18th Street Arts Center

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Phoenix: A Radical Exploration of Sight/Sound/Journey

Matana Roberts on saxophone, composition

Jeff Parker on electric guitar

Alex Cline on drums

February 17th from 8 – 9pm
Reception to follow

Edye Second Space at the Broad Stage
Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center
1310 11th Street, Santa Monica

18th Street’s first jazz artist in residence, Matana Roberts and her dynamic ensemble will premiere her latest original works in an intimate performance. Roberts is one of the leading lights of contemporary African-American experimental music, combining her widely recognized gifts as an alto saxophone player and improviser with an intensely engaged re-definition of American Jazz traditions. She is the first recipient of 18th Street Arts Center’s Make-Jazz Residency funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation.
Limited Seating. RSVP required by February 14, 2012. rsvp@18thstreet.org.

Wednesday, March 28^th

7 pm.

Michiko Yao is an interdisciplinary artist born in Osaka, Japan, who received both her B.F.A. and M.F.A in Southern California at CalArts. Her work explores the relationship between Western and Eastern imperialism, and references unique social behaviors and fantasies of contemporary Japan. Yao and 18th Street Arts Center’s Director of Residency Programs, Pilar Tompkins Rivas, will discuss specific Japanese historical and aesthetic signifiers in the artist’s work, ranging from the legacy of Dutch imperialism, to ikebana, to modern fetish sub-cultures. For the presentation, Yao will create an elaborate, edible Dutch still-life, infused with elements of kawaii, or “cute” culture, for both contemplation and consumption.

Yao is in residence in the 18th Street Art Center Project Room from January 3rd through March 31st. She is a recipient of the 2012 Visions from the New California Award supported by the Alliance of Artist Communities. For more information about her work visit: www.michikoyao.com

18th Street Arts Center is pleased to unveil its newest public artwork by recent visiting artist Ahn Sungseok from Seoul, South Korea. Focusing on photography and video, Sungseok’s work speaks to layers of time and history co-existing in a single physical location. In a recent series, the artist depicts buildings and structures from Korea’s dynastic period, today surrounded by contemporary architecture of the urban environment. He then projects an historical image referencing destruction and degradation these sites incurred under Japanese imperialism or during the Korean War, for example, onto a screen lined up with the same site. These cultural signifiers existing in the same place at different moments in time connect public and private memories from the narrative of Korean history, past and present.The image installed as a new photo mural along 18th Street depicts the Hwaseong Fortress in Suwon, South Korea. Built between 1794 and 1796, the construction includes a wall and a defensive fortress that surrounded the then-perimeter of this provincial capital. Intended to protect and to defend, the structure stands in contrast to the encroachment of historical transitions, both military and industrial. As the artist states, he seeks to uncover how “time is embedded in places.”

Gustavo Gomez Brechtel is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Mexico City. His practice focuses on a liminal space between science and art, utilizing empirical observation as a method for approaching natural materials and processes in an artistic capacity. Frequently working with living plant life, the artist explores the aesthetics of entropy and photosynthesis using system-based drawings, installations and sculptures.

At 18th Street, Gomez Brechtel has constructed a cavernous, laboratory-like structure within his studio, creating a controlled environment for the new works he plans to create during his residency. He is currently working on a series of drawings that experiment with different chemicals and microorganisms, and is observing various chemical reactions generated on the paper’s surface. He also intends to produce an installation that uses mold and casting that will disintegrate over time. Gomez Brechtel’s residency is funded through the Jumex Foundation.

18th Street is pleased to announce the latest addition to our staff, Director of Communications and Outreach Sara Schnadt. She is an arts administrator, technologist, curator and artist. Sara co-curates the IN>TIME Performance Series in Chicago, and is co-founder and was previously Chief Technologist for Chicago Artists Resource website at the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs. She has also served on the Artists’ Advisory Board for the Chicago Artists Coalition, the planning Committee for Carnegie Mellon University’s Technology in the Arts Conference, as a founding member of Chicago’s SpareRoom Performance Collective, and as co-chair for the Chicago chapter of Upgrade!, an international network of new media artists. Sara’s art practice includes recent projects at the MCA Chicago, MOCAD Detroit, Free Manifesta, UNESP Sao Paulo, and the Busan Biennial.

Resident Artist Yvette Gellis is participating in the group show To Live and Paint in LA at the Torrance Art Museum from January 21, 2012 through March 10, 2012.

18th Street Artist in Residence Clayton Campbell will host a lecture on February 23 about his art making process and new work at the University of Nevada Las Vegas as part of their annual Guest Artist Lecture Series. His recent photographic series, Belonging and Not Belonging, examines why an individual’s position in the world is largely determined by their socioeconomic and cultural status.The UNLV series invites nationally-recognized artists to speak about their work to the student body at the university. The series also includes Los Angeles artists Ed Moses, Stanya Kahn, Rebecca Campbell, and Edgar Arceneaux.

From February 9 through March 10, 2012, Resident Artist Marina Forstmann Day has a solo show, Migration, at the Pavel Zoubok Gallery at 533 West 23rd Street featuring her mixed-media collages and constructions. Opening reception: Thursday, February 9, 2012 from 6-8pm.

In conjunction with the day-long ‘Art in the Public Realm: Activism and Interventions’ sessions at the CAA Annual Conference on February 25, 2012, Resident Artist Arzu Kosar‘s group,Yarn Bombing Los Angeles, will present Wish I Were Here from 10 am to 5pm. This YBLA site-specific interactive installation is part of a series of public interventions entitled ‘Un-Space Ground’ curated by Ed Woodham of Art in Odd Places (NYC) and Deborah Oliver from Performance Exchange (LA). During this event, YBLA will also unveil their upcoming catalog Yarn Bombing 18th Street available for sale on Amazon.com in two weeks with ISBN# 978-1470021900. Edited by Arzu Arda Kosar, Yarn Bombing 18th Street is a 64-page full color documentation of the knit graffiti event that took place on June 18th, 2011 at 18th Street and led to the formation of the YBLA collective.

CAA’s 100th Annual Conference and Centennial Celebration, Los Angeles, February 22–25, 2012: CAA hosts the world’s largest annual gathering of artists and arts professionals for four days of events, panels, and exhibitions. Visit http://conference.collegeart.org for more information. On-site registration opens on Tuesday, February 21 at 5:00 PM.

Image caption: Yvette Gellis, Breaking Point, Exterior, 66″x102″, oil, acrylic, pencil, 2011, photo courtesy of artist.

With less than a week left until the unveiling of Lita Albuquerque’s Performance, Spine of the Earth 2012, Lita is still accepting volunteers interested in participating in this re-interpretation of her seminal 1980 Mojave Desert earthwork. Volunteer for this performance and become a part of art history! This large-scale outdoor project is presented in conjunction with 18th Street Arts Center and the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival organized by Glenn Phillips of the Getty Research Institute and Lauri Firstenberg of LAXART.            

To participate in this historical piece taking place at the breathtaking Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook (6300 Hetzler Road, Culver City) on Sunday, January 22nd from 8am to 2pm, please sign up at:  www.spineoftheearth2012.com 

This month, 18th Street Arts Center and artist Vincent Ramos kick-off the 2012 Latino Community Access Participation (CAPS) project, consisting of a 10-week series of investigative art workshops taking place every Saturday to serve Latino youth at the Virginia Avenue Park Teen Center in Santa Monica. The workshops will focus on exploring the history of the Mexican-American community in Santa Monica through walking excursions, group projects, guest speakers, and film and video viewing. At the end of the workshop, the youth participants will fuse their findings to create an art installation to present at 18th Street’s next ArtNight on April 14.

Resident Artist Yvette Gellis is participating in a group show entitled To Live and Paint in LA, opening at the Torrance Art Museum on January 21, 2012. (Image Caption: “Breaking Point”, Exterior, 66″x102″, oil, acrylic, pencil, 2011, photo courtesy of artist)

Resident Artists Henriette Brouwers and John Malpede, founders of L.A.P.D.(Los Angeles Poverty Department) are hosting the Festival for All Skid Row Artists on January 27th and 28th from 12 pm to 4 pm in Gladys Park for participant artists from that community. California Lawyers for the Arts, an organization in Resident at 18th Street, is offering three workshops this month that will address the following issues: artist immigrant/non-immigrant visas, business entities for creative projects, and a live webinar on public art contracts. For more information on the dates and location of these workshops visit: http://www.calawyersforthearts.org/calendar/socal

Resident Artist Arzu Kosar, organizer of 18th Street’s notorious yarn bombing at our 2011 June ArtNight, is continuing the momentum of her group, YBLA (Yarn Bomb L.A.). On January 22, 2012 at 6:30 pm, YBLA will present their works for Art Soup Night at the BA restaurant in Highland Park in efforts to raise seed money for their upcoming project Chains of Friendship. They also have a new show entitled Forest for the Trees opening this month at the Craft and Folk Art Museum. The opening reception is January 28, 2012 from 6 pm to 9 pm.

18th Street Organization in Residence, Otis College’s M.F.A.Public Practice debuts in an exhibition entitled Portable Parks IV: Past, Present, Future = A.L.L., by Bonnie Ora Sherk, January 27 through February 5. This is a large-scale garden and series of public art projects that will be at the Santa Monica Place Mall in conjunction with the Getty’s Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival. For more information on this project visit: http://pacificstandardtimefestival.org/events/portable-parks-iv-past-present-future-a-l-l-by-bonnie-ora-sherk/

Get Your Tickets to the Affordable Art Fair L.A, running January 18-22, 2012. CLICK HERE to buy tickets.

In conjunction with the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival, 18th Street is proud to present resident artist Lita Albuquerque’s recreation of her seminal work “Spine of the Earth.” Originally performed in the Mojave desert in 1980, this performance will take place at the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook on Sunday, January 22, 2012 from 12-2pm. Lita is seeking volunteer performers for this large scale performance. To participate in this historical art event, sign up here: http://www.spineoftheearth2012.com/. The Pacific Standard Time Performance and Pubic Art Festival is organized by Glen Phillips of the Getty Research Institute and  Lauri Firstenberg of LAXART.

For more event information on this performance visit: www.18thstreet.org

Visiting Artist Kristian Skylstad and his gallery in Oslo, Norway known as “NoPlace” has organized an all Norwegian-artist exhibition entitled Calma Maria Magdelena. The show will debut in Kristian’s studio (1629 18th Street, studio # 3) on December 21, 2011 from 8pm-11pm. The exhibition is a constellation of artists from different segments of the art world in Norway. What the artists have in common is that they don’t have much in common with other artists. In that sense you could say that each and every one of them represents themselves and have a subjective approach to art, which is related to their emotions and fragments of their geographies. This is a very common method in Norwegian art, music and literature that has roots in the isolation the weather and Norway’s regional placement on the planet forces the mental sphere into. By showing these personal mysteries in the more open minded Los Angeles art scene, NoPlace hopes the friction between the pieces will create an energetic counteraction that will end up as a vague but powerful question: “How to talk about the big silence?” For more information on the participating artists in this exhibition visit: http://www.noplace.no/

With its unique content and its showcase of true trailblazers during the artist space movement of the 70s, 18th Street’s Pacific Standard Time Show, Collaborations Labs: Southern California Artist sand Artist Space Movement has quickly become a press favorite. Landing rave reviews from both LA weekly and the Los Angeles Times during the first month of its opening, Collaborations Labs has proven to be a “one of a kind” exhibition out of the Getty’s PST shows. Due to popular demand,18th Street is now extending the successful exhibition through March 16, 2012. Click on link to read the reviews by LA Times or LA Weekly.

Image Caption:  Suzanne Lacy / Leslie Labowitz-Starus, “Three Weeks in May” (1977), Color photographs and frame, 88″ x 51.5″ (Collection of the artists)

18th Street’s is excited to introduce a new young and vibrant Visiting Artist in Resident, Kristian Skylstad. Kristian is a visual artist from Olso, Norway. His residency is a partnership  between the Office of Norway, Contemporary Art and 18th Street Arts Center. Kristian has been working as a photographer, gallerist, curator, fiction writer, art critic and video artist. He deals with an ongoing conceptual art practice that is mostly connected to poetry, which also informs his work with documentaries. The Norwegian native claims that living in 18th Street’s studio has incited so much creativity and artistic ideas within him, that during the first week of his residency, Kristian created two new art pieces that were immediately sold by his gallery in Norway by an arts collector. For more information on Visiting Artist Kristian Skylstad visit www.18thstreet.org

 

On January 12 through February 1, 2012, 18th Street Artist in Residence, Suzanne Lacy, in partnership with Los Angeles students, art groups and multiple political organizations, presents a new public art performance called Three Weeks in January: End Rape in Los Angeles at LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions).Three Weeks in January is also a part of the Pacific Standard Time Performance and Public Art Festival. For more information on this performance visit: www.threeweeksinjanuary.org

Image Caption: TWIM_1977.jpg, Suzanne Lacy, Three Weeks in May, 1977. Pictured, Katja Beisanz stamps a rape
report on the map of Los Angeles. Courtesy of Suzanne Lacy.

Local Artist in Residence David McDonald is having a solo show of a recent sculpture at Carter and Citizen in Culver City. The show opens January 7 through February 18, 2012. The opening reception will be held at Carter and Citizen museum on January 7, 2012 from 6-9pm. For more information on his solo show visit: http://www.carterandcitizen.com/

Image Caption: Self Portrait (Protected Self), 2011 Wood, Cement, Hydrocal, Re Bar, Enamel Paint 34″ x 16″ x 18″

Organized by EZTV co-founder and Director Michael J. Masucci, EZTV presents a series five artists talks that includes a high-profile roster of artists who broke boundaries and created new forms in media art. From rarely seen psychedelic video works by Dr. Timothy Leary to early computer art by members of LA-SIGGRAPH, from early desktop video by EZTV co-founder John Dorr to the surrealist works by multidisciplinary group Vertical Blanking, these evenings will peel back LA’s cultural fabric to reveal key voices that have been excluded from the canon of media art history. SCHEDULE/MORE INFO…

18th Street’s co-founder Susanna Bixby Dakin releases her highly anticipated book, An Artist for President, which tells of her highly controversial run for the President of the United States of America, a bid she made against the nation’s favorite, Ronald Reagan. CHECK OUT A SHORT VIDEO ABOUT HER CAMPAIGN!

18th Street’s 2nd Annual Beer, Art & Music Festival Fundraiser was a huge success! Surpassing attendance records from the last year, the event brought in over 1,000 beer, art & music goers that danced, ate, drank and enjoyed the art until the very last minute of  the evening. 18th Street wants to send out a thank you to Crossroads Elementary School, all the vendors, volunteers, bands, beer breweries, and donors that helped make our fundraiser an amazing event this year.

18th Street welcomes new International Visiting Artist, Terje Nicolaisen. Visiting from Norway, Nicolaisen will continue to explore his identity as a contemporary artist and the nature of the self portrait. We look forward to seeing what he produces over the next few months.

Image: Terje Nicolaisen, Artist Run Artist, oil on canvas, 2011.

18th Street is please to announce that jazz saxophonist and composer Matana Roberts was selected as the recipient for 18th Street’s first jazz residency, generously funded by the Herb Alpert Foundation. Roberts will be in residence from December 2011 through February 2012, and will conclude her residency with a special culminating performance to showcase the work she creates while visiting. 

   

Through January 1, 2012, Resident Artist Michael Barnard is exhibiting his photofields and large-format prints from his book, 100 Waves at the Rose Café located on 220 Rose Avenue in Venice, California. There will also be a meet-the-artist session on November 13, 2:30–4:30 pm. MORE INFO…

On October 15, 18th Street’s International Visiting Artist Nevan Lahart‘s solo exhibition HD Softcore opened at the  Steve Turner Contemporary. The show features all new works, some made during his residency at 18th Street, that has turned the gallery into an immersive desert landscape made of discarded cardboard. HD Softcore is on view through November 12, 2011. MORE INFO…

Resident Artists Luciana Abait and Ichiro Irie are participants in the inaugural SUR Biennial, curated by Ronald Lopez and organized by Outpost for Contemporary Art, which opened on October 20. The SUR Biennial showcases new works by local artists who have been influenced by the cultures of Mexico, Central and South America. MORE INFO…

18th Street’s Organization in Residence California Lawyers for the Arts is pleased to be presenting our first webinar this week on “Copyright: An Introduction to the Basics” on Thursday, October 27th. This LIVE WEBINAR is a basic introduction to copyright law for the creative arts community. The General Public Rate is $29.99 and the CLA Member Rat is $14.99. TO REGISTER/MORE INFO…

On Sat, Sep 24, 6–10 pm, 18th Street is proud to host a landmark ArtNight that also celebrates its contribution to the regional initiative Pacific Standard Time: Art in LA, 1945–1980, organized by the Getty Foundation. As part of the project, 18th Street presents, in its Main Gallery and Project Room,Collaboration Labs: Southern California Artists and the Artist Space Movement, curated by Alex Donis and featuring the work of Rachel Rosenthal, Barbara T. Smith, EZTV, Electronic Café International as well as Suzanne Lacy and Leslie Labowitz-Starus. The evening features the Indonesian-inspired performing arts company Bali and Beyond playing gamelan music on beautifully handmade percussion instruments; an artist marketplace organized by past 18th Street Artist Project Room Resident Anna Guajardo; open studio visits with our current international visiting artists; the “dangerously good food” of the Komodo Truck; and complimentary drinks provided by Izze Sparkling Juice, Pama Pomegranate Liqueur, Hpnotiq and LunaAzul Tequila.In conjunction with this special night, one of 18th Street’s Resident Arts Organizations, Highways Performance Space, presents The All Stars of NonViolet Communication, a blue vaudevillian poem in three parts that unleashes the vitriol of four dead, under-appreciated gay entertainers of the 1970s. LEARN MORE!

18th Street Arts Center, in partnership with the Bel-Air Film Festival, is pleased to host the world premiere of The Woodmans on Sat, Oct 15, 12:45 pm at UCLA’s James Bridges Theater. Directed by C. Scott Willis, The Woodmans is a fascinating, unflinching portrait of the late photographer Francesca Woodman, told through the young artist’s work (including experimental videos and journal entries) and remarkably candid interviews with her artist parents who have continued their own artistic practices while watching Francesca’s professional reputation eclipse their own. LEARN MORE and PURCHASE TICKETS.

Image: Untitled, 1977–78 (Rome). Artist: Francesca Woodman. Photo courtesy of Lorber Films/Betty and George Woodman