18th Street Arts Center

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By admin, September 29, 2007 8:55 pm

New visual works by Mark Steven Greenfield

18th Street Arts Center presents “Incognegro,” a solo exhibition of visual works by Mark Steven Greenfield and curated by Julie Joyce, September 29-November 30, 2007. The ArtNight reception event will be held September 29, 2007, 5:00-8:30 pm, including two free concerts, additional and open studios by international and local artists. Gallery hours are Monday-Friday, 11am-5:30pm. 18th Street Arts Center is located at 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica.

“Incognegro” includes multimedia photographs, paintings, and sculptures that appropriate and represent historic minstrel images and critiques race issues that are apparent through blackface performance. “Incognegro” features 14 new works by Greenfield made over the past four years that have not been previously exhibited in Los Angeles that flirt with the line between racism and political correctness. The exhibition includes a new series of lenticular prints that play with layers of meaning by juxtaposing minstrel portraits and various patterns that can be discovered simultaneously or separately depending upon the viewer’s physical relationship to each work. Crazy Eights (2007) is a series of eight new paintings featuring iconic accoutrements from vin

tage minstrel “how to” guides that, repeated eight times, simulate patterns that both highlight and sublimate the inherent satire of each object. Also featured are two arresting photographic portraits of Aaron and Jason White, performers in the latter’s “The Dance: The History of American Minstrelsy,” an educational play regarding the history of minstrelsy in America; as well as a series of motorized outdoor sculptures that literally inflate the artist’s distinctive forms of provocation.

Mark Steven Greenfield’s multimedia photographs, paintings and sculptures offer a contemporary critique of race through the exploration of one of America’s infamously controversial forms of entertainment: Black-face performance. Appropriating and representing historic minstrel images, Greenfield simultaneously exposes the spectacle of an era while reclaiming an essentially white construct. Determinedly confrontational, yet in ways that are as conspicuous as they are subversive, this work not only questions but struts the line between what is racist and what is politically correct.

Mark Steven Greenfield received his BA in Education at California State University, Long Beach and his MFA at California State University, Los Angeles. His most recent solo exhibitions include Post Minstrel at Steve Turner Gallery in Beverly Hills (2004), Blackatcha at Reginald Ingraham Gallery in Los Angeles (2000) and Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas. His work has been included in many important group exhibitions, including Whiteness: A Wayward Construction, Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California (2003) and the University of Virginia Museum in Charlottesville (2004); African American Artists in Los Angeles: Fade (1990-2003), at the Luckman Gallery, Cal State L.A. (2004); Only Skin Deep, International Center for Photography, New York (2004); Color, Culture and Complexity at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia in Atlanta (2002); Affirming A Visual Heritage at the California African-American Museum in Los Angeles (1996); and in other exhibitions at venues including the Santa Monica Museum of Art (1992), the Armory Center for the Arts in Pasadena (1990), and the historic Brockman Gallery in Los Angeles (1978).

Julie Joyce (Curator) is Gallery Director of the Luckman Fine Arts Complex at the California State University, Los Angeles, a position she has held since 1998. She received her MA in Art History and Museum Studies at the University of Southern California. Joyce has worked at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, the Las Angeles County Museum of Art, the Santa Monica Museum of Art, and the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation. As an independent writer, Joyce has published reviews and articles in Art Issues and Artext magazines and has contributed to catalogues published by the MIT Press, Studio Museum in Harlem, Museum of Modern Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Pomona College Art Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, University of Southern California, and Luckman Gallery.

CURATOR STATEMENT | VIEWER RESPONSES | CONVERSATION WITH ARTIST

September 29 – November 30, 2007
ArtNight Reception event: Saturday, September 29, 5:00 – 8:30pm
1639 18th Street, Santa Monica

LINKS
Students In Blackface “Jena 6″ Reenactment

Curated by Julie Joyce

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By rlopez, September 21, 2007 6:03 pm

PATRIOT ACTS

curated by Linda Pollack

September 29, 2007 – March 21, 2008

VIEW CALENDAR

“Though written constitutions may be violated in moments of passion or delusion, yet they furnish a text to which those who are watchful may again rally and recall the people.  They fix, too, for the people the principles of their political creed.”
–Thomas Jefferson to Joseph Priestley, 1802.

Implosion

Yugoslavia was my first taste of it. A society imploding in itself. A place that had, just a few years ago hosted the Winter Olympics, turned into a frenzied space of tribalism, exploited by media, by leaders, by thugs, by mafioso types preying on a chance to consolidate. Not that I ever stepped a foot in Yugoslavia – that wouldn’t happen until after the war, when I was invited to speak at a conference in Croatia. No, it was enough from my post in Amsterdam,  working at a cultural foundation with a mandate to foster ‘multilateralism’. I didn’t have to go to Yugoslavia — I just had to listen.

I always said that Rotterdam attracted the business guy types from ex Yugo. And Amsterdam attracted – well, Amsterdam, in its most self conscious arty progressiveness, attracted the artists types, musicians and writers. And those who were fleeing brought with them their stories. Of the media reports of the Serbs poisoning the water – or was it the Croats – or was that another war time myth? The heroics of the reporters at Sarajevo’s Oslobodjenje. The build up of arms in household cellars. The strained friendships and strange alliances.  The premature recognition of Croatia by the European Parliament, when it was known that  such recognition, with unresolved borders, would lead to the implosion. From those who could see, it was all very predictable. A perfect storm. Just needed someone to conduct it. And along came the players…or rather they were waiting in the wings. Everybody did their part. And within a year a country that was considered the most open and progressive of the Soviet Block became a disintegrated mess, reduced to ‘tribal’ violence according to international press. In this mess, I also saw the bold efforts of individuals and groups who worked on initiatives that fostered and strengthened civic processes. This could be in the form of supporting local press, a film festival, or establishing a summer school for displaced students at Charles University in Prague. These processes succeeded in strengthening the traces of normal life – of civil society. Seeing these efforts, I too caught the bug and set up events, with the blessing and financial backing of the foundation. My projects to reclaim normalcy included rock concerts, poetry readings, video reports, and lots and lots of public discussions.

Back in the United States

The USA PATRIOT ACT was passed on October 17th, 2001. Not that I was aware of it at the time. Who was? Who of our Representatives actually read it? It was February 2002 that I first heard of it, thanks to Pacifica radio and an interview with Scott Bowman, Political Science Professor at Cal State Los Angeles. The gist of the interview was that this hardly known (at the time)  ACT presented serious threats to our Constitutional democracy. And though I was in my own country, far from an Eastern European country disintegrating into madness, I felt the same impulse – a voice from the front, seeing what was going on and sharing the story. The post 9/11 lull was broken and something was wrong. Professor Bowman seemed reasonable, smart, concerned. I realized then, driving down the 405 Freeway that I didn’t know a thing about my constitution. The U.S Constitution. And from that I created a series of dialogical events called My Daily Constitution that’s been trudging along since 2002. I can’t take credit to the name -  that goes to Ohio media activist Evan Davis. But My Daily Constitution with its play on words, does imply what the constitution is – the routines large and small that sustain us in our everyday lives, be it our walk, our drink, our Habeas Corpus. Since 2002  I’ve held the project in cities around the country, most recently Indianapolis (www.mydailyconstititon.org). It is from these experiences in public dialogue and community building that inspired me to create PATRIOT ACTS, to explore issues around the U.S. Constitution for the Future of Nations exhibition series.

The PATRIOT ACTS artist team includes: Irina Contreras, Christie Frields, Zeal Harris, Sara Hendren, Vincent Johnson, Hillary Mushkin, Meena Nanji + Tommy Gear, Adam Overton, Rebecca Ripple, Susan Silton, Pam Strugar and Shirley Tse

Over the summer, PATRIOT ACTS artists met with legal experts to explore concepts of Habeas Corpus, the USA PATRIOT ACT, the California primaries, voting education and spaces of government processes. To date professor Gary Williams of Loyola Law School and Criminal Defense Lawyer Mia Yamamoto have been involved in this dialogue. Consulting organizations include the Los Angeles League of Women Voters, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the California Voter Foundation.

PATRIOT ACTS Part 1

Will run from September 29th through March 21st in the Project Room at 18th street. The space will be transformed into a research /public event site, and will feature a sculptural seating arrangement specially designed by architect Mark Gee to enhance and promote civic processes.  Initiatives will include:  public readings of the U.S. Constitution with questions and commentary, a voter registration drive, a college poll worker recruitment push, a series of public discussions and events on pressing constitutional issues, among others. The PATRIOT ACTS project space will be open to the public during working hours Monday thru Friday and during scheduled events.

PATRIOT ACTS Part 2

Will run from January 12th through March 21st. A group exhibition featuring the PATRIOT ACTS artists will explore themes addressed during the PATRIOT ACTS research and initiatives.

–Linda Pollack

September 10, 2007

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By admin, September 20, 2007 7:09 pm

Photos by Manuel Gil

In collaboration with writer Óscar Gil-Garcia

September 29 – November 30, 2007
ArtNight Reception event: Saturday, September 29, 4:00 – 8:30pm
1639 18th Street, Santa Monica

VIEW IMAGES WITH DIDACTIC >>

GALLERY >>

18th Street Arts Center proudly presents “Guatemalan Forced Migration,” a new photo essay by Manuel Gil in collaboration with writer Óscar Gil-Garcia, showing September 29-November 30, 2007. The images of Guatemalan forced migrants living in Mexico will open as part of 18th Street’s quarterly ArtNight open house event on September 29th from 4-8pm, featuring gallery and open studio exhibits and free musical performances.

“Guatemalan Forced Migration” consists of a series of photographs of Guatemalan forced migrants that challenge the normative approach to photographing refugees by mainstream media and international humanitarian organizations that stereotype women as domestics and men as bread winners. Manuel Gil’s photography, created in collaboration with writer Oscar Gil-Garcia, explores gender relations within contemporary society and transnational migrant communities. The project is a timely study that provides a critical response to the current U.S. anti-immigrant sentiment by increasing awareness of how forced migrants play a central role in the formal and informal labor economic sectors in host societies.

Manuel Gil has studied fine art and photography at San Francisco Art Institute and Brooks Institute of Photography. He received awards from the San Francisco Art Institute, Photographer’s Forum and others for his excellence in photography.

Oscar Gil-Garcia, a Ph.D. Doctoral Candidate at the University of California at Santa Barbara, collaborated with his brother to compile the series of photographs and work with him on the research of the migrant societies and their relationship to contemporary communities in Mexico and America. He received his M.A. from UC Santa Barbara and B.A in Sociology from Vassar College and has worked as a Fellow at various research institutes investigating refugee studies.

READ ÓSCAR GIL-GARCIA’S ESSAY