Category: Press Release

Opening | Duality

11/5/2017

Duality
A Solo Exhibition by Amabelle Aguiluz

Branch Gallery
1031 W. Manchester Blvd #3
Inglewood, CA 90301

Exhibition Dates | November 11th, 2017 - January 5th, 2018
Opening Reception Saturday, November 11th, 3pm -6pm

Inglewood, CA – Branch Gallery is pleased to announce its upcoming exhibition, Duality, featuring new work by Amabelle Aguiluz. Aguiluz is a local fiber artist incorporating clothing and textiles in her fiber sculptures and installations. Duality will consist of several site-specific installations, exploring the concepts of light vs. dark and creation vs. destruction. The installations will be constructed from upcycled knitwear and previous yarn installations by Aguiluz.

Free Form

Aguiluz’s method of unraveling existing garments and re-knitting them into different forms breathes new life into the material. This process provides a coherent rhythm of making that Aguiluz refers to as “a journey of transformation.” The repetitive motions of unraveling and re-knitting allows her to meditate on notions of self exploration, especially rebirth. The work in Duality references this rebirth, urging the audience to examine the material transformations in each installation.

The opening reception on Saturday, Nov. 11 will have a dance performance around 5pm. This reception also coincides with Inglewood’s Open Studios 2017 event, in which Branch Gallery is participating for the first time.

The Branch Gallery is a fiber art space in Los Angeles dedicated to exhibiting local artists. We provide opportunities exclusively for the fiber arts, lending a platform for artists to share their work and techniques with the broader L.A. arts community. The gallery is owned and operated by The Knitting Tree, L.A., a local yarn store located next door. We hope to bring more attention to

fiber as a fine art, along with its presence as a craft, between the two spaces. Branch Gallery has recently received the 2017 Best of Inglewood award in the Art Gallery category (“Branch Gallery Receives 2017 Best of Inglewood Award”). The Branch Gallery is a project of The Knitting Tree, L.A., a fiber retail space located next door.

The Knitting Tree, L.A. is Inglewood's local sanctuary for fiber arts enthusiasts of all skill levels. We offer an extensive selection of high-quality yarns and supplies for knitting, crochet, spinning, weaving, and needle felting, as well as hands-on instruction by skilled artisans of diverse backgrounds. Our passion is contagious, inspiring beginners to embrace new skills, while challenging more advanced fiber artists to expand their creative horizons. Fertile soil for yarn enthusiasts of all strands to "Grow Here"!

Changes II

Amabelle Aguiluz lives and works in Los Angeles. Her practice incorporates clothing, textile, fiber sculpture, and installation processes that are presented as free form sculptures and are often incorporated into live performance, video, and photographs. She studied at Politecnico di Milano, Italy and graduated in 2011 from the Fashion Institute of Technology, New York BFA in Fashion Design. Aguiluz’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally including the La Triennale Internationale des Arts Textiles in Outaouais, Canada.

@amabelleaguiluz
@branchgallery
@theknittingtreela

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Opening | Aliens with Extraordinary Abilities

5/11/2017

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Aliens with Extraordinary Ablities
Curated by Artist, Camella DaEun Kim

Opening Reception | Saturday, May 20th, 5 - 7pm
Exhibition dates | May 20th - July 21st, 2017
Mon - Fri, 10am - 5pm
Immigrant Potluck | Saturday, June 10th

Fellows of Contemporary Art
970 North Broadway #208
Los Angeles, CA 90012

Original image courtesy of artists, collected and reconstructed by artist, Camella DaEun Kim

The title of this group show, Aliens with Extraordinary Abilities, is a direct reference to O-1 visa approved by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to individuals who are classified as “aliens” possessing extraordinary ability in arts, science, education, business, or athletics, or who has a demonstrated extraordinary achievement in the motion picture or television industries.

Despite having interest to take part in commonly shared discussions on “assimilation versus integration,” “race versus ethnicity,” “mainstream

culture versus subculture,” or “economically motivated immigration versus politically motivated evacuation,” this show is compelled to observe the dialectical process that wages within the outsiders struggling to come to terms with their social environment.

While the eight artists in the show possess distinct backgrounds and manifest disparate approaches to art, each identifies herself as a “stranger,” oscillating between being an insider and an outsider by virtue of her individuality within her own circumstances. Drawing on personal experiences related to diaspora, race, gender, queerness, and social constraints, each artist’s work subverts and confronts the negative connotations of life as a foreigner.

Furthermore, both the curator and artists collaborated by playing both roles. As a whole, Aliens with Extraordinary Abilities amalgamates works ranging from photography, video, sculpture, and sound, site-specific installations. Together, they are collectively curated to touch on the ideas of ‘home’ and expand on the paradigm of the forever immigrant with multiple places of belonging, out of places or with no place to call ‘home’.

Featuring works by:
Jenny Donaire
Ting Ying Han
Gelare Khoshgozaran
Ann Le
Yoshie Sakai
Kyungmi Shin
Jimena Sarno
Kim Ye

The foreigner lives within us: he is the hidden face of our identity, the space that wrecks our abode, the time in which understanding and affinity founder. The 'foriegner' then is something hidden in ourselves, something with the potential to destroy 'home' and something that is beyond 'understanding' or relations with eachother. - Strangers to Ourselves, Julia Kristeva

For press inquiries, contact camelladaeunkim@gmail.com or foca@focala.org
#alienswithextraordinaryabilities

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Blind Spot at Design Matters, Los Angeles

12/2/2016

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Lauren McCarthy // still from Follower // performance and custom software // 2016

Blind Spot
Opening Reception | Saturday, December 10, 2–6pm
Opening night performance | Armando Cortes at 3:30pm
Exhibition Dates| Dec 10th to Jan 20th, 2017
Design Matters Gallery
11527 W Pico Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90064
Mon - Fri 9am - 6pm

Featured Artists: Shiva Aliabadi, Jeremy Bailey, Armando Cortes, Matthias Dörfelt, Aaron Giesel, Kang Seung Lee, Lauren McCarthy, Patch Wright

BLIND SPOT is a group show curated by Camella D. Kim presenting eight artists, each working in a distinctive art-making process and sharing a common theme: a ‘blind spot.’ It takes place at Design Matters Gallery in Los Angeles, from December 10th, 2016 to January 21st, 2017.

Jeremy Bailey // Jeremy Bailey Next // dimensions variable // 2016

In the human body, a blind spot refers to an area of the retina where there are no photoreceptors, resulting in an obscuration gap in the visual field. More commonly, a blind spot refers to a small area outside of a vehicle that drivers cannot see. In order to see what is in a blind spot, one must make a small shift in the way they look, alternating his/her/their positioning or gaze to glimpse what is hidden in a blind spot. It does not mean that what we cannot see does not exist. With this in mind, the show title references a broader, metaphorical notion of the phrase, highlighting that portion of the mind that houses hidden biases--: for the artists in their art practice, decision-making and creative process.

Mattias Dorfelt // Disassembly // archival digital print on paper // 20" x 20" and variable x 20" // 2016

Every artist has a bias about their work and the work of others; in being true to their art-making processes, artists cannot disguise their tastes and aesthetics. In choosing subject matter, materials, and the format by which an artist expresses an idea, image, emotion, or concept, the artist is also expressing their preferences, or, the particular perspective from which these choices are made. Moreover, the notion of a blind spot is also relevant from the viewer’s perspective, as they are unlikely to be informed or exposed to the artists’ processes.

This bias is not an inherently negative quality. In fact, it is often what motivates artists, causing them to delve deeper into their interests and discover different approaches. Shiva Aliabadi’s Safety of Objects (2016) candidly reveal through the use of obscure objects against the readily familiar to highlight a blind spot. Circumferencing Circle (2015) by Patch Wright reveals hidden space and ‘visible’ space through spatial play offering deeper insight into the meaning of privacy or lack thereof. Works like Aaron Giesel’s photography series and Kang Seung Lee’s artist book, Covers (2015), divulge the ideas often culled from their studio practices.

Bridging those works are performance and custom software-based pieces by Jeremy Bailey, Armando Cortes, Matthias Dörfelt, and Lauren McCarthy that intentionally and, or inherently embody the invisible or hidden aspects of the art-making-- which are ultimately revealed in the final execution of their work. As a whole, BLIND SPOT amalgamates works ranging from ceramics, photography, sculptures, interactive installation, prints, and custom software that expand the definition of the blind spot, exploiting via art-making, the ambivalent blind spot of the human experience.

Patch Wright // Circumferencing Circle // Drywall, paint, hardware, electric motor // 29" circle cut out at 58" center // 2015

Shiva Aliabadi // Safety of Objects (triptych) // plastic, wood, cardboard, 30" x 22" x 4" // 2016

Kang Seung Lee // Covers // Photocopy on wall, artist books // dimensions variable // 2015

Inquiries about the show: camelladaeunkim@gmail.com

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The Recollections of Stones Unturned

11/1/2016

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The Recollections of Stones Unturned
Exhibition | Nov 4th through December 23rd, 2016

Kent Fine Art is pleased to present a solo exhibition by Yulia Pinkusevich. The Recollections of Stones Unturned is a project that gazes back at our moment in time through a distant future lens. Earth and Mars have now changed in unexpected ways. Viewers encounter clues to what has happened through the collection of Guðríður, a voyager obsessed with the early days of Mars exploration. Her collection consists of a series of large scale laser etchings depicting the first human+machine traces and marks made upon Mars along with geological specimens found across Guðríður’s journey. Other elements of this collection include two resonant instruments; a glass harmonica and cast iron bell apparatus. Video and text complete the experience. This installation contemplates the similarities between Mars and Earth considering the ways progress has evolved on Earth and its subsequent extraterrestrial trajectories on Mars.

Pinkusevich’s installation grew out of her time and research while an Artist in Residence at Autodesk, Pier 9 in San Francisco. Working alongside artists and scientists who focus on bioengineering, astrophysicist, robotics, speculative architecture, bio-nano tech and much more, she became immersed in a world of scientific explorations. Thus began a year long investigation into the new geologies of foreign worlds. At Pier 9, she had full access to state of the art technology as well as data from cutting edge scientific communities, all developing into a fascination with extraterrestrial landscapes like Comet 67P Churyumov-Gerasimenko and Mars.