CAMPAIGN 2016 | 18th Street
Give by June 30 to help us reach our Fiscal Year-End Goal
TEDDY RAVEN
ARTIST RESIDENT, MAKE JAZZ FELLOW
Los Angeles, 2016
Redefining What It Means to Be An Artist and Musician
Teddy Raven spent three months at 18th Street creating new pieces exploring compositional techniques and varied musical influences from around the world.
Raven, a former Fulbright Fellow, is a saxophonist, composer, and educator based in the Bay Area, California. He regularly performs with a wide variety of groups in diverse genres such as jazz, funk, Balkan, electronic, and more, and has become an in-demand performer, composer, and educator due to his versatility, professionalism, and passion for music.
A believer in the social power of music to unite, Teddy has traveled around the United States, Eastern and Western Europe, and Turkey as a performer, educator, and student to share the joy that music can bring. His experience at 18th Street was transformative.
“Receiving the Make Jazz Fellowship was one of the most important opportunities of my career thus far, and really helped me to redefine what it means to be an artist and musician. It made clear that making a living as a musician and creating art are not necessarily the same thing, and having three months to only worry about creating my art brought me back to what I care most about in music, along with needed clarity for my long term career goals.”
REDEFINE YOURSELF
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AMIR H. FALLAH
ARTIST LAB RESIDENT
Los Angeles
Freedom To Experiment –
Going Beyond the Routine
LA-based painter and installation artist Amir H. Fallah spent 3 months at 18th Street. During
his time with us, he collaborated with children at local schools in creating imagined portraits of
their future selves with no rules or limitations. The experience was inspiring and “outside of his box.” He says:
“18th Street gave me the freedom to explore an experimental approach to my work that I
otherwise wouldn’t be able to do in a commercial gallery setting. I had a lot more room to play.
I believe it is imperative to support 18th Street because it really provides a service that other
gallery and museum structures don’t provide. The freedom to explore and have an open
ended project is very rare even in other nonprofits. 18th Street is an exhibit residency hybrid.
It’s important as an artist to have that artistic grab bag of experiences. This is where you
grow and give yourself the freedom to play with either new media or new concepts. 18th Street
gives you the space to try out new things and take risks.”
Fallah’s work has been shown from New York to Dubai, where he exhibits at The Third Line,
with recent shows at LA Louver, JOYCE gallery in Hong Kong, and Gallery Wendi Norris in
San Francisco. He credits 18th Street with expanding his realm of artistic experimentation and
broadening his craft.
EXPERIMENT, TAKE RISKS, GO BEYOND
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CANDICE LIN
ARTIST LAB RESIDENT, 2015
Los Angeles
Delving Deep Into Research and
Exploring Structural Possibilities
“The Artist Lab Residency at 18th Street offered me an opportunity to develop and synthesize a
body of research I had been working on since 2012, on plant use in decolonial and feminist
struggles in 18th century Europe and the Caribbean. During this concentrated three months,
I was able to spend the necessary time reading and thinking. This is often hard to find time to do
when the emphasis is usually on production of art objects to sell.
I was also able to try out alternate forms of art making – leading workshops that utilized plant
material, weaving in anecdotal findings from my research. These workshops were offered as
part of 18th Street’s public programming, and from them I felt a deep satisfaction and I plan to
incorporate the workshop format as an art form in my practice.
The openness and freedom and generous financial support of the Artist Lab Residency
allowed me to focus on the aspects of my work that really mattered – the conceptual, historical
research, the sharing of this knowledge, and engagement with the public – in a new form that I
would not have discovered working alone in my studio.
I could not imagine a more apt place to develop my research on plant use in various feminist
and decolonial struggles in history than 18th Street. I felt very stimulated and cared for in this
environment. In turn, I was really able to thrive – delving deep into my research, printing
more than 20 etchings and 5 drawings, while exploring sculptural possibilities. I am eternally grateful!”
Lin’s work has recently been exhibited at the Kadist Art Foundation in Paris, the Delfina Foundation in London,
La Maison Populaire in Paris, and Alhondiga Bilbao, Spain with solo exhibitions at Francois Ghebaly Gallery (Los
Angeles) and CAAA (Guimaraes, Portugal).
DELVE INTO DISCOVERY AND POSSIBILITY
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YVETTE GELLIS
LOCAL ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Los Angeles
Advancing Conversations That Matter
Yvette Gellis has spent the last 7 and a half years creating, curating, and producing paintings
and installations at 18th Street. She is the recipient of the Foundation Tenot
and UNESCO award in 2014 and 2015. She recently completed an artist residency at Artilier
Salzamt, Linz, Austria; The Soulangh Artist Village, Jiali, Taiwan; and Camac,
Marnay-sur-Seine, France. She views 18th Street as an incubator and inspiration for her success:
“18th Street has been a wonderfully supportive environment for my career. I’ve had the
opportunity to develop new bodies of work, and mount installations embracing new ideas, but
most importantly, the relationships I’ve made with visiting artists from around the globe have
promoted exciting collaborations and many international exhibitions.
The exchange of ideas here not only promotes positive change to our immediate environment,
but advances conversations that matter – which make a difference to the quality of life in our
community, our city, and ultimately the world stage. Santa Monica has grown into a model
progressive city and the 18th Street Arts Center reflects and is part of this great movement forward.
HELP MOVE THE WORLD FORWARD
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ELENA BAJO
ARTIST LAB RESIDENT
Berlin, Los Angeles
Preserving the World’s Imagination
Elena Bajo spent 3 months at 18th Street, expanding her installation, sculpture, and participatory practice on indigenous history, contemporary development, and social injustice. In her words:
“The support through the stipend, plus the exhibition and working space that 18th Street gave me for 3 months was really amazing and unique; this allowed me freedom to experiment; I didn’t have to worry about anything other than the work itself.
The desire for change, the desire to imagine different worlds, this is the one essential role of the artist as a preserver of the world’s imagination… We need to support places where imagination to create is nurtured, and 18th Street Arts Center is a place where art, artists, and their desire for change and their desire to imagine the future is fully supported.
Art starts with the individual. Krishnamurti would say the most important revolution happens first inside of us, and art has the capacity to change how we look at the world. This is essential to a human being and to life.”
Following her residency, Bajo was invited by Garcia Galeria to present the new work created at 18th Street in the ARCOmadrid 2015 Art Fair, and was recognized as one of “The 20 Most Outstanding Women in the Arts” by El Mundo in Spain.
HELP PRESERVE THE WORLD’S IMAGINATION
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SUSTAIN
18th Street is one of the top 20 artist residency programs in the country. Through artist
residencies, exhibitions, publications, new media platforms, and public events, 18SAC has
served over 6,000 American artists and hosted over 450 international artists from 54
countries in its nearly 30-year history.
Photo Credits:
Elena Bajo, photo by Matías Muñoz-Rodríguez
Yvette Gellis, Ascension, 9ft. x 14ft.
Amir H. Fallah, “Perfect Strangers,” 18th Street Arts Center Installation
Candice Lin, detail from Wigan Pit-Brow Women, 2011, dimensions variable (room-sized installation) watercolor and ink on cut and hinged paper, courtesy of the artist