Stories of Boundaries, a culminating exhibition for Arts Council for Long Beach’s 2017–2018 Professional Artist Fellows, opens Saturday, August 18, from 6–9 p.m. The exhibition features four Long Beach artists whose work exemplify artistic merit and professional achievement. The fellows are Kristin Beeler, Jose Loza, Brittany Mojo, and Gerardo Monterrubio. Tasha Hunter, Arts Council President, said “The Professional Artist Fellow grant program helps highlight and applaud the work of our local creatives that have chosen this expressive path. I always look forward to this time of year because it brings forth welcomed excitement and anticipation for what’s to come.”
A ‘boundary’ is a real or imagined line that marks an edge or limit. Boundaries separate spaces, objects, and ideas; They mark the end of one thing and the beginning of another. The fellows use their work to tell narratives about boundaries – be they points in time or marking human experience. Arts Council Executive Director Griselda Suarez said, “This exhibition invites people to engage with their inner dialogue and inquire just how they express boundaries within various communities.”
Kristin Beeler creates contemporary jewelry, photography, and objects. Through the series Archive of Rag and Bone, Beeler explores memory and the marks and traces left behind. The work is a collection of objects and images that touch upon the seen and unseen psychological boundary of the body and memories that exist in objects.
Jose Loza explores stories of migration and the boundaries between borders, language, generations, and cultures. Loza’s interests lie in family narratives and his work tackles themes of separation, reunion, humor, and loss. Through interviews and oral histories, Loza seeks to share stories that have been previously invisible, lost or untold. Loza’s paintings serve as entry points to migration narratives.
Brittany Mojo investigates the histories of gendered work through the manipulation of material. Objects like vessels, chairs, lamps, tools, bikes, and furniture confront sculpture and craft, fine art and design and the real or imagined hierarchy between them. The work questions the boundary of the gallery in relation to the studio, the artist, and the observer.
Gerardo Monterrubio uses the ceramic medium as an anthropological investigation. Monterrubio uses forms as vehicles to compose linear and fragmented narratives. By creating contemporary artifacts, Monterrubio seeks to understand and interpret cultural paradigms, socio-political practices, mythologies, and the human experience of the worlds that created them.
Stories of Boundaries is a project of the Arts Council for Long Beach. The exhibition will be on view at the Collaborative Gallery (421 W. Broadway) through September 28, with gallery hours Wednesday–Saturday from 12:30–5 p.m.
For more information about the Professional Artist Fellows visit our grants page.
For more information about the Collaborative Gallery visit the gallery page.