Press Release:
KATHIE FOLEY-MEYER
SHIKUZO GREENBLATT
View Invitation
JUNE 1 - 30, 2013
Opening Reception - Sunday, June 2nd | 3-5pm at LA Artcore Union Center for the Arts
Conversation With the Artist: 4pm
LA ARTCORE AT UNION CENTER FOR THE ARTS
120 Judge John Aiso St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Gallery hours: 12-5pm, Wed-Sun / Ph. (213) 617-3274
LOS ANGELES, CA (March 15th, 2013) - LA Artcore is pleased to present a tandem-solo show with two artists whose contrasting cultural perspectives enliven reflection upon our cultural histories as they transform the contemporary moment.
As one-half of this exhibition, multimedia artist Kathie Foley-Meyer will present "When Little Tokyo Went Bronze, " and will exhibit a series of sculptures combining various media. The central work in the exhibition is both informational and abstract evoking both the connection between history and memory as well as visuality itself. Using elements of glass, cast resin hands in various sign-language gestures (consequently spelling out "Bronzeville"), neon lighting and text, Foley-Meyer pieces together these different modes of communication suggesting a language we may not speak or a history we do not recognize or remember. Etched into the frosted glass coverings are inscriptions of businesses and community members that provide moments of transparency into the worlds circulating around Bronzeville. In doing so, Foley-Meyer explores gaps between the present and the past, history and memory, lived experience and personal mythology. The following is an excerpt from Foley-Meyer:
In February of 1942 Franklin D Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the internment of over 120,000 Japanese Americans for the duration of World War II. For the section of Los Angeles known as Little Tokyo, the removal of its Japanese American residents created a ghost town of empty houses and businesses. The abandoned neighborhood soon became a source of opportunity for the influx of southern African American citizens that were migrating to LA, who, like the Japanese, were barred from living anywhere west of Central Avenue by the city's racially restrictive housing covenants. As thousands of African American families moved into homes and retail spaces vacated by Japanese Americans, the Little Tokyo neighborhood became known as "Bronzeville".
Few remnants remain of the time when the streets of Little Tokyo became Bronzeville and were known for the jazz and "breakfast clubs" that operated until the wee hours, and leading citizens such as Leonard Christmas who organized the Bronzeville Chamber of Commerce. A long-time fascination with the period led artist Kathie Foley-Meyer to create Project Bronzeville, a combination of fine art, theater, a panel discussion and music coming together to commemorate this brief but vibrant part of LA history.
*The art exhibition and symposium are both free events. For information regarding tickets to the play, please visit robeytheatrecompany.com. For information regarding the jazz concert, please visit bluewhalemusic.com.
For the most up-to-date information about dates, locations, and tickets, visit www.projectbronzeville.com.
P. Reddy
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Press Release:
SUKRAN HAN
NICHOLAS CORONEOS
OTTO YOUNGERS
View Invitation
June 1 - 30, 2013
Opening Reception - Sunday, June 2nd | 1-3pm at LA Artcore Brewery Annex
Conversation With the Artist: 2pm
LA ARTCORE BREWERY ANNEX
650A S. Ave. 21
Los Angeles, CA 90031
Gallery hours: 12-4pm, Thu-Sun / Ph. (323) 276-9320
LOS ANGELES, CA (March 15th, 2013) LA Artcore presents a three-artist exhibit featuring work in a variety of mediums. The choices in texture, material and working method will stimulate a feeling of excitement over the different avenues of creativity, and the many options at our disposal, from everyday materials to more technical process-oriented work.
Sukran Han is a painter who set out from the beginning to visually describe the relationship between human beings and passing time. From the start, she had a clear idea of what she hoped to understand better with her creative pursuit, and the first symbols that came to mind were trees, images of the various generations of family, and the sun passing overhead. While observing trees for this purpose, her attention began to be drawn to the play of light among the canopy of leaves. There was a shifting, shimmering quality to time that her static family images couldn't quite relate. Gradually, her paintings shifted to totally abstract compositions of translucent shadows, with rays, spots and streaks of light. She regards this transformation as a way in which nature taught her how to better understand a difficult subject, while also fulfilling the goal of achieving an expression of beauty and connectedness to the world.
Nicholas Coroneos works in a variety of mediums, including tongue-in-cheek bronze sculptures using a mixture of techniques, from assemblage to casting bronze through waxwork and other raw materials, and different metal texturing techniques. Working in a bronze foundry near Santa Barbara, his pieces were created alongside work for a variety of artists, and represent a certain spontaneous use of his immediate environment to express his ideas. Inspired by the Neo-Dada movement, the central theme in his work involves being a provocateur. He has a very specific objective of creating, in each piece, a platform for challenging ideas and pre-conceptions that impact modern life. These often socially or politically charged images are not without humor, and he has built a body of formally elegant and plain commentaries on religion, consumption, and war.
Otto Youngers has a recognizable, almost gestural approach to sculpting in wood, creating work that is playful exaggeration and sharp social critique all at once. Inspired while working in a warehouse setting by the ample supply of palette and shipping crate woods, he developed a vocabulary of components made with loose, iconic lines. An installation made of strung up oversized bones, guns, skulls and animal parts which might otherwise be gruesome, have been softened by sandpaper and rasp into a playful, toy-like array. It is a fitting way to face the darker aspects of human behavior, offering bright, spontaneous shapes that recall the games of children. It is a well documented aspect of much contemporary art, this finding of a way to approach all the most difficult elements of society. Otto delivers hard news with levity, sharp symbols softened around the edges by the homey feeling of a garage woodshop.
R. Seitz
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