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By rlopez, November 19, 2005 3:12 pm

November 19 – January 20, 2006

Featuring works by:

Linda Arreola
Ricardo Duffy
Susan Elizalde-Holler
Poli Marichal

Curated by Pat Gomez

Reception event: Saturday, November 19, 6 – 8:30pm
1639 18th Street, Santa Monica

18th Street Arts Center presents the group art show, “TransFOURmations” curated by Pat Gomez, November 19, 2005 – January 20, 2006 at 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica. The reception will be Saturday, November 19, 6-8:30pm. The show opens and runs simultaneously with the photo exhibit, “What We Think Now”. Both exhibitions are supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Pat Gomez (Curator): I am interested in the removal of cultural symbols and icons from their traditional or expected context, thus transforming them and allowing the viewer to look at these familiar images in a different way. In TransFOURmations, imagery is altered via rendering, context, and/or distortion to bridge cultural history, religion and contemporary political perspectives through the work of Ricardo Duffy and Poli Marichal. Conversely, Susan Elizalde’s idealized figures are informed by Cycladic and pre-Columbian imagery and transformed into evocative expressions of undefined meaning. Linda Arreola elevates common imagery and objects to oddly spiritual iconic levels through her paintings and sculpture. TransFOURmations explores the distortion of cultural history, contemporary concepts, and spirituality.

Pat Gomez has spent the last 15 years working to create opportunities for artists. She is currently the President of NewTown Pasadena, an artists’ consortium presenting new, experimental or cross genre work in nontraditional venues.
She is the Arts Manager for the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department responsible for the private Arts Development Fee, City Art Collection, and Murals Programs. She served as the Associate Director for Self-Help Graphics & Art, and has held positions at Otis College of Art and Design, the Huntington Beach Art Center, and CalArts. Pat is a former curator for the Freewaves Media Festival, and is a former Board Member for the Foundation for Arts Resources (FAR). Also visual artist, she is featured in the U. of Arizona and Smithsonian publication “Contemporary Chicana and Chicano Artists.”

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By rlopez, November 19, 2005 3:10 pm

Photos by Jonathan Hollingsworth
November 19, 2005 – January 20, 2006
Reception event: Saturday, November 19, 6 – 8:30pm
1639 18th Street, Santa Monica

18th Street Arts Center presents the photo exhibit, “What We Think Now,” by Jonathan Hollingsworth, November 19, 2005 – January 20, 2006 at 18th Street Arts Center, 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica. The reception will be Saturday, November 19, 6-8:30pm. The show opens and runs simultaneously with the group art show, “TransFOURmations” curated by Pat Gomez. Both exhibitions are supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.?

John Hollingsworth (Artist): “What We Think Now” is a series of photographs exploring young people’s thoughts on the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In each picture the subjects, all 30 and under, were asked to compose statements encapsulating their point of view on any facet of the war. This text was then incorporated into the photographs. “I wanted to create work which expressed the ideas of individuals, relying solely on their words.”

“I executed the project to give my generation a voice, and in doing so, captured the confusion of the nation. In what other American war has rhetoric been so masterfully used to supplant reason with emotion?” The project is local to California: “I aimed to record as many differing opinions as possible from varying demographics, which led to shoots in Los Angeles, Orange County, Palmdale, Berkeley and San Francisco.” Although the piece started as a 10-image series, Hollingsworth explains that the project is far from finished, “It might be a long time before we can afford to stop talking about the decision to invade and remake a nation.”

Jonathan Hollingsworth earned a BA in English from Northwestern University and studied photography at Otis College of Art and Design. He has exhibited at galleries throughout Los Angeles.

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By ajones, September 1, 2005 3:31 pm

Painter and Multimedia Artist

Brooklyn-educated Taiwanese painter and multimedia artist Shiau-Peng Chen takes geometric patterns and smooth curves to express abstract themes such as Tangibility (2005-7), and Immateriality (2005-6).   His residency at 18th Street (2005), inspired the series Specificity: in one piece, octagonal shapes comprised of varied colored triangles dot the long white canvas, interrupted by vertical streams of paint allowed to drip down, violating the precise lines.  He has exhibited in Melbourne, Taiwan, and China.

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By ajones, August 11, 2005 4:00 pm

Painter

The Indonesian mixed media artist, Popok Tri Wahyudi, paints on canvas, paper and glass to express a complex narration that Illustrate his personal experiences with images and stories perceived through mass media. His talents as a comic book illustrator are evident in both his illustrative painting style and narrative imagery. Each of Wahyudi’s paintings condenses a whole comic strip into individual action packed canvases. He often makes work that represents the lunacy of the current political situation with the country.  Wahyudi’s work reflects social issues and comments on power structures in Indonesian society.  In 2001, he received a grant from UNESCO-ASCHBERG for a two-month studio residency at 18th Street.  Here he worked on an installation titled “Everything Is So Big,” where he exhibited drawings and paintings of American culture. VIEW MORE IMAGES

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By ajones, August 3, 2005 4:30 pm

Video Installation Artist

In Ruth Schnell’s video installations, she unfolds the possibilities, (which lie in the screen and in video projection) to develop new forms of information distribution in our world that is so readily changed and influenced by media.  She uses ordinary objects to serve as a screen without individual significance but that gives rise to meaning for the projected images and text.  Schnell uses these objects as an image carrier, which distorts the projected information, so that not only is a new viewing angle is created, but also a subtle new order of the images and their perceived relationship.  In 2004, the Austrian artist received a grant to be the artist-in-residence at 18th Street, where she worked on and exhibited “Patters of Perception: Electronic Media Installations,” which was composed of three of her electronic medial installations.  This exhibit was shown for the first time at the California Science Center’s Art and Science Studio.

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