18th Street Arts Center

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By rlopez, December 14, 2010 5:28 pm

Han Sungpil & Yvette Gellis, Open Water, photo based mural & mixed media, 2010

International Month of Exhibitions Features Artists from Iran, Tibet, South Africa, Korea and the United States

Public Reception is on Thursday, January 20, 2011 from 7:30pm – 9:30pm

18th Street Arts Center is proud to present four exhibitions highlighting their award-winning International Visiting Artist Program.

Beginning January 7- 28, 18th Street is featuring exhibitions from Iran, Tibet, Korea and South Africa. The public reception for these exhibitions will be held on Thursday, January 20, 7:30-9:30 pm.

In the 18th Street Gallery a provocative and groundbreaking exhibit, Postcards from Tehran, a collaboration with the Aaran Gallery of Tehran, Iran, curated by Nazilla Noebashari will be presented. Breaking down the barriers of political prejudice, the show will be the first Los Angeles exhibition of works by seven Iranian artists in conjunction with works by two artists from California who migrated from Iran. Both political and prosaic, Postcards from Tehran is a unique view of contemporary Iranian artists whose dissenting viewpoints may prove to be eye-openers to many Americans whose main knowledge about Iran is typically derived from corporate cable news channels. The artists include Arash Fayez, Siamak Filizadeh, Hadi Nasiri,  Behrang Samadzadeghan, Behnam Kamrani, Barbad Golshiri and Jinoos Taghizadeh. They are joined in this collaboration by Iranian-American artists, Ala Ebtekar and Amitis Motevalli, both well-known West Coast visual artists.

In the Pasillos Gallery 18th Street will feature the Los Angeles debut of Tibetan artists Tsering Nyandak and Norbu Tsering. American audiences are familiar with conventional notions of Tibetan art, but will have the opportunity to experience the vibrant new representational narrative painting and mixed media installations coming out of Tibet’s contemporary art community.

18th Street is also thrilled to present videos of South African performance artist MLu Zondi. Mr. Zondi’s provocative performance videos will be on display in the Project Room and a live performance of his work will take place on February 19, at 8:30pm at Highways Performance Space located at 18th Street Arts Center.

Korean artist Han Sungpil has collaborated with Los Angeles painter Yvette Gellis to create a dynamic mural, Open Water, which will cover the facade of 18th Street Arts Center. Individually, the two artist have produced major installations in a number of public spaces. Han is known for his massive wrappings of buildings in diverse cites worldwide; and Gellis, a painter known for her huge canvasses, has recently expanded her work into installations of three-dimensional abstract paintings.

During the opening reception on Thursday, January 20, 2011, 18th Street Arts Center will also present a special preview of videographer Ben Caldwell’s interactive video installation which was commissioned as a public art piece at the new Santa Monica Place shopping center. The installation entitled ”Untitled” invites interactivity as it projects the work of several artists onto the floor of the Colorado Avenue entrance.

18th Street Arts Center is a long time alternative arts organization based in Santa Monica, California, whose mission is to provoke public dialogue through contemporary art making. For more information, contact Program Coordinator Ronald Lopez at rlopez@18thstreet.org, or go to www.18thstreet.org.

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By ajones, December 11, 2010 12:48 pm

Carol Wells, Executive Director at Center for the Study of Political Graphics and selected artists will discuss art and politics at 4pm with a party/refreshments immediately following in the Project Room, 1629 18th Street! Visit the event’s facebook page for more information: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=109357639130050

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By ajones, December 2, 2010 3:09 pm

Dorit Cypis has been stitching together disparate parts of personal identity, history, politics, and social relations as FabLab since early October, exposing an artist’s process of inquiry. FabLab (the artist and her archive), is a whimsical and pragmatic performance of the parts with the public as witness to inner/inter reflections and scrutiny that build patterns and symmetries across histories, space and time.

“The scale is like a shinny cold-blooded serpent waiting patiently for a body to be weighed. It’s metal skin, like fish scales out of water now drying in the light of the overhead gallery lights, still seems moist as if it had been in a recent encounter with a liquid. At its base there are inscribed letters in a script type like a tattoo, spelling the word “History”, as if we didn’t know. How can we not know that a body’s weight is the weight of an experienced history, a life with measured paths through highs and lows, interiors and exteriors, very, very private and oh so public.”

She will be performing at two separate times on Saturday, 4:00 – 5:00pm and 5:00 – 6:00pm.

The two performances are limited seating and on a first come first serve basis. Please RSVP the time slot you wish to be a part of at rlopez@18thstreet.org.

For more information on Cypis Fablab visit: http://18thstreet.org/projects/foreign-exchanges-dorit-cypis

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By ajones, December 1, 2010 5:25 pm

December, 2010

ALA EBTEKAR describes his work as a visual crossroad where present day events meet history and mythology. As a young teenager he joined the seminal group K.O.S. (Kids of Survival), working with artist Tim Rollins on collaborative artworks involving groups of urban youth. He received his BA from the San Francisco Art Institute and his MFA degree from Stanford University. His work has been exhibited internationally and was recently featured in three group exhibitions, One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now, originating at the Asia Society, NYC, the 2008 Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Bay Area Now 5 show, and the 2006 California Biennial at the Orange County Museum of Art. He is a visiting lecturer at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. Ala Ebtekar lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area.