Sharing the words of Juri Koll
I am honored to share the words of the artist, curator, filmmaker and fonder/director of Venice Institute of Contemporary Art, Juri Koll:
Thank you Juri, for your time, your care, and your comprehension of my work.
It means a great deal.
Keeping the Faith…Making Art Inspired by Great Artist Faith Ringgold
I am thrilled to be teaching MAKING ART INSPIRED BY GREAT ARTISTS at Franklin and Roosevelt Schools in the Santa Monica Public School System through the CREST Enrichment program.
After a span of two years, teaching live and in-person is exciting and energizing. The students are enthusiastic, helpful and creative and IMAGINATIVE and the parents and staff supportive and engaged.
Everyone is working together to make in-person teaching a safe and rewarding experience. Despite the challenges and great energy required, what fun to see these young artists exercise their imaginations, play, learn and create!
Students responded positively to our “Story Quilt” project, inspired by the Great Artist, Faith Ringgold.
Put cloth in their hands, and away they go!
Students draw an idea for their fabric “story, then begin working on felt with cloth pieces that are glued into place.
Imaginative use of the materials is the intuitive order of the day.
The stories begin to emerge.
Joyous play and exploration of fabrics, cloth scrap and tactile textiles!
The Center for Contemporary Art 2022 International Juried Show
I am thrilled to participate in the Center for Contemporary Art’s
International Juried Exhibition
showing “Maximum Security”
made of Book Board, Wood, Mulberry Paper, Paint, Canvas, Watercolor Paper, Hemp Cord
EXHIBITION DATES: January 14, 2022 – February 26, 2022
Opening: Friday, January 14, 2022 at 6:00 p.m. via Zoom
JUROR: Erin Jenoa Gilbert
Erin Jenoa Gilbert is a New York based curator and art advisor, specializing in Modern and Contemporary Art of the African Diaspora. Exploring the relationship between art, power and politics, her curatorial practice examines the physical and psychological connection to land, the trauma of displacement and the Black female body as contested terrain. Gilbert’s intersectional critical analysis exposes the fault lines in the aesthetic regimes that dominate visual culture, specifically by presenting artists whose contributions to the canon have been overlooked, particularly women artists from the “Deep South” and the “Global South”. Most recently the Curator of African American Manuscripts at the Smithsonian Archives of American Art, she has also held positions at The Art Institute of Chicago and The Studio Museum in Harlem.
Over the course of her career she has addressed audiences at The Studio Museum in Harlem, National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Howard University, Fashion Institute of Technology and Swann Auction House. Figure and Force, a conversation she moderated between Barbara Chase Riboud and Ilyasah Shabbaz for Solange’s Saint Heron, exemplifies her commitment to expanding the audience for modern and contemporary art.
In July 2021, Gilbert curated A Force For Change, an exhibition presenting 26 contemporary women artists of African descent in New York benefiting UN Women. She is the co-curator of Mary Lovelace O’Neal: Whales Fucking which will open at MoAD in San Francisco, California in November 2022. Since 2015 she has curated several museum and gallery exhibitions in the US and UK including Zohra Opoku: Draped Histories/Beyond Visage, Sienna Shields: Invisible Woman and In The Eye of the Beholder.
Gilbert holds a BA in Political Science and a BA in African and African American Studies from the University of Michigan, and a MA in Contemporary Art from the University of Manchester. She has published catalog essays on several prominent artists, including Deborah Roberts (Spelman University, 2018); Alma Thomas (Mnuchin Gallery, 2019); Chakaia Booker (ICA Miami, 2021) and Mary Lovelace O’Neal (MoAD, 2022).
Click Here to Read Erin Jenoa Gilbert’s Juror Statement
I am honored to be in the company of wonderful EXHIBITING ARTISTS: Joan Appel, Claude Beller, Bill Brookover, Monica J. Brown, Lionel Carre, Arden Cone, Steven Daiber, Tracy DiTolla, Marvin Eans, Steven Epstein, Tracy Finn, Sandy Furst, Anita Gladstone, Gregory Hennen, Valerie Huhn, Pat Kelly, Karen L. Kirshner, Jack Knight, Shawn Marshall, Monica Mendes, Edward Mills, Myra Joyce Nowlin, David Z. Orban, Clare Parry, Sandi Pfeifer, Robert Reid, Lilly Saywitz, Alireza Vaziri Rahimi, Mark Vogel, Chrissy Wallace
ENJOY THE SHOW HERE!
Teaching Artistry Live and In-Person!
Even in these times, it is wonderful to get back to live, in-person teaching!
Teaching classes outside at Santa Monica Public Schools, through the CREST Enrichment program, after a span of two years, is exciting and energizing. The students are enthusiastic, helpful and creative, the parents and staff supportive and engaged.
Everyone is working together to make in-person teaching a safe and rewarding experience.
I am teaching MAKING ART INSPIRED BY GREAT Artists at Franklin and Roosevelt Schools in the afternoon, and MAKE YOUR OWN BOOKS! at ROOSEVELT SCHOOL first thing in the morning. Despite the challenges and great energy required, what fun to see these young artists exercise their imaginations, play, learn and create!
Students work outdoors to create personal frames for their Frida Kahlo-inspired self-portrait projects.
How they design the frames may communicate as much about them as their self-portraits inside them will.
Even the backpacks are works of art!
In our MAKE YOUR OWN BOOKS! class students learn the accordion fold book structure,
and begin developing their books with visual art and writing right away!
It is fantastic, watching the masterpieces unfold!
Visioning the New Year with the Panorama Branch Library
In December, 2021, we completed our 2021-22 Artist Residency in bookmaking at the the Panorama City Branch Library, supported by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
I say “we” rather than “I”, as this was a team effort with the Library Staff, and of course, the DCA, always supportive!
During our residency “CULMINATION EVENT” participants created “Vision Journals” to welcome the New Year, and help them set intentions and goals for 2022.
Our online event was well-attended, fun and inspiring.
A wonderful way to complete the Residency, the year, and gather our strength, resiliency, hope, imagination and creativity to move into 2022!