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When I reflect on my first six months at 18th Street and think about the upcoming quarter, growth comes to mind. I was excited and grateful to join the team almost immediately after finishing my Master’s program. The organization interested me because of the team's plans to develop its programming and campus.

The next quarter is full of change and growth both in the gallery and outside as we move forward with renovations at the Olympic campus, California Creative Corps and Jenny Yurshansky’s Rinsing the Bones. Watching the campus change and our buildings get painted is exciting. I am eager to help our 18 artists across the state grow their practice through the California Creative Corps and see gallery visitors add their stories to Jenny Yurshansky’s Unfolding Narratives quilt. 

I am excited to continue my professional growth alongside 18th Street. 

Sydney Brundige
Administrative Assistant

Visiting Artists-in-Residence

Hell Gette, „#🌞🗡(#sunstorms #sirenes3.0)“, 2023. 200 x 230 cm. Oil on canvas. Photo
by Izzy Leung. Courtesy of Hell Gette.

Hell Gette
August – October 2023

Hell Gette is a German painter born in Karabulak, Kazakhstan, based in Germany.
Her practice includes ceramics and oil paintings.

Hell Gette paints :
“#Landscape3.0 Future landscape paintings.
I use digital vocabulary such as Photoshop tools, computer game logic, emoji icons etc to create my own world. A back and forth between digital and analog, classic and zeitgeist techniques. Starting with a plein air watercolor painting, I then play with a variety of digital tools in order to get its vocabulary, just to paint it all in oils. I like the ambivalence between virtual, modern, “untouchable” in an art historically strongly funded technique such as oil colors. This break makes it highly interesting for me.”

Gil Yefman, Tumtum, 2013. 99 x 99 x 99 inch, Crochet, acrylic yarn. Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris. Photo by Pauline Guyon. Courtesy of Louis Vuitton.

Gil Yefman
August 2023

Gil Yefman is a conceptual transdisciplinary artist based in Tel Aviv and represented by Shoshana Wayne Gallery, LA. Yefman creates sculptures, videos, performances, installations, and two dimensional works that are process-oriented and are often developed collaboratively. Using soft materials like felt and yarn, Yefman’s practice considers difficult histories while imagining the potential for individual and collective healing. Yefman uses archival materials as points of departure from which the knitting process resembles writing – texts and contexts become textures suggesting alternative interpretations to dogmatic translations.

DENG Wen-Jen, Gunintou Battle II 1949 (detail), 2021. Tapestry, linen, and cotton threads. Image courtesy of the artist.

Wen-Jeng Deng
July – September 2023

Wen-Jen Deng graduated from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (L’ENSB-A) in Paris, France. Recently, she has been working on soft sculptures made with natural dyes, together with woven and embroidered maps. Deng’s latest creation, Pingpu Origins, focuses on Taiwan’s historical events, aboriginal culture, and ethnic integration issues. Fond of mountaineering and hiking, Deng has climbed many high mountains in Taiwan. She enriches her creations by integrating the history, myths, legends, and ethnic migration paths into tapestry and map art. The theme of this residency in the United States is the age of great navigation in the world: “the globalization movement on the table”, how fruits and vegetables are spread all over the world.

This residency is made possible by an artist residency partnership between 18th Street Arts Center and the Taiwan Academy.

Lawrence Lek, Geomancer, 2017. Video with colour, sound, 48min. Still. Commissioned for the Jerwood/FVU Award. Courtesy of the artist and Sadie Coles HQ.

Lawrence Lek
June – August 2023

Lawrence Lek is a London-based artist, filmmaker, and musician working with video game engines, simulation, and architecture. He explores worldbuilding—the crafting of holistic fictional worlds—as a form of collage, incorporating elements from both material and virtual sources to develop narratives of alternate histories and possible futures.

Jenny Yurshansky: Rinsing the Bones | July 8 - November 30
Curated by Karen Moss

Jenny Yurshansky Rinsing the Bones Website Header

Jenny Yurshansky’s Rinsing the Bones explores how generational displacement passes the embodied trauma of dislocation onto future generations. 

During the past two years, Yurshansky held a series of community-based workshops in the greater Los Angeles area for participants to tell their migration story, whether it be personal or ancestral. The resulting materials formed the foundation of the exhibition featuring all new works, including an installation scale quilt comprised of illustrated family narratives; audio testimonials in the form of playable, eroding, X-ray film records; bone-like 3D-printed sculptures of  participant’s treasured handheld heirlooms; and photograms resembling airport X-rays. During the exhibition, the public is invited to share migration histories, excavate memories held in the body, and explore inter-generational trauma. Yurshansky provides opportunities for healing and empathy, creating a safe space for visitors to add their voices to the “unfolding narratives'' they may discover through this communal social fabric.

Related Programming

Programs for Artists-in-Residence and Borderless Citizens

18SAC regularly provides visiting and local artists-in-residence and Borderless Citizens exclusive professional development, networking and community-building opportunities to build skills and connections.

Not an AIR but want to participate? Join our membership program, Borderless! LEARN MORE >> 

18SAC Potluck at the Airport Campus. July 2019. Photo by Slyvana G.

Pallette Potluck

September 28, 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm
1639 18th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90404 United States

Artists-in-residence, Borderless citizens and the 18th Street Arts Center community are invited to join us for our monthly potluck! Bring a homemade or store-bought dish and get ready to connect with others in the community. Free to attend and no RSVP needed.

Artist-Led Events

With over 60 active local artists and organizations-in-residence, 18SAC artists are activating spaces in Los Angeles and beyond.

*This space is regularly updated as we receive information. Follow us on social media to stay up-to-date! 

California Creative Corps

Jun12_18th Street_CCC_Launch_Final_Hero Banner

After a six-month rigorous search and project development process—work that yielded 375 inspiring proposals from artists and cultural practitioners in communities throughout California—18th Street Arts Center announces its first California Creative Corps cohort, an incredible pool of 18 change-makers and community builders. 

The corps of fellows will receive a year-long $65K salary plus benefits and a production budget up to $50,000 and execute year-long creative interventions across the state from Yreka near the Oregon border to City Heights in San Diego. Projects are designed to reduce the barriers to health and well-being in communities that demonstrate the highest level of need. Creative practices include filmmaking, poetry, graphic novels, photography, dance, and traditional art. Place-based art-making projects will engage diverse communities, including Native peoples, migrants, LGBTQIA+, POC and long-time residents. The projects explore a broad range of systemic challenges including pollution, gentrification, healthcare, wellbeing, cultural identity and community/belonging.

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