Statement

Although graffiti is often seen as a form of property destruction through tagging, it is a misunderstood art form. In cities like Los Angeles, we witness vibrant and expressive graffiti pieces that reflect real artistic talent. This is the side of graffiti that deserves recognition.

Graffiti has been recognized as an art form for decades, deeply rooted in the study of writing. Each graffiti style deconstructs various writing systems—from Latin script and medieval calligraphy to cursive. Every graffiti artist develops unique styles and techniques to make their tags and pieces distinct, involving a meticulous study of letter structure, shape, and color. Humanity has inscribed its presence on surfaces for millennia, and this inherent drive to write continues through the medium of graffiti.

I’ve spent my life in the vibrant Pico Union neighborhood, adjacent to Los Angeles’ renowned graffiti hub. Surrounded by local graffiti artists, I developed a passion for the art form from a young age, inspired by my brother and cousins. Pico Union has shaped me, fostering resilience and imparting invaluable life lessons.

The spray can as a multifaceted tool for creating diverse artistic expressions, particularly graffiti, which has significantly influenced my life. Mastering the spray can requires years of practice, involving different pressures, caps, paints, and finger techniques. Understanding these techniques demands a holistic approach, engaging the entire body to produce straight lines, curves, and shadows. Despite its misunderstood reputation due to its association with graffiti, the spray can is undeniably an artistic tool.

Having been immersed in graffiti, I sought to create a new concept that merges graffiti with ceramics. Since humans have been etching onto stones and rocks for thousands of years, this fusion felt like a natural extension of my passion for both ceramics and graffiti. My work aims to bridge the gap between these two art forms, blending the raw, expressive style of graffiti with the refined craftsmanship of ceramics.

For this artwork, I employed various techniques, primarily using coils mixed with wheel throwing. The piece was built on an 18-inch wheel-thrown base, with coils added and smoothed every five layers to form the cylindrical shape. The dome was created using a large bowl mold, onto which coils were added on the wheel to shape the dome, which was then placed atop the cylinder. The valve and cap involved intricate wheel throwing and precise shaping, complemented by hand-built elements. The carved designs on the can were freehand drawn before carving. The colors chosen reflect the commonly used hues in graffiti, while also emphasizing the earthy materials intrinsic to ceramics.

This innovative approach showcases my vision of what graffiti can become when translated onto ceramics, opening a new door for both art forms and celebrating their shared heritage.

Statement

I am a storyteller. I use visual and conceptual means to convey experiences, emotions, and ideals. My practice is multidisciplinary and spans a broad range of media- used individually and in multiple combinations or configurations according to the underlying concepts of the work. 

 
Vintage luggage, sourced from flea markets, thrift stores, garage sales, and more, forms the foundation of the “Baggage Series”. These sculptures use mixed media to explore the notion of “baggage”—in all its emotional and physical manifestations. The works are imbued with a sense of nostalgia and evoke the sense of looking into the souls of the past and present. I examine psychological and social issues while inviting the viewer to imagine their contents, past histories and journeys.

The baggage series has evolved over time. Coming from a background of figure sculpture, I first began sculpting both the suitcase and figure, then went on to combining sculpted figures with real suitcases. Finally, I moved to a large-scale body of non-figurative installations using vintage suitcases and other mixed media. 

For this exhibition, I revisit the figure/baggage iteration. In my piece “All Things Considered”, five sculpted bronze female figures inhabit the space in, on, and around a vintage Vogue train case. 

The train case was transformed into a miniature travel trunk, complete with clothes filled, workable drawers. As the woman considers her many different perspectives and feelings about her ‘baggage”, her personal narrative becomes something universal. The sculpture is a testimonial to the hardships and joys of life’s journey.

My works have been exhibited in local and national exhibitions since 2000 at venues including The Museum of Sonoma County, Santa Rosa, CA; Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA; San Luis Obispo Museum of Art, San Luis Obispo, CA; The Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, CA; Mesa College, San Diego, CA; Studio Channel Islands Gallery, Camarillo, CA and Pink Dog Gallery, Ashville, NC. 

I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from California State University, Long Beach, CA. Furthering influencing my studio practice and professional worldview were my employment at the Getty Museum and Trust, The Frederick Weisman Company and with Artist Ed Ruscha.

Biography

Nurit Avesar is a mixed media artist and a painter. Her process-based images are combinations of the faded, ghostly images of the initial layer that blend and merge with the bolder, brighter final layers. She states, “History is not linear; it is interwoven with present and future. I have always been fascinated by the effect of history on the present, and the way current events and decisions determine the future.”

Avesar’s recent solo exhibitions include LAUNCH LA, Los Angeles, CA, 2024. Beyond Baroque, Los Angeles, CA (2019), Monica Film Center, Santa Monica, CA (2018) and Neutra Institute Museum, Silver Lake, CA (2016). Group exhibitions include Studio Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA (2023); Keystone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2017); Carnegie Museum in Oxnard, CA (2016); CSU Dominguez Hills California State University Dominguez Hills (2016) and Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CA (2015).

She recently curated the exhibition “First Response” at Keystone Gallery in Los Angeles. Avesar was the 2010 recipient of the Cal State University Dean Art Purchase Award. Avesar is a member of the Kipaipai Fellows directed by Andi Campognone, director of the Lancaster Museum of Art and History.  She was the National Women’s Caucus for the Arts (NWCA) July Featured Artist, and in her work was featured in Artillery Magazine, November-December 2022.  She is represented by Janssen Artspace in Palm Springs, CA.

Nurit Avesar was born in a Kibbutz in Israel. She moved to Los Angeles in her early 20’s. During her early career she worked as a graphic designer and an illustrator. In 2010, she completed a MA in Studio Art at California State University, Northridge. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles.

Statement

There is so much that goes into the making of something – I’ll state the essentials.

My process is emergent, an interplay of thoughts and material. I’m influenced by mood and observations found in the natural environment. I don’t work from a plan, rather it’s an exploration of “finding” that involves on-going motions of painting, arranging, and analyzing… At times the wood panels I work on are cut apart, various pieces can be re-joined or saved, and painted surfaces might be sanded down then re-painted. The panels bring solidity, a structured reality of edges, corners and frame. They are like an “architecture” that I often contrast to a softened palette. More recently I’ve been interested in incorporating soft, raw canvas in counterpoint to these elements.

This is formal work and involves the challenges and pleasures of composing. When I’m working a “conversation” begins, discussing shifts of shape and color, texture and line, balance or motion. Really, it’s a juxtaposition of real materials to the imagined and illusory, and I aim for something evocative, ultimately, something distilled. When something surprising and unexpected emerges, I know I’m done.

“Small Parts and Past Labors” is the result of finding and using favorite, saved small fragments – it was a pleasure to place them and create a whimsical whole from their parts.

Biography

Growing up in Port Hueneme, Calistro was influenced by the serene yet isolating environment of their hometown. Their education at Occidental College, surrounded by a close-knit artistic community near Los Angeles, further shaped their perspective and work. Their art draws inspiration from the raw emotional intensity of artists like Louise Bourgeois and the poetic introspection of Sylvia Plath, intersecting with contemporary discussions on truth, vulnerability, and the human condition.

Statement

My career as an artist spans over 3 decades but I have drawn since early childhood. It was not an easy childhood and the act of drawing brought comfort. The joys I felt as a mother inspired me to show my works in exhibitions. I spent more than 35 years drawing and painting people in places of communal exchange. I also taught art (2nd. Thru 12th) at two private schools. My works brought opportunities to exhibit locally, nationally, and even internationally. I spent the 90’s sitting in cafes and barbershops sketching and creating paintings about community and diversity. I looked for the soul of each person I sketched. Grandpa Jake was based on my grandfather Jacob Feldman, who at nine years old escaped a pogrom in Russia to England. He eventually married and owned a barbershop In Cincinnati, Ohio. This series allowed me to understand my family roots better. I also spent years riding the metro and sketching the people on the trains. Bird on the Metro is about how we each long to be free from our current situations. During and after the pandemic I became overwhelmed by the constantly changing ideologies of the world. At that time, I turned to nature to find serenity and bring healing and the love of nature to others. My bird series now is evolving to include other animals. Each nature painting is a story about love, loss and forgiveness. Nature will always be the first original art. I and other artists are the interpreters for God’s gifts and a reminder that there is still beauty in an uncertain world.

Biography

Winston Braun, a Southern California-based illustrator, delves into themes of magic, folklore, and language through his work. His art examines the nuances of humor, the paradoxes of luck, and the peculiarities of superstition. Utilizing drawing and printmaking techniques, Braun is particularly interested in the interplay between mechanical reproduction and the tactile nature of mark-making.

Biography

Starting in 2016 I resumed making art after working two decades as a clinical psychologist.

At that time, I started exploring alternative forms of landscape art, mostly viewed from an aerial perspective. In the USGS Map Project, I adapted pen-and-ink topographical maps of great geological monuments in Utah and Arizona formed over millennia. Presented mostly in vertical panels, these maps read more as abstract forms – some recognizable, others defying description.

Another body of work explores satellite imagery of residential neighborhoods, some established and others under construction. Also conceptualized as alternative landscapes, these prints provide unsentimental overhead views of America in the early 21st century. Once printed on paper, the images are folded into evenly distributed zig-zag ridges and mounted so that they appear to float on the wall.

My current landscapes show enlarged and carefully camouflaged hand tools arrayed over vast urban worksites, all seen from above, yielding figure-ground compositions that are initially difficult to see.

Since 2019 my work has been shown in 47 juried group exhibitions in 26 cities including New York, Boston, Providence, Washington, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Portland, Raleigh, St. Louis, and Kansas City. My work has also been exhibited in San Rafael, Mill Valley, and Laguna Beach.

Statement

in·fra-structure

The birth of a modern American housing subdivision begins by reshaping the natural contours of the land. Next comes the infrastructure. This photographic series starts when the ground is peeled back to make way for the hidden underlying structural networks that supports our modern life above. Using a flash and photographing at dusk and dawn I am attempting to breathe life into these usually hidden components of our existence above.

Statement

With “Contemplation in Blue,” I experimented with AI technology to create a sculpture that feels machine-like but is human nonetheless. It is composed of carefully crafted parts that become a cubist bust. Shaped by AI and realized with 3D printing, each component fits together to portray a moment of thought. My desire to explore modern tools for artistic expression ultimately led me to a version of portraiture that utilizes engineering and imagination. The geometric style and the tranquil blue color highlight the complexity of human reflection.

Biography

Carlos Grasso, an Argentinian native, is gaining notoriety for his “Mind Tapestries” series, his immersive installations and his previous “Canvas Deconstruction” paintings, also known as his “shredded” series. He has spent over 45 years abroad in France and the United States, where he has not only transitioned from a professional musician to a full-time artist, but also moved from representational art (which he studied under master David Leffel) to abstraction, mixed media, installations, and conceptual art.

In his studio in Ojai, California, one can find torn canvases, found objects, and disproportionately large brushes – the tools of an inquisitive and imaginative mind. With these, Carlos weaves a variety of stories and employs a range of techniques.

Throughout the years, Carlos has exhibited his work in numerous museums and galleries, including the LA Art Show, The Museum of Ventura County, The Santa Paula Museum, Ojai Valley Museum, Studio Channel Islands Art Center, Art Share L.A., OCCCA (Orange County Center for Contemporary Arts), Building Bridges (Santa Monica, LA, Bergamot Station), and the San Diego Art Institute. His collectors can be found all across the United States, Italy and France.

In his own words:

“I usually greet collectors, curators and visitors to my studio with a “welcome to my playground!” My art requires the essential element of play, whether designing my own colorful modern mandalas on paper and canvas, cutting and shredding painted the canvas by hand, or assembling found objects on textured panels. The more I get out of my own way, the more creativity flows unobstructed and strangely enough, the more I control my medium.

Artists—in all branches and disciplines—are the preeminent voice of both the collective and the individual unconscious. Art brings to the surface, to our awareness, all the processes that run deep, embedded, and often silently ignored within. As the ancient philosopher once said, “the unexamined life is not worth living.“

Statement

In becoming an artist, my journey spans a lifetime, from the earliest memories sitting under the baby-grand while my mother taught voice, to years of piano studies. Then with the discovery of the French horn, there was no turning back. A music degree was followed by years of orchestral playing, finally, to picking up a paintbrush when my music career was interrupted.

It was a move to Japan that inadvertently provided an opportunity to study Japanese Shodo, (calligraphic writing,) which bonded me in a relationship with the brush. Returning to the States, I pursued figurative drawing and painting intensely, developing a propensity and proficiency for working in watercolor and the figure.

This new direction didn’t change the musician in me. It is still my reference point and insight to creating visual art. Whether working in watercolor, oil, or acrylic, my focus is to feel the same innate and emotional values I found in playing the horn, that essential understanding of the myriad colors of tone one can produce; feeling the rhythm and connection, to convey a journey, a story, or poem that exists in the measures of music. My paintings begin with that visceral quality in mind. Each painting offers an opportunity to discover a new insight into how we act, react, do, think, worry, enjoy or ponder. In this way, my paintings unfold in an abstracted reality, through metaphorical sound and a visual story. I may experiment with inventive forms of composition, color and materials, but I find the content doesn’t change.

Biography

I hold a degree from Manhattan School of Music, and numerous Signature memberships in international organizations including, American Watercolor Society and National Watercolor Association. I’ve been teaching from my studio, and workshops internationally for 27 years. I enjoyed owning a gallery for several years but closed it to refocus on painting. During that tenancy, I was commissioned to create two large murals, East of Yesterday, which garnered an Award for Art in Public Places in 2019. I’m represented by Kathryne Designs in Montecito, CA. Most recently, I was granted a solo Residency at Blue-Line Arts in Roseville, CA for August 2024.

STATEMENT OF METHOD

Having been trained in painting and printmaking as well as intermedia, and having previously used electrotransfer (that is, color Xerography), my studio practice now involves advanced forms of drawing and collage as well as photographic printing (most recently Fujiflex and metallic Kodak Endura) to interpret the relationship that develops between human beings and the media artifacts they create. The series of images entitled “Somatic Telesthesia” focused on the kinds of technological interactions that impact upon the individual on both a personal and a cultural level. That focus is expanded in my current series, “Palimpsestic Metanoia.” These works translate personal experience into imagery that is at once digital and painterly. The source material for electrostatic and photographic composite alike is drawn from real and imagined experience and engage a collage aesthetic appropriate to the multivalent sensory possibilities of our time.

Biography

Jan Kessel is a Los Angeles-born photographer now based in the Pacific Northwest. Photography has been Kessel’s passion since childhood. Early on, she won the international competition for UNICEF’s Child of the Year, then studied at UCLA and Art Center College of Design. Kessel’s early artistic influences included Ansel Adams and Georgia O’Keefe, and their embrace of the American landscape can be keenly felt in her work.

Kessel became a business owner and an entrepreneur but continued to photograph the magic of the natural world, engaging her finely tuned technical skills. In the last 10 years, Kessel has returned to photography full time, immersing herself in the natural world in a quest to capture and share the beauty and magic she sees.

Kessel is especially interested in using photography as a component in healing, and her work can be found in medical and non-medical spaces around the world.

Kessel has exhibited in the USA, as well as Internationally.

Statement

The scent of his blue roof childhood home.

Smells that are forgotten once awoken.

The place he once called home no longer exists in the way that he remembers. How he longs to ask the person who lives there now to look inside so to experience, the aromas of nostalgia. He will, however, never do this because if he walks into his blue roof childhood home and doesn’t feel the tingle of memory, the blue roof childhood home will be no more.

Biography

Julie Kornblum was 20 when she arrived in Los Angeles, she had not gone to college, and had little work experience. From Junior High through high school, she had been an avid sewist. Sewing and garment construction were her greatest skills, leading to work in the garment district, which led her to the Fashion Design program at Los Angeles Trade Technical College. She worked as a pattern maker and later taught sewing and pattern making at Otis College of Art and Design.

By the time Julie went back to school to complete her BA degree, she was married with two children, and attended part-time. Her children were 6 months and 3 years old when she transferred from Pierce College to CSUN. At her graduation, they were 10 and 12 years old.

Julie has a BA in Art with a concentration in Textile and Fabric Art. Over the past 20 years, Julie has exhibited widely, has been published in books and magazines, has curated art exhibitions, and has coordinated large public yarnbombing projects.

Statement

The Larsons series of photo based montages entitled Once Upon A Time – When Form Was Fluid explores the utopian-like home planet of hybrid animal-human creatures who live in an idealized society, developing beyond the Earth’s own. Their home planet presents itself as the result of a collective investment and consideration of ecology. This visualized paradise provides an optimistic glimpse at an alternate route that humanity can take for its own planet.

Within these digitally manipulated images the format is vertical in order to explore the AXIS MUNDI concept: above, middle (or axis) and below. As a collaborative team, Dean sets the “mise en scene” developing layered images from their travels to Europe and here in America. When the surreal landscape has been created, Laura then selects the animal hybrid(s) from her Mourners sculpture series that will best suit the feeling of the landscape. The feeling elicits a story for the viewer to ponder. Sometimes she combines her own sculpted animal heads with other sculpted bodies in iconic poses in order to achieve an action that references cultural history.

Statement

I am generally curious about connection, or lack thereof, between things. Whether it involves people or objects or ideas, why do we group or link things and why do we exclude, omit or isolate? What unifies and what divides? What brings us together to share our experiences and what drives us to detach and alienate?

I am exploring these concepts via one of the Five Universal Shapes, the Circle, and its 3D counterpart the Sphere. These figures provide us with powerful symbolism and many times hidden meanings. The circle is seen as a symbol of completeness and wholeness, the interconnectedness of all things, and the idea that everything is part of a larger whole. Collectively, my work examines our connections and also the spaces in between.

Biography

Liz MacIntyre is a local Camarillo artist focusing on acrylic painting and mixed media. She loves color and using some of her collection of vintage fabrics and laces along with papers, textured paraphernalia and Objects d’art to incorporate into her artwork. Liz enjoys painting with a palette knife to create unique textures. She is inspired by anything vintage and loves to bring the beauty of the world around her and God’s creation into her art.

Statement

I am drawn to the nuances of nature. My paintings suggest elements of land, sky and sea; the many shades of green in a swath of trees, layers of mountains in the distance and how they overlap like a soft blanket and the atmosphere of the sea as it changes from diaphanous green to tempest black. The moment when clear water and invisible air become moody with atmosphere.

Building layers with coats of paint. Mark making with pencils, chalk pastels and pens. Creating texture using paper scraps, I hope to invoke a feeling of stepping into an experience that seems familiar yet a little otherworldly. Emphasizing mood and feeling through use of color, line and composition, my goal is for people to feel immersed in the work, the paintings acting as portals for personal reflection.

“Making art, and especially abstract art, gives me a voice and the freedom to be intuitive, gain self-awareness, have insights, and observe external perceptions without being literal but rather lyrical.  My work continually evolves and every piece is a personal time stamp of emotional evolution.”

Statement

My pursuit of beauty can be perceived among the dark depths that emerge layer by layer in my non-representational paintings.

These works are created by an additive process. Color washes and white tones accumulate and compromise the previous layers. Each application is an opportunity for reflection and choice.

Biography

I am an artist living in Alhambra, California. I grew up in Ohio and attended the IU Herron School of Art and Design in Indianapolis, Indiana BFA program. I then moved to California to attend the Claremont Graduate University’s MFA program. I have been included in group shows in the Southern California area and recently had a solo show with the Arroyo Arts Collective, of which I am a member.

Biography

Viktoria Romanova was born in Kharkov, Ukraine and grew up in Khabarovsk, Russia. She received a B.F.A. from Fine Arts and Graphic Department of Pedagogical University of Khabarovsk in 1995. 

Her teaching career began in 1992 when she founded and operated a private art school “Rainbow” for children and young adults.  In 2002, Viktoria moved to the United States.

She studied “Color composition” and “Color and Light” at The Art Center of Design in Pasadena (2009-2016). 

While there, she completed a large project for Mee Industries Inc. that consisted paintings portraying urban landscapes and abstract compositions. 
Viktoria exhibits her artwork in many galleries, museums and venues around Southern California, her work is included in private and corporate collections in the USA and abroad. 

She represented by the Sparks Gallery, San Diego and Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA), Gallery 825.

Biography

Tony J. Smith, is a long-time Graphics Arts professional and self-trained artist. His paintings explore the human and ordinary side of life. He evokes a variety of emotions with each piece allowing the observer to feel a new sense of connection. A perpetual student of life, Tony now works full time on his art and artist opportunities.

Tony spent the majority of his forty-year career as a Graphics Arts Manager while raising a family of four. His art practice is greatly influenced by his family who were involved with helping people in the community through politics, social clubs, journalism and music. He endeavors to capture the essence of a person, place or thing.

“In my practice,” states Tony, “My work is my mission to reveal emotion, beauty & strength in every subject I paint.

Tony’s accolades include having his work selected for public gallery spaces throughout the U.S. and abroad: Recent events include Various Los Angeles Art Association curated exhibits, Dab Art, 2024 Black Creativity Show in Chicago, Holy Art Athens, The Other Art Fair – LA, Boomer Gallery London, The Other Art Fair LA 2024, and a solo show at The Artist Tree as a former member of Artlounge Collective. More on Tony can be found here on tjaysart.com.

Statement

SFMOMA’s Ladies Red Loo is from my Flushpoint series, paintings of actual public spaces in art museums, galleries and significant collectors’ homes, intentionally designed to invite attention where we’ve historically been told to look away. While confirming the physical reality of our shared humanity, Flushpoint also raises questions of the expanding inequality between society’s “haves” and the lower caste homeless “have nots,” who often have no place to go but in our city streets. 

Biography

Nancy Spiller is a writer and environmentally concerned artist best known in the art world for her Reverse Trash Streams: The Junk Mail Project. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, she now divides her time between Los Angeles and Oxnard. More information can be found at https://nancyspiller.org, on Instagram @crankygirlartist, on Facebook as Nancy Spiller, and on Substack at Nancy’s Kontent Korner.

Statement

Distillation is the goal for my photography – the search to find the essence of a location through refinement and reduction. I see beauty in simplicity and composition, eliminating extraneous details while preserving recognizability – Minimalism takes the great American road trip.

I enjoy adding a touch of whimsy to my photographs and the attempt to capture a “decisive moment” of an object in motion or in a momentary organization of pattern that completes a composition and brings an image to life.

I am inspired by the peripatetic works of Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, and Stephen Shore – fresh eyes on old places. I love minimalism and pop art, particularly influential are Piet Mondrian, Ed Ruscha, and David Hockney. My photograph “Lifeguard Camp, SoCal” is one example of a combination of these influences in which I imagine what Mondrian would see while on a California vacation.

This artistic pursuit has been a welcome relief to my profession as a radiologist where I have spent a lifetime analyzing medical images for signs of pathology. It allows me to replace my search for what is wrong for a search for what is right.