Image: Sigrid Orlet

Displacement and Resilience

An art exhibition curated by Elana Kundell

Studio Channel Islands, Members Gallery

April 2- 30, 2022

Opening: Saturday, April 2nd, 4-6pm with artists in attendance

Artists:

Nurit Avesar

Sigrid Orlet

Janet Neuwalder

Marthe Aponte

Arezoo Bharthania

“I never thought I would have to leave my home,” Valentina, a Ukrainian refugee

As the world witnesses the horrors unfolding in Ukraine— the catastrophic loss of life and displacement—we, as artists, are reminded of the history that lives through us and the importance of art as a place of refuge.

When a sense of place and home is lost, along with the identity built around it, how do people construct a new place and sense of meaning?

This exhibition explores how artists are transforming trauma and the generational impacts of displacement through their creative process. The materials range from porcelain, paint, vellum and mixed media to punctured paper and reclaimed wood. Themes of skin, identity, relationship to earth and the female body, climate change and political/cultural repression weave through the exhibit. Together, the works explore how artists transform their experiences and materials into images of beauty, humanity, truth, hope, and inspiration for viewers and future generations. 

Displacement and Resilience opens Saturday, April 2, from 4-6pm with several artists in attendance. It will be on display from April 2- April 30th in the Members Gallery at Studio Channel Islands, followed by Shelter, an art fundraiser for Ukraine on May 7th.

The artists and Studio Channel Islands are generously donating a percentage of all sales proceeds to help feed, heal and shelter displaced people of Ukraine. In addition, there will be a special gift for visitors to the gallery who donate $20 or more.

Contact: Elana Kundell, ekundell@gmail.com, (415)378-1868, www.kundell.com

Pictured: UPCYCLE by David Isakson, First Place in The Next Big Thing 2021

Artists are continuously challenging their boundaries and excavating their unique discoveries to create new and bold work. Studio Channel Islands invites you to enter your most recent break-through pieces, the ones that have led you to the horizon of your work’s next evolution! All media and styles are welcome.

Juror: Peter Mays

Peter Mays is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Art Association (LAAA) and its premiere La Cienega exhibition space Gallery 825. Since joining LAAA in June 2005, Peter has implemented cultural exchanges with Switzerland (Basel), Korea, Germany and China, initiated collaborative programming with institutions like Harvard, MoCA and Otis College of Art. Beyond his commitments at LAAA, Mays has curated exhibitions throughout Southern California.

As past chairperson of the West Hollywood Arts and Culture Commission’s Art on the Outside public art effort, Peter led the city’s nationally regarded outdoor public art programming which has been praised in Art Forum, Vanity Fair and the New York Times. Peter helped to launch the region-wide LA Arts Month effort from 2009-2011 where he served on Planning Committee and the Program Committee. He also served on LAUSD’s National Study Group which was charged with informing the nation’s second largest district as it planned the next 10 years of K-12 Arts Education. Peter has co-chaired the Education Committee for the Board of Directors for the MOCA Contemporaries, served on the Board of the Fellows of Contemporary Art and was an active member the Executive Arts Leaders Forum.

Peggy Pownall

Peggy Pownall is a mixed media painter who often incorporates layers of collage, stitching and loose threads into her works. Using the creative process to explore life’s mysteries and memories, her work often tells stories that are very personal, and yet universal.

Her current body of work is born out of a mystifying combination of heartbreak and hope, a processing of her grief following the sudden loss of her husband Tim. The work emerged organically, as she began creating pieces using his garments, a tender, meditative, painstaking process of remembrance, sorrow and healing.

Sandra Klein

Sandra Klein is a fine art photographer whose practice consists of conceptual imagery exploring personal narratives. Since her son died tragically three years ago, she has been working on a series entitled Grieving in Japan.

She has found the winter landscape of Japan, which she visits yearly, in its eerie beauty and spirituality, the perfect place to grieve, but also to find images to use and composite in an attempt to portray that grief.

Frances Elson

Frances Elson, a glass artist working and living in Southern California, identifies herself with the following labels: Glass Artist, Holocaust Survivor, Jew and American Citizen. These are not the labels she would have used prior to 2015 when it became clear that the events that led inevitably to the Holocaust were being repeated in the United States.

Frances knew that telling her story, and that of her family, was something she could do through her art, and embarked on a project called “Broken…A Holocaust Memorial in Fused Glass” in order to express the fragility of our freedoms through the fragility, and strength, of fused glass.

Daggi Wallace

Daggi Wallace is known for her ability to capture not only a likeness, but the spirit of her subjects in her pastel portraits. Having painted several posthumous portraits previously she realized that art has the ability to offer comfort in times of sorrow.

This series of portraits of the victims of the Borderline mass shooting of November 7, 2018 in Thousand Oaks was her way of dealing with a tragedy that hit too close to home, a small way in which she could offer comfort to the grieving families and feel a connection to her community and those who were lost.

Katherine Chang Liu

When Katherine Chang Liu took care of her elderly parents, often in the hospital room or in their bedroom, she took small panels and simple art supplies and tried to imagine the color of the air during each hour, and painted them while they slept.

Her and her sister took care of their elderly parents for 10 years, and they each lived to 100 and 101.

Image: Megan Broughton, Svalbard, 79.75° North: Pack Ice II: State II Shifting, First Place in The Next Big Thing 2021

Artists are continuously challenging their boundaries and excavating their unique discoveries to create new and bold work. Studio Channel Islands invites you to enter your most recent break-through pieces, the ones that have led you to the horizon of your work’s next evolution! All media and styles are welcome.

View exhibition page

2020 Juror: Leah Ollman

Leah Ollman writes about the visual arts for the Los Angeles Times, Art in America and numerous other publications. Ollman was a crorrespondent for ARTnews for ten years, she has written over 800 reviews and features for the LA Times and 85 articles for Art in America as well as numerous reviews published in Photograph, Craft, Art on Paper, Ceramics, ARTnews, Art Nexus, Afterimage, High Performance.

Her books and exhibition catalogues include Alison Rossiter: Expired Paper, William Kentridge: Weighing…and Wanting, The Photographs of John Brill, Michal Chelbin: Strangely Familiar, and Camera as Weapon: Worker Photography Between the Wars.

Ollman has been a Hambidge Fellow in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2018.

Exhibition Installation:

This exhibition is held in our 3,000 square foot gallery and hung by an experienced installation team lead by Bob Privitt, Professor Emeritus at Pepperdine University.

A Time to Gather
Regina Vorgang
October 1 – November 25
Studio Channel Islands
2222 Ventura Blvd, Camarillo, CA

Celebrate your next gathering with an artistic table setting that shows how much you care. One-of-a-kind handwoven table runners.

View the pieces in the exhibition online here. 

Artist Talk with Regina Vorgang: November 21st at 1pm

Artist In Residence Regina Vorgang will describe her working method and inspiration in this last artist talk of 2020. Regina has been a resident artist at Studio Channel Islands since 2012, she has exhibited work across the United States and is frequently represented in craft and design magazines. 

California artist John Raymond Mireles has taken to the road in his quest to restore America’s shattered national unity, composing a bridge between the racial, ideological, geographic and socioeconomic divides that separate our country. Using his Neighbors portrait series as his artistic vehicle. Mireles has traveled to all 50 united states to create an expansive visual document of Americans and encourage emphatic connections across their man differences. John has photographed individuals from different communities within Camarillo and will combine them with portraits of Americans from around the country in this exhibition.

An exhibition of fine jewelry and sculpture featuring works made in ceramic, glass, metal and wood.

As the year comes to a close, we look for escape into festive traditions and family comforts. We decorate our homes, indulge our senses with the food, wine, and music which evoke precious memories of the past and anticipate joys yet to come. This exhibition features artists whose work draws upon the traditional crafts that we have exchanged as gifts or use to decorated our homes during the festive season.

Exhibition Open: December 1st – 19th & January 5th – 16th

Image: “Cardinal” by BiJian Fan

Pictured: Regina Jacobson, Friend or Fowler

Imagine a fantastic world. Anything is possible in it, anything can be made manifest. The difficulty is to share these things with other people – how do we describe unreal things?

The art in this show gives us a window into the imagined worlds of the artists who made them and what amazing worlds they are some are dreamlike, some are frightening, some are bizarre. All of them are painted and sculpted in a way that makes them believable.

This exhibition has been curated by Michael Pearce of Cal Lutheran University as part of The Representational Art Conference 2019. TRAC2019 is the premier international event focused on cutting-edge representational art in the 21st century – where imagination matters and the mind meets the hand.

Artists:

Roger Dean
Julie Bell & Boris Vallejo
Richard MacDonald
Vince Natale
Sandra Yagi
Regina Jacobson
F. Scott Hess
Brad Kunkle
Mark Gleason
Mark Poole
Brian Larsen
Kenna Houtz
Kathiucia Dias
Conor Walton
Guy Kinnear
Pamela Wilson

Karrie Ross is best known for her diverse use of mediums, wire, collage, acrylic-iridescent-minimalism-flow, pen & ink and watercolors. Ross’ artwork grows out of a fascination with being human, the asking and answering of questions about the self in an intuitive manner, and bringing attention to the value of how one’s energy affects living in this world. She calls it a collaboration with nature. A native to Los Angeles, with forty plus years of experience in her craft, she has been collected throughout the United States and abroad. Her work has been featured in over 170 exhibitions (since 2010), including museum shows at the NYC Children’s Museum of the Arts, Torrance Art Museum TAM, and a 6 month traveling show beginning in Italy, next to the Oceanside Art Museum OAM, ending up at the Riverside Art Museum RAM, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery LAMAG, Kellogg University Gallery CalPoly, USC Keck School of Medicine Hoyt Gallery, San Diego Institute of Art, and galleries, non-profits, to project spaces around the Southern California area. Ross has also been highlighted in several publications including Hollywood Today, EasyReader, the Los Angles Times, USC online, and the Huffington Post. Apart from her art, Ross is also an award winning author, and publishes a yearly art-project-book spotlighting artists in-life stories, “Our Ever Changing World,” Artist ART & Story, which focuses on creating community, and documenting the Art Scene in California, and international, over her life time.

Sentenced to Death is a one night only pop-up exhibit highlighting performance art with conceptual artist Miss Art World.

Join us Friday, September 27 at 7:30 pm for brand new performance artworks critiquing the disturbing and obsessive struggle to obtain the unrealistic “perfected” physical body in mainstream beauty and pageant industry.

Performance art uses the body as the vertical/tool/medium to create artwork. Performance art pushes the audience to actively experience live unpredictable and spontaneous art unfolding before them. Miss Art World’s performances plays toy bat between glamour and disgust taken to the extremes and in this show case to death. Being both an insider and outsider of mainstream “beauty” Miss Art World, self-proclaimed title, a paradox of cultural feminine tradition and icons used to disrupt beauty norms, rules and constructions.

Omar d’León | Andrea Yomtob | John Duron

Omar and Andrea have been painting together for almost 25 years in Camarillo, CA at Omar’s studio. Both artists use the same painting technique that incorporates oil and wax on canvas. Each layer of paint is scratched through to reveal the color beneath, creating a style very reminiscent of Impressionism. The technique was developed by Omar and later taught to his pupil, Andrea Yomtob.

Magical Realism is chiefly a Latin-American narrative strategy that is characterized by the matter-of-fact inclusion of fantastic or mythical elements into seemingly realistic fiction. Omar and Andrea use vibrantly rich, bold color in their work.

Pictured: Joe Cibere, ‘Port Protection’

Triangulation

Opens January 2nd | Closes January 27th, 2018

Artist Talk – January 18th at 6pm

An exciting show comprising three award winning artist members; Joe Cibere, Avery Falkner and Blossom Friel. 

Joe Cibere’s watercolors are exceptionally fine works, capturing light and movement with almost effortless brush strokes. “If you paint everything you’re painting nothing,” says Cibere. “Find that one idea that expresses your vision, conveying mood and emotion.”

Avery Falkner’s bold abstract works begin with a leap of faith onto the blank canvas. His works are filled with energy and freewheeling gesture. “Actions are met with intuitive reactions,” says Falkner, “a paint-loaded brush or linear marks made with charcoal.” Falkner describes his work as a journey into unexpected territory, reordering chaos into balance while holding onto the tension which creates energy.”

Blossom Friel’s work is based on beings, both living and imagined. Her work is abstract and yet figurative. The theme for her selection is ‘reach out for your dreams,’ and comprises a series of human figures made from wood and painted with abstract textures, patterns and designs.

Avery Falkner, ‘Light Suspension’

Blossom Friel, ‘Lady with a Bird’

 Camarillo, Calif. The Black Board Gallery at Studio Channel Islands, 2222 East Ventura Blvd., Camarillo, will host an opening reception, 4 to 6 p.m., May 5, for two new exhibitions featuring the work of east coast artists Gale Fulton Ross (Boston) and Linda Stein (New York).

Inspired by the 2016 book, Before I Forget, which details the journey of B. Smith and her husband following her diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s, the exhibition features sixteen artworks from artist Fulton Ross’s KEEP-SAKE series comprised of large paintings of small universally-nostalgic keep-sakes–part of an ongoing body of work dedicated to people suffering from memory loss and stroke. One of the things B. Smith’s husband describes is the closeness that they felt when she held a keep-sake as they spoke; “it helped her to bridge the gap between them,” said Fulton Ross.  

The gallery also showcases the work of New York artist Linda Stein’s series, The Fluidity of Gender, a traveling event comprising thirteen sculptures, seven limited-edition prints and four film works that explore the continuum between the binaries of masculinity and femininity.

“These two exhibitions are both deeply personal while also addressing universal themes of courage, identity and loss,” said SCI Executive Director Peter Tyas. Linda’s exhibition is a call to action, a reminder that it is we who make the world around us, that it is up to each of us to stand up for the things that we believe in. Gale’s exhibition is a meditation on the meaning of memory and the tragedy of losing those parts of who we once were. Both exhibitions remind us that we have a part to play in our community, as active participants, helping one another and understanding that everyone is on their own journey through life.”

During the KEEP-SAKE exhibition Studio Channel Islands invites everyone with a special keep-sake to bring it into the gallery and draw a picture of that item within a sketchbook. “We invite everyone to write a few lines to describe that meaning of that object for them and the memory that it holds,” said Tyas. On June 2 Studio Channel Islands will a host a ‘Memory Café’ in partnership with Camarillo Health Care District and on June 21 Studio Channel Islands will work with the Alzheimer’s Association to promote the dementia friendly movement in our community.

Gale Fulton Ross

Linda Stein

Pictued: Michael Provart, Black Flag

The Next Big Thing 201
July 5 – August 18, 2018

PROSPECTUS

Artists are continuously challenging their boundaries and excavating their unique discoveries to create new and bold work. Studio Channel Islands invite you to enter your most recent break-through pieces, the ones that have led you to the horizon of your works next evolution! All media and styles are welcome.

Juror: PETER FRANK

Frank is Associate Editor for Fabrik magazine and is former critic for Angeleno magazine and the L. A. Weekly. He served as Editor for THEmagazine Los Angeles and Visions Art Quarterly, and contributes articles to publications around the world.

Frank was born in 1950 in New York, where he received a B.A. and M.A. in art history from Columbia University and was art critic for The Village Voice and the SoHo Weekly News. He moved to Los Angeles in 1988 where he served as Senior Curator at the Riverside Art Museum, and has organized numerous theme and survey shows for the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, the Venice Biennale, Documenta, and other venues.

Currently Frank is preparing a survey of the artist Tony DeLap for the Laguna [CA] Art Museum. McPherson & Co. Documentext published Frank’s Something Else Press: An Annotated Bibliography in 1983. A cycle of poems, The Travelogues, was issued by Sun & Moon Press in 1982. Abbeville Press released New, Used & Improved, an overview of the New York art scene co-written with Michael McKenzie, in 1987. Frank has written many monographs and catalogues on a wide array of modern and contemporary artists. He has taught and lectured extensively throughout North America and Europe.

Pictured: Yvette Gellis, Green Moment

Curated by Carol Shaw Sutton

This group of artists was chosen because of the sensuously crafted nature of their work, combined with their deep concerns for the future of humanity and the health of our planet. I wanted to include artists living both within and without Ventura County as a way to cross-fertilize and create a diverse dialogue for us all. Media ranges from painting, sculptural installations, photography, ceramics, printmaking, woodworking, ceramic sculpture and fiber.

The title was borrowed from 15th Century Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch’s iconic painting “The Garden of Earthly Delights” in which he surrealistically depicts man’s desires and human foibles while leading the viewer to some rather severe consequences of their actions. At that particular time in European history people were simultaneously excited, shocked and dismayed by discoveries of exotic flora, fauna and cultural practices found during global exploration and intervention. Their world was swiftly changing creating intense anxiety with its concurrent longing for certainty and control. This void was quickly filled by Church dogma, economic domination and expanded military ventures.

During our current moment in history we are bombarded with mind bending discoveries from the outer reaches of the universe, to the almost complete global expansion of commerce that is simultaneously annihilating traditions and environments, technology’s rule of our lives, and like before, even though perhaps more intensely, these are challenging the core of human nature and are playing out at in ever more critical ways. Each artist included here, addresses views of paradise, sensuality and/or consequence of our actions. The work is also connected by the common thread of creation and destruction, as is the reoccurring theme of nature. There is a correctness of doing that, which needn’t be explained, but instead felt and known in our hearts. Our role in the natural world is not differentiated from other creatures, except by our free will and for our concern for others and the fate of all life on this planet.

This exhibition was made possible due to the support of: Michael Rohde, Linda Dullam, and Arlene Mead.

Social fiction features an installation from Kevin Hallagan, a Los Angeles based artist who has worked on art installations exhibited around the world. His art demands of its viewers an active engagement with their surroundings, and a mental consideration of its content. With “Nonbinary”, Kevin has created a cloud of mirrors which enables societal expectations of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’, shatters them, and throws them dancing around the gallery. The combinations of ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ imagery swimming around the space are as endless as they are within the individual.

The Social Fiction is the premier art exhibition in Ventura county, showcasing pieces of thought, verve, and community. For all of those who have faced adversity in a broken system, we create with passion. We glorify the broken-hearted and rise up with the oppressed. Our paint brushes become our tools to bring attention to the most marginalized among us, and we invite you to join us in the fight. The gallery will be open May 9th-May 12th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and on Saturday, May 13th from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Studio Channel Islands Art Center (2222 Ventura Blvd, Camarillo, CA 93010). Join us for food, fun, and fundraising Thursday, May 11th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Visit the Social Fiction Facebook HERE

Pictured: Nicholas Hullibarger, Spatial Binary, First Place in The Next Big Thing 2017

Opening reception: May 20, 4-6 pm

June 17 | 1:30pm
Panel Discussion: Art and the Healing Environment
A panel of experts from across the arts and health sector discuss the role creativity can play in promoting well-being.

Artists are continuously challenging their own boundaries and excavating their unique discoveries. Studio Channel Islands invites you to enter your most recent break-through pieces, the ones that have led you to the horizon of your works next evolution! All media and styles are welcome.

Participating artists:
Jeffrey Sully, Sydelle Foreman, Tom Leedy, Donald Matheson, Joanie Landau, David Isakson, David Henningsen, Jordan Poe, Melanie Roschko, Sarah Karp Brown, Jim Zver,
Susan Hazard, Trina Merry, Diane Staver, Theresa Devine, Lana Blades, Charles Karp, Scott Eddington, Perry Cooksey, Bronwen Hazlett, Dan LaVigne, Barb Skoog, Roxie Ray,
Carolyn Schlam, Stephanie Holznecht, Ghislaine Fremaux, Brenda Welsh, Jesse Eric Schmidt, Lois Freeman-Fox, Daggi Wallace, Nicholas Hullibarger, Charles Magallanes, Marion Wood, Nathalie Tierce, Thomas Lasley, Patricia Post, Tom Post, & Karen Wysopal

JUROR: Tish Greenwood, Executive Director, California Museum of Art Thousand Oaks (CMATO) is dedicated to creating cultural spaces where ideas are shared, and people connect. With the support of the City of Thousand Oaks, CMATO is the new neighbor of the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza and is in the distinct position to realize its goal of establishing an enduring arts institution that will bring civic pride to the Conejo Valley Region.  Tish’s professional experience includes positions at the J. Paul Getty Museum, photo l.a. And ArtSlant.  Her experience working for the National Endowment for the Arts spurred her recent curatorial project Mass Appeal: The Art of Corita Kent. Tish shares her connoisseurship expertise with artists and collectors through her private advisory firm. Tish received her BA in Art History from John Cabot University, Rome, Italy and her MA in Museum Studies and Contemporary Art from Georgetown University and Sotheby’s Institute of Art-New York. 

Featured artists: Wyatt Amend, Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, Richard Amend

Sneak Peak Video Here

The new exhibition “Making Amends”, opening at the Blackboard Gallery at Studio Channel Islands in Camarillo, is a family affair. A father, mother and son trio, each an accomplished professional artist in their own right, now for the first time ever are coming together in one presentation. The exhibition opens August 4th and runs through August 27^th. The Artist’s Reception will be Saturday, August 6th from 4pm-6pm. The Artist’s Talk is set for Saturday, August 20th at 1:30. Artists Wyatt Amend, Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend, and Richard Amend each have their own creative voice and use it to develop unique concepts within contemporary subject matters. Yet the family connection cannot be ignored and coalitions can be seen throughout the work of each, at least that is what is anticipated within this show.  When asked about the preparation of the exhibit, Susan said, “We are planning what pieces to show and how our various points of view will interact. We create on the same property but produce with different materials and approaches. However, every day our practice is seen commingling throughout our home and studios, so we have some specific experience and ideas about how the art responds, one to another.”

Wyatt Amend, son of Susan and Richard, has developed a multitude of techniques using clay to emulate glass. A visual comparison is that typical of the Venetian style with fine detail and intricate forms. Working more like a woodworker on a lathe, Wyatt carves clay on the wheel parallel to thirteenth century Venetian techniques on the blowpipe. Wyatt has combined carving and grinding techniques with a variety of glazes and clay bodies while working and learning in the glass department cold shop at Australian National University in Canberra, Australia, during a recent three-month residency. These cut forms are then further glazed, fired, and carved, modulating surface and form in new ways. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics and Sculpture from Sonoma State University, Wyatt has had several solo exhibits, and has participated in several residency programs.

Susan Stinsmuehlen-Amend will have a mixture of work showcasing different series. One series that will be most prominently displayed is her “Luxury Glass Series”, which features elaborately blown and cut glass motifs and forms found in the Brilliant Period, 1880-1920. For this series, Susan is painting images of glass on glass, firing each work in the kiln with vitreous paint. This process begins by taking photographs of cut glass objects. The photos are then computer edited and manipulated nearly to abstraction as the connection to the original glass item is left behind. Throughout the painting process Susan reworks and paints with the reflected light patterns as the foundation rather than the original form. Two other series that will be featured are “Brilliant Cut”, watercolor on silkscreened prints of cut glass patterns and “Man View”, which is about various perspectives of men painted on clear glass panels.

When asked about his work, Richard said, “No matter what current series of work is on the docket, I often return to the large format, black and white landscape drawing. Vertical by intention, these pieces challenge nature’s horizontal, panoramic predilection.” Richard’s paintings are visually arresting and mysterious as they investigate nuanced details of nature, architecture, and illumination to the point of abstraction.

Rather than processing things and places into his pictures, Richard makes deliberate formal choices when considering a particular motif or details within a larger image. Looking closely, these decisions reveal a preoccupation with specifics within physical experiences, for example the curves and lines of shadows, or passageways.

Count on seeing collaboration throughout the exhibit as well. Wyatt is working with both Richard and Susan. He and Susan (clay and glass) both deal specifically with issues of craft when talking about form, function, and decoration and are collaborating on some bottle forms. This show will be a stimulating experience for viewers and the artists, both of whom will have the opportunity to interact at the reception and at the artist talk during the month of August.

Check out our Urban Glass Article Here

Thank you to our show sponsors

Pictured: Linda Vallejo, Electric Oak: Fall Equinox

Featured Artists: José Castelao, Porfirio Guiterrez, Manuela Generali, Linda Vallejo, Fernanda Uski, John C. Lewis, and Antonio Juarez

Studio Channel Islands invites you to explore the landscape in which we live through the eyes of seven exceptional artists. LA/LAndscapes: Real and Imagined is a contemporary art exhibition exploring the themes and traditions of landscape painting both north and south of the Mexico/USA border.

Today, nearly half the population of Los Angeles has roots in Latin America and yet the voice of the Latino and Latin American artist is under-represented in our theaters, galleries, and museums. In response to this gap the J. Paul Getty Museum has initiated an extensive collaboration of over 70 cultural organizations from San Diego to Santa Barbara to take a fresh look at the vital and vibrant traditions in Latin American art and the exciting contemporary artists making work today.

LA/LAndscapes: Real and Imagined is Studio Channel Islands’ response to this project and the beginning of a larger program of exhibitions that explore the connections within our community and celebrate the diverse perspectives of the people who share this land.

LA/LAndscapes: Real and Imagined includes work by three extraordinary artists from Mexico; José Castelao, Porfirio Guiterrez, and Manuela Generali, and two outstanding artists from California; Linda Vallejo, and Fernanda Uski. During the LA/LAndscapes exhibition Studio Channel Islands will also present two exhibitions of photography; first a series of portraits of the people and landscapes of Mexico by John C. Lewis and second a series of studies of Ventura’s field workers by Antonio Juarez. Lewis’ portraits of Mexico capture the beauty and subtlety of the national landscape and its people. Juarez’s work combines photographs of the fieldworkers of Ventura framed within reclaimed pallets, providing a direct point of contact with the people who labor unnoticed alongside the freeways.

Castelao states that “art is life itself” and his artwork beautifully captures the life around him, whether that be harmonious tones and structures of the land itself or the vibrant face of a young woman. After an extensive fine art education Castelao spent a further nine years studying under the Zen Master Venerable Samu Sunim. He now is the head of the Zen Buddhist Temple in Mexico City, and continues to draw, paint, and observe the life that surrounds him.

Manuela Generali settled in Mexico in 1978 after almost a decade of touring the world as a war correspondent. Generali’s work is neither purely figurative nor altogether abstract but rather indeterminate, the result is a hybrid full of rich fragments of infinity. She seeks to reach the limits and explores the ultimate possibilities of figuration while also using the stylistic contributions of abstraction. Guillermo Samperio described her work is an “endless task of redefining the landscape, the fauna, the cities, renouncing and declaring impossible to detail our reality with reasonably definite silhouettes. Your thought is directed to the unreachable, to which we feel overwhelming by its strength: the chaos of the universe as a supreme hidden order.” Linda Vallejo is a Mexican-American artist known for painting, sculpture, and ceramics. Her work often addresses her ethnic identity within the context of American art and popular culture and makes sharp political points. Her landscapes are rooted in representational technique though she employs surrealism to create a sense of a dream-like state. Vallejo has a strong connection with the land; “I don’t believe a healthy human culture can be sustained by destroying nature. We need to integrate our relationship with nature as we have done so readily with machines and war. There are responsibilities that accompany life, both in art and in the natural world.”-Linda Vallejo

Fernanda Uski uses her artwork as a method to visualize the invisible natural occurrences happening around us. She described her work as “processes, I think of the practice of drawing as a meditative process in itself. Making use of the stratification of translucent materials, my work starts with the drawing of landscape images or natural motifs, erasing and incorporating repetitive gestures, with which I try to construct images of things that we do not perceive directly and that are happening distributed in time and space, such as geological movements, radiation or climate change.”

Porfirio Gutierrez is a Mexican artist and champion of the traditional weaving practice of the Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. He comes from a long line of traditional Zapotec weavers and advocates the use of natural dyes, in which his sister Juana specializes. These natural dyes are made from the land which surrounds the family home in Oaxaca, such as cochineal, tree moss, pomegranate, Mexican tarragon and indigo.

LA/LAndscapes: Education Program

Studio Channel Islands is delighted to welcome Professor Begona Zorilla as teaching artist-in-residence during LA/ LAndscapes and Assistant Professor Bill Kelley Jr. as our special guest speaker. The LA/LAndscapes education program includes two stand creative workshops and dynamic two lectures.

Thursday, October 26 at 10am to 2pm Frida Kahlo “Vive la Vida”

Friday, October 27 at 10an to 2pm Remedios Varo “The Asteroid Huntress”

These exciting workshops combine an informal lecture on technique and the significance of the artist’s work with a workshop to create a personal response, guided by master teacher Begona Zorilla. The courses are designed for adults wishing to develop their own artistic abilities and knowledge about influential Mexican artists.

Cost for Workshops is $150 which includes materials

Saturday, October 28 at 1pm (English) & 4pm (Spanish) “The Truth about the Virgin of Guadalupe”

The mystery of the cloak of Juan Diego Cuauhlatoatzin is a central part of the story of the founding of modern Mexico. Did the Virgin Mary appear before a 58 year-old indigenous Chichimecan and was her image cast upon his cloak in the miracle of Guadalupe? This lecture will draw upon recent scholarly work to explore the cultural significance of the pictographic symbols on the cloak and explain how they were interpreted by the two confronting cultures at the moment of the birth of Mexico.

Sunday, October 29th at 4pm “Mapping new Terrains, Contemporary Arts Practice in Mexico: SEFT & Dignicraft”

Bill Kelley Jr. will talk about his work as curator and lead researcher of Talking to Action: Art, Pedagogy and Activism in the Americas a research, exhibition, and publication platform examining community-based art practices at Otis College of Art as part of The Getty’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative. Kelley will talk about two case-studies that take on new ways of mapping our terrain.

SEFT: Sonda de Exploración Ferroviaria Tripulada (SEFT) is a playfully futuristic vehicle used to explore disused railroads in order to map the history of capital development throughout Mexico. The artist-designed vehicle was created by Ivan Puig and Andres Padilla Domene (Mexico City, Mexico).

Dignicraft: a long term project which charts the work of Purépecha crafts people who have migrated from their ancestral homeland, the island of Janitzio in Michoacán, and currently reside in Rosarito, Baja California. The project reflects upon the migratory experience through the collaborative act of making and selling piñatas.

Begona Zorilla completed and taught Visual Education and Painting workshops at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where she achieved both a B.A and Master of Fine Art. She teaches the Diploma in Abstract Painting at the Univerisidad Iberomericana, where she was awarded Professor of Academic Excellence. Bill Kelley, Jr. holds a Ph.D. in Art History, Theory and Criticism from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) and a Masters in Colonial Art Studies from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque (UNM). He currently holds the position of Assistant Professor of Latin American and Latino art history at California State University Bakersfield (CSUB).