“Citizen Artists Making Emphatic Arguments”
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“CITIZEN ARTISTS MAKING EMPHATIC ARGUMENTS”
Continues a year long examination of electoral issues at 18th Street Arts Center
Curated by Adolfo V. Nodal, featuring artist fellow Los Animistas
With Ala Plastica, Lauren Bon, BULBO, CoLabART (Lynn Small + Dennis Paul), Echo Park Film Center, Fallen Fruit, Invisible 5, Natalie Jeremijenko, Newton & Hellen Mayer Harrison, Tom Reddock, Shannon Spanhake, Kim Stringfellow, Robert Tannen
July 12 – September 13, 2008
Opening Reception Saturday, July 12, 6-9 pm
Santa Monica, CA – In this election year, who will turn “saving energy” from a mere ad
campaign to a real lifestyle change, who will step up to the plate to make radical changes from green washing media hype into revolutionary living beyond crude oil and other accepted fossil burning “necessities” – and what will be the impact on the future of the nation?
18th Street Arts Center turns its gallery yet again to a myriad of work that is profound, inspiring, active, and charged with social implications with its show “Citizen Artists Making Emphatic Arguments.”
The exhibition, which opens July 12 and continues through September 13, forms the third
installment of “Future of Nations,” 18th Street’s yearlong examination of issues related to the 2008 presidential campaign. “Citizen Artists Making Emphatic Arguments” is curated by Adolfo V. Nodal and includes works by Ala Plastica, Lauren Bon, BULBO, CoLabART (Lynn Small + Dennis Paul), Echo Park Film Center, Fallen Fruit, Invisible 5, Natalie Jeremijenko, Newton & Helen Mayer Harrison, Tom Reddock, Shannon Spanhake, Kim Stringfellow, and Robert Tannen, as well as an installation in the project room by Los Animistas, 18th Street’s 2008 artist fellow.
In response to a gloomy forecast in current world events, and lack of government action, Citizen Artists not only step up but address the problems with emphatic arguments toward making our world a better environment for the future of nations. Mr. Nodal states, “The Citizen Artists have employed a collaborative process with a multidisciplinary approach, involving all creative disciplines in collaboration with politicians, environmental activists, scientists, and community organizers to help individuals and communities understand and face the challenges of environmental justice, global environmental degradation, and for the last eight years, US indifference to environmental issues facing our world. Over the last three years this exciting momentum for creative solutions of many kinds has reached a critical mass.”
18th Street Arts Center. Citizen Artists Making Emphatic Arguments. Page 2 of 2
As just a few examples, Artist Tom Reddock sets the stage with a sound work comprised of thunderous sounds, birds chirping, waves crashing, and mysterious synthesized sounds.
Kim Stringfellow’s photography is paradoxically beautiful. Bombay Beach, part of a body of work entitled, Greetings from the Salton Sea depicts the remains of a dilapidated turquoise bus sitting in a reddish brown foamy, soup-like substance with a rich blue background that lightens as the sky descends upon the bus.
In Super Nova, Robert Tannen, delights us with his current passion, boulder fragments of the planet, literally. Accompanied by drawings and photographs of these fragments of Earth, which overall look more like a shrine to a beloved one that has passed away, this piece is part of a body of work entitled, Star Dust.
Regarding the complete body of work, Adolfo Nodal states, “Together they represent a great mix of ideas and approaches that are becoming a critical mass of activism and capturing the imagination of the world.… They all serve as emphatic arguments in the development of the discourse on the future of the planet.”
“Citizen Artists Making Emphatic Arguments” is made possible (in part) by the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica Arts Commission, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, the Peter Norton Family Foundation, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, and the James Irvine Foundation.
Adolfo V. Nodal (Curator) has served as the Executive Director of Contemporary Arts
Institutions in Washington, DC. (Washington Project for the Arts, 1978-83), Los Angeles, CA. (Otis Parsons School of Art Exhibition Center, 1983-87) and New Orleans, Louisiana
(Contemporary Arts Center, 1988). He has served as trustee of several local and national arts institutions including Americans For The Arts, the National Assembly Of Local Arts Agencies (NALAA), The Urban Arts Federation, and as a founding member of the National Association of Artists Organizations LA Works, and LA Shares (Materials for the Arts). Currently Mr. Nodal is President of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Commission. He is also Project General Manager for the Annenberg Foundation/FarmLab LLC where he is overseeing the construction of major public art projects in Los Angeles. He also works in the area of cultural development and the political evolution of his native Cuba.
18th Street Arts Center is Southern California’s premier alternative contemporary art and artist residency center, supporting emerging to mid- career artists and arts organizations dedicated to issues of community, diversity, and social justice in contemporary society.18th Street’s programs include residencies for Los Angeles artists and art organizations, residencies for international visiting artists, two galleries for visual arts exhibitions, and free events for the public.
