Conversations | With Entheogenic Intent (Burn the Witch)

Conversation with invited artists
18th Street Arts Center | Main Gallery
Tuesday, February 25, 6:30 – 8:30pm

Space limited, free RSVP strongly encouraged: http://burnthewitch25feb2014.eventbrite.com

As Artist Lab Resident at 18th Street Arts Center, artist Elena Bajo develops a site-specific body of work that examines botanical, topographical, and textual elements to reveal the layers of the everyday and the specific temporality of social encounters born out of her residency. Bajo contemplates local indigenous shamanism as political dissidence, the universal history of magic, and the continuous suppression of stifled histories of revolutionary women by political systems via colonization and witch-hunting.

During her exhibition, With Entheogenic Intent (Burn the Witch), the space will fluctuate constantly as an environment where new spells will be cast and new historical elements undertaken. Local artists receive a text piece that they interpret and respond to. The result is a revolving exhibition of ideas, which are removed, abandoned, and replaced for others.

Invited Artists Project Intervention:

Gala Porras-Kim, curated by Amanda Hunt

Danielle McCullough, curated by Anthony Leslie

Artist/Curator Biographies:

Amanda Hunt is a curator at LA><ART, Los Angeles. Hunt is also curator of the forthcoming Portland2014: A Biennial of Contemporary Art, presented by Disjecta Contemporary Art Center in Portland, Oregon. She has worked at various galleries and institutions including Whitechapel Gallery, London; Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York; the Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Anthony Leslie is a librarian who lives in Los Angeles.  He has published writing in The Journal of Artists’ Books and The Art Book Review.

Danielle McCullough has exhibited work in Los Angeles, Joshua Tree, Seattle, Berlin, Amsterdam, New York and other cities throughout the US.. She is a recipient of grants from the Creative Capacity Fund, Change, Inc., and an artist residency at The Vermont Studio Center. McCullough has done several projects for High Desert Test Sites including Blast Site: A Workshop for Conjecture, and Panel Shop. She has written articles about art in Los Angeles for Art 21, Whitehot Magazine, Art Book Review, and In These Times. McCullough is also one of the founders and editors of Los Angeles Art Resource, a website for the Los Angeles arts community to share job opportunities, calls for entry, studio vacancies and regional grant/fellowship deadlines.

Gala Porras-Kim‘s work has been included in exhibitions at Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles; 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, CA; La Central, Bogotá, Colombia; Tompkins Projects, New York, NY; FOXRIVER, Singapore; and Dobaebacsa HQ, Seoul, Korea. She received her BA from UCLA (2007), MFA from the California Institute of the Arts (2009), and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2010). She is a 2013 California Community Foundation Fellow.

Elena Bajo’s Artist Lab Residency at 18th Street Arts Center and all associated events have been made possible through the generous support of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.