Patricia, thanks for sharing your photos from the WAOI reception!
Monday, March 16, 2009
Reception Photos from Patricia Krebs
Patricia, thanks for sharing your photos from the WAOI reception!
Sunday, March 15, 2009
WAOI Reception - February 27, 2009
Our reception at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery was a resounding success. The gallery was filled with many guests from all over California. The gallery was beautifully lit, doing justice to the works displayed. We listened to opening remarks by KCCLA's Vice Director & Consul Wijin Park, Gallery Curator Heeseon Choi, WCA President Marilyn Hayes, SCWCA President Sandra Muellerand Juror Alma Ruiz. Musician Jun Jya Ji serenaded us playing the kayagun, a traditional Korean instrument and the buffet of Korean and American food was plentiful and delicious. It was a memorable opening.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Art, Activism and Collaboration
The Women Artists on Immigration: Crossing Borders, Confronting Barriers, Bridging Identities (WAOI) exhibition takes place at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery in Los Angeles from February 20 – March 7, 2009. It coincides with the 2009 Art and Activism WCA Confab and the College Art Association Conference, and is part of the Feminist Art Project. WAOI represents a first-time collaboration involving the Korean Cultural Center and the Northern California, South Bay and Southern California chapters of the Women’s Caucus for Art. We hope this will be the beginning of future collaborations among Women’s Caucus chapters and community arts organizations on social activism issues.
The idea for WAOI started with a concerned dialog among WCA members on recent controversies surrounding immigration – the Bush Administration’s initiative to build a border fence between the United States and Mexico, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ raids on Northern California schools and the “Day Without Immigrants March” on May 1, 2006.
These discussions led to a broader discourse on globalization, which by its very nature, facilitates the movement of people around the world. Our talks helped formulate the show’s theme: “The dynamic movement of immigrants crossing borders by land, sea and air stirs impassioned debates on whether their arrival diminishes resources and opportunities or enriches society with fresh energy and intellectual capital.”
The timing and location of the show is significant: the 2009 WCA and CAA conference will be held in Los Angeles, not far from the US-Mexico border; and we wanted to seize the momentum of a Presidential election year to express our perspectives on a critical social issue. We hoped to hear from California women artists who were immigrants, whose parents were immigrants and who had strong convictions about immigration.
The core WCA exhibition team came together informally. Because no one person had time to be a full-time exhibitions chair, work was divided among volunteers Alejandra Chaverri (SBWCA), Libby Hartigan (SCWCA), Ann Isolde (SCWCA), Sandra Mueller (SCWCA), and Priscilla Otani (NCWCA). Alejandra took charge of the show’s catalog, Libby worked on publicity, and the rest of us worked on everything else from prospectus development, administration, postcards, correspondence, communications to trouble-shooting.
By a chance cold-call, we met Heeseon Choi, the young gallery director and curator at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles. When we explained that we were looking for an organization to collaborate on a show on immigration, she clapped her hands and said, “I’ve dreamed of working on a show like this!” It was the beginning of an amazing partnership with her and the Korean Cultural Center. Heeseon and Jongyul Kim, Director and Consul, generously made their art gallery available for the show and funded the reception.
We were fortunate that Alma Ruiz, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) agreed to jury the show. She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, with a focus on the postwar period in Italy and Latin America, as well as working with emerging artists. Born in Guatemala City, she is an immigrant herself. She received her B.A. in art history at the University of Southern California and M.A. in Italian language and literature from Middlebury College. Alma has been an integral partner in this exhibition, spending two solid weeks thoughtfully reviewing all of the submissions and deciding how her selections worked with each other in the gallery space. She also wrote an excellent statement for the show’s catalog and partnered with Heeeseon to arrange the works in the gallery.
In the course of planning the show, we met Carol Wells, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. Her organization houses the largest collection of political posters in the United States and she expressed great interest in collaborating with us. She and Alma Ruiz will select posters depicting women and immigration from the Center’s vast collection. These posters will be displayed in the reception room of the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery.
The subject of immigration resonated with many; we received 298 submissions from 127 artists throughout California. The majority of the submissions came from non-WCA members (65%). Forty artists were selected for the exhibition, 57% from the greater Los Angeles area, 11% from the San Diego Area and 32% from Northern California. 55% of the selected artists are non-WCA members.
The artists selected for the WAOI exhibition at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery are: Mariana Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Gilda Davidian, Cosette Dudley, Dwora Fried, Shelley Gazin, Elizabeth Gomez, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Judy Johnson-Williams, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar and Gul Cagin, Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Li’ n Lee, Lynn Elliott Letterman, Viviana Lombrozo, Poli Marichal, Michelle Montjoy, Carol Nye, Amparo J. Ochoa, Priscilla Otani, Lark (Larisa Pilinsky), Sinan Leong Revell, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters, Linda Vallejo, Alicia Villegas, Sama Wareh, Sarah Wilkinson and Holly Wong.
It is important to widen the dialog on immigration beyond gallery walls. The WAOI blog was created to honor the works of the large number of artists who submitted entries. These works will also be projected on a large screen at the Korean Cultural Center Gallery during the exhibition period. We encourage visitors to this blogsite to participate through the sharing of their personal immigrant experience and adding their comments and feedback.
Exhibitions Committee
Alejandra Chaverri
Libby Hartigan
Ann Isolde
Priscilla Otani
Sandra Mueller
The idea for WAOI started with a concerned dialog among WCA members on recent controversies surrounding immigration – the Bush Administration’s initiative to build a border fence between the United States and Mexico, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ raids on Northern California schools and the “Day Without Immigrants March” on May 1, 2006.
These discussions led to a broader discourse on globalization, which by its very nature, facilitates the movement of people around the world. Our talks helped formulate the show’s theme: “The dynamic movement of immigrants crossing borders by land, sea and air stirs impassioned debates on whether their arrival diminishes resources and opportunities or enriches society with fresh energy and intellectual capital.”
The timing and location of the show is significant: the 2009 WCA and CAA conference will be held in Los Angeles, not far from the US-Mexico border; and we wanted to seize the momentum of a Presidential election year to express our perspectives on a critical social issue. We hoped to hear from California women artists who were immigrants, whose parents were immigrants and who had strong convictions about immigration.
The core WCA exhibition team came together informally. Because no one person had time to be a full-time exhibitions chair, work was divided among volunteers Alejandra Chaverri (SBWCA), Libby Hartigan (SCWCA), Ann Isolde (SCWCA), Sandra Mueller (SCWCA), and Priscilla Otani (NCWCA). Alejandra took charge of the show’s catalog, Libby worked on publicity, and the rest of us worked on everything else from prospectus development, administration, postcards, correspondence, communications to trouble-shooting.
By a chance cold-call, we met Heeseon Choi, the young gallery director and curator at the Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles. When we explained that we were looking for an organization to collaborate on a show on immigration, she clapped her hands and said, “I’ve dreamed of working on a show like this!” It was the beginning of an amazing partnership with her and the Korean Cultural Center. Heeseon and Jongyul Kim, Director and Consul, generously made their art gallery available for the show and funded the reception.
We were fortunate that Alma Ruiz, curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) agreed to jury the show. She has curated numerous exhibitions of contemporary art, with a focus on the postwar period in Italy and Latin America, as well as working with emerging artists. Born in Guatemala City, she is an immigrant herself. She received her B.A. in art history at the University of Southern California and M.A. in Italian language and literature from Middlebury College. Alma has been an integral partner in this exhibition, spending two solid weeks thoughtfully reviewing all of the submissions and deciding how her selections worked with each other in the gallery space. She also wrote an excellent statement for the show’s catalog and partnered with Heeeseon to arrange the works in the gallery.
In the course of planning the show, we met Carol Wells, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Political Graphics in Los Angeles. Her organization houses the largest collection of political posters in the United States and she expressed great interest in collaborating with us. She and Alma Ruiz will select posters depicting women and immigration from the Center’s vast collection. These posters will be displayed in the reception room of the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery.
The subject of immigration resonated with many; we received 298 submissions from 127 artists throughout California. The majority of the submissions came from non-WCA members (65%). Forty artists were selected for the exhibition, 57% from the greater Los Angeles area, 11% from the San Diego Area and 32% from Northern California. 55% of the selected artists are non-WCA members.
The artists selected for the WAOI exhibition at the Korean Cultural Center Art Gallery are: Mariana Barnes, Yvonne Beatty, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Gilda Davidian, Cosette Dudley, Dwora Fried, Shelley Gazin, Elizabeth Gomez, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Judy Johnson-Williams, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar and Gul Cagin, Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Li’ n Lee, Lynn Elliott Letterman, Viviana Lombrozo, Poli Marichal, Michelle Montjoy, Carol Nye, Amparo J. Ochoa, Priscilla Otani, Lark (Larisa Pilinsky), Sinan Leong Revell, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters, Linda Vallejo, Alicia Villegas, Sama Wareh, Sarah Wilkinson and Holly Wong.
It is important to widen the dialog on immigration beyond gallery walls. The WAOI blog was created to honor the works of the large number of artists who submitted entries. These works will also be projected on a large screen at the Korean Cultural Center Gallery during the exhibition period. We encourage visitors to this blogsite to participate through the sharing of their personal immigrant experience and adding their comments and feedback.
Exhibitions Committee
Alejandra Chaverri
Libby Hartigan
Ann Isolde
Priscilla Otani
Sandra Mueller
Juror's Statement
(L to R): Gilda Davidian, Alice Kutzner, Yvonne Beatty
According to the last census in 2000, more than ten percent of U.S. residents are foreign born*. For the majority of us who live in California, immigration is a fact of life. We hear stories about immigrants on the radio, we watch them on TV, and we read them in the local newspapers. We encounter immigrants in public places, at work, at a friend’s house, in our neighborhood, and within our own family. I myself am an immigrant—a naturalized citizen—who arrived in California in the early seventies. Whether we are recent transplants or have been in the United States for generations, the motivation for having undertaken the journey from one country to another is the hope of finding new opportunities and making the United States our home.
In selecting the works for the exhibition “Women Artists on Immigration,” I found myriad expressions of the immigrant experience: many works speak of loss and despair, longing and nostalgia; others depict isolation and alienation; a few represent hope and joy. Gilda Davidian’s photographs of herself imitating her parents in dress and activity speak of her desire to get to know them—to be in their shoes, literally and metaphorically. Alicia Kutzner’s Dirndl 2 (2008) presents a traditional German dress as a repository of memories. Are those her memories or do they belong to her mother or grandmother? Can memories be retrieved or put away at will, as in a closet whose doors we are able to open and shut at will?
Linda Vallejo
The struggle for legalization is vividly expressed in Linda Vallejo’s Immigration USA (2008): immigrants march, united by a common cause, accompanied by words such as “Hope and Desperation” and “One March, Many Journeys.” This work captures the aspirations of millions who want to live in this country without fear of the authorities. Yvonne Beatty’s painful portrait of a young African slave in Passport (2008) refers not only to the history of slavery in the United States but also to forced immigration as people flee political repression, violence, hunger, poverty, or lack of opportunities. The man’s reddened eyes express both the pain of past indignities and the power of survival. The passport—a document that symbolizes freedom of movement—here represents a form of imprisonment.
The necessity for sweeping immigration reform is illustrated in Lynn E. Letterman’s A Two-sided Border Story. Here illegal and legal immigration are shown as branches growing on separate sides of the same tree. The family in Poli Marichal’s Vigilia (2008) could well represent the risks of illegal immigration, or the left side of the tree, while Carol Nye’s portrait of a successful middle-class woman in From the series “Chinese American Women of Los Angeles”: Lilly L. Chen (1996) personifies the positive aspects of immigration.
The history of immigration in the United States has been a rocky road, to say the least, yet it is this history that continues to lure people from all over the world to a country in which miracles are still possible. Where else could Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan citizen and an American woman, be elected the 44th president of the United States? The immigrant’s dream of a better future is alive and well!
Alma Ruiz
The necessity for sweeping immigration reform is illustrated in Lynn E. Letterman’s A Two-sided Border Story. Here illegal and legal immigration are shown as branches growing on separate sides of the same tree. The family in Poli Marichal’s Vigilia (2008) could well represent the risks of illegal immigration, or the left side of the tree, while Carol Nye’s portrait of a successful middle-class woman in From the series “Chinese American Women of Los Angeles”: Lilly L. Chen (1996) personifies the positive aspects of immigration.
The history of immigration in the United States has been a rocky road, to say the least, yet it is this history that continues to lure people from all over the world to a country in which miracles are still possible. Where else could Barack Obama, the son of a Kenyan citizen and an American woman, be elected the 44th president of the United States? The immigrant’s dream of a better future is alive and well!
Alma Ruiz
* Nancy Foner, In a New Land: A Comparative View of Immigration (New York and London: New York University Press, 2005), p. 1.
(L to R): Lynn Elliott Letterman, Poli Marichal, Carol Nye
Friday, February 6, 2009
Ackley - Arreola
Copyright Retained by Artists: Phoebe Ackley, Shelly Adler, Mitra Akhavan, Sara Alavikia, Vibiana Aparicio-Chamberlin, Salma Arastu, Linda Arreola.
Barnes - Castillo
Copyright Retained by Artists: Mariana Barnes, Ulla Barr, Yvonne Beatty, Fabienne Bismuth, Gretchen Blais, Jennifer Bloomer, Anna Bogatin, Florence Canicave, Ana Ruth Castillo.
Chapline - Davidian
Copyright Retained by Artists: Claudia Chapline, Alejandra Chaverri, Ching-Ching Cheng, Bernice Colman, Elizabeth Colomba, Y.K. Crane, Gilda Davidian.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Day-Green - Eckelberry
Copyright Retained by Artists: Eliza Day-Green, Betty Decter, Crisanta De Guzman, Eleanor Dickinson, Marta Donayre, Dorota, Susan Driscoll, Cosette Dudley, Lore Eckelberry.
Elise, Beth - Gonzalez
Copyright Retained by Artists: Christianne Elise, Natasha Beth, Danielle Fafchamps, Eva M. Fayman, Sumi, Dwora Fried, Gabrielle Gamboa, Elizabeth Gomez, Yolanda Gonzalez.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Guerra - Kosar, Cagin
Copyright Retained by Artists: Nuvia Crisol Guerra, Becky Guttin, Jennifer Maria Harris, Trudi Chamoff Hauptman, Laura Hines-Jurgens, Maricruz Huerta, Stephanie S. Inagaki, Judy Johnson-Williams, Susan Karhroody, Niku Kashef, Arzu Arda Kosar, Gul Cagin.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Krebs - Lopez
Copyright Retained by Artists: Patricia Krebs, Alexia Kutzner, Nicola Lamb, Li 'n Lee, Lynn Elliott Letterman, Sidonie Loiseleux, Viviana Lombrozo, Elizabeth M. Lopez, Pola Lopez.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Lunati - McLaughlin-Ryan
Copyright Retained by Artists: Nalyne Lunati, Margo Majewska, Haleh Manavi, Susan Manders, Poli Marchal, Cecilia Marmol, Isabel Martinez, Vicki McClay, Judy McLauglin-Ryan.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Mejia-Krumbein - Nye
Copyright Retained by Artists: Beatriz Mejia-Krumbein, Flavia Monteiro, Michelle Montjoy, Jennifer Morgan, Sandra Mueller, Camilla Newhagen, Dorothy Nissen, Felicity Nove, Carol Nye.
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
O'Brien - Raab Questenberg
Copyright Retained by Artists: Toti O'brien, Amparo J. Ochoa, Patricia R. Ogden, Priscilla Otani, Angela Penaredondo, Lark (Larisa Pilinsky), Mary Anna Pomonis, Kathrin Raab-Questenberg.
Revell - Savio
Copyright Retained by Artists: Sinan Leong Revell, Guadalupe Rodriguez, Patricia Rodriguez, Sandy Rodriguez, Launa D. Romoff, Valerie Runningwolf, Laila Salartash, Colleen Salomon, Alicia Savio.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Schweitzer - Tate
Copyright Retained by Artists: Masha Schweitzer, Evelyn Seto, Judy Shintani, Vered Shomron, Bonnie Smith, Monika Steiner, Ann Storc, Yuriko Takata, Luz Tapia, Tate Sisters.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Tchalakian - Villegas
Copyright Retained by Artists: Jessica Tchalakian, Toby Tover-Krein, Dolores Udave, Consuelo Underwood, Linda Vallejo, Kerry Vandermeer, Marjan K. Vayghan, Bettina Vestergaard, Alicia Villegas.
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