday, February 17, 2024 | 12pm - 8pm Sunday, February 18, 2024 | 12pm - 6pm For more information, please visit laartshow.com . To purchase tickets, please visit https://wl.seetickets.us/event/THE-LA-ART-SHOW-2024/564086?afflky=TheLAArtShow February 14 - February 18, 2024 Back to list