ILLUSTRATION WEST 61 COMPETITION SHOWCASE - AWARD WINNERS

VAMA Gallery, in partnership with the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles, presents a competition showcase celebrating the best California based and international illustration from established and emerging artists

October 4 - 27, 2023

Opening reception: October 4, 2023, 4-7 p.m.

New Clothes

Tanya Aguiñiga, Maria Maea, Marco Rios

Often masking our inner selves through the distraction of our exterior representation, how the world views us is filtered through our choices of sartorial distinction. Clothing is the message to constitute a self that consistently shifts to meet the needs. The artists in New Clothes look to materials and processes that are suggestive not only of corporeal forms, but figures linked to a history, place, and time. The materials in question go beyond their tactility; they are used as proxies, a means to approximate, if not adopt, identities. Evidence of a substitution initiated by the artists in New Clothes may infer the vestiges of displacements where one body is replaced for another. Tanya Aguiñiga’s anthropomorphic sculptures, mimicking a fleshy appearance, mark the gallery with quiet tension as they hang from loose cradles woven by the artist. Paying tribute to dignified voices through the use of plant culture and found materials, the work of Maria Maea draws upon multifaceted histories as sites of collective labor. Erstwhile, Marco Rios adopts personas and humor as a means to destabilize, or make sense of, the artist as catalyst. Displaying various methods of production, New Clothes needles the concern, for better or worse, that perhaps the body may not be enough.

March 23, 2023 - May 2, 2023

Opening reception: March 23, 2023, 4-7 p.m.

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four pictures that move

Matthew Brandt solo exhibition

Calling his approach “a little bit messy and experimental,” Matthew Brandt produces large-scale photographs through labor-intensive processes recalling the 19th-century origins of photography, often incorporating the physical matter of the subject itself. Attuned to the history of his medium — and its resolute physicality — and inspired by classical American landscape photographs, Brandt traverses the West, photographing and collecting material samples from nature and cities. The reciprocal relationships that Brandt creates between his subjects and the materials used to represent them are al- ways conceptually grounded, often in response to social and environmental issues. He is deeply inquisitive, even fearless, in his exploration of subjects, materials, and processes, reinvigorating the medium of photography with a sense of wonder.

February 16, 2023 - March 20, 2023

Opening reception: February 16, 2023, 4-7 p.m.

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SPIRITUAL NATURE: MICHAEL MASSENBURG

In this solo show, Massenburg’s wonderfully vibrant paintings function as a ritual to “connect the dots” spanning the connection of cultural and spiritual practices from the Motherland to the New World. It illustrates a tale of survival and salvation, tracing the journey of his ancestors from enslavement to empowerment, and evoking questions about the notions of status and place in the world. With this long overdue exhibition, Massenburg affirms his place among his peers (artists like John Outerbridge and Kerry James Marshall), and as mentor to countless younger artists.

At the exhibition there will be a limited edition print on offer to help fundraise for the John T Riddle Scholarship.

November 17, 2022 - January 20, 2023

Opening reception: November 17, 2022, 4-7 p.m.

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MESS

An exhibition exploring women, domesticity, and representation

Curator Candice Greathouse organizes an exhibition about the complicated nature of being a woman and all the messy aspects – domesticity, representation, objectification, empowerment, and contradiction. Featuring artworks spanning from the seventies to now, MESS includes performative video, figurative photography, and experimental sculpture. Exhibiting artists, all women artists, each addressing a unique aspect and approach to the exhibition concept, are: Beth Abaravich, Jaime Bull, Jo Ann Callis, Danielle Deadwyler, Tirsa Delate, Flo Kasearu, and Lee Materazzi.

Exhibition: August 29 - October 5, 2022

Opening reception: September 7, 2022, 5-7 p.m.

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Tambayan

A group exhibition of Filipino American artists

Curator and artist Ed Arevalo selected works that celebrate the artists’ Filipino heritage, disrupts oppressive systems, and uplifts Filipinos + BIPOC communities. Tambayan is also an exhibition that narrates the timelines and perspectives in the Filipino diaspora, while questioning issues of cultural assimilation, traditions, and surveillance.

Opening reception: June 10, 6-8 p.m.

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Revolutionary Talent

2022 Student Scholarship Show

Visual and Arts Media Department presents work by the winner’s of the VAMA Gallery scholarship. We are proud to share the art of students from the Los Angeles City College Art programs; studio art, photography, journalism illustration, digital arts, and photojournalism.

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Under Investigation

Alberto Lule solo exhibition

Alberto Lule's recent activist artworks focusing on the prison industrial complex, gentrification, surveillance, and identity designation. Lule, a former Graffiti artist incarcerated for a total of 14 years at several California prisons, draws on his own experiences in the prison industrial complex to creates artworks that explore institutional roles of gatekeepers of knowledge, authorities of culture, and administrators of discipline and punishment.

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Bringing Imagination Into View

A New Future Awaits

At Bringing Imagination Into View you will experience the process firsthand and see the artwork that helped make some of your favorite places and characters into reality. Welcome to the future, taking shape before your very eyes.

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