Untitled 54 Art Blog

I am honored to be participating in Marjan Vayghans next Building Bridges Rooftop Reflection Series Tehran. Please take time to check out the two attached links regarding her beautiful and important work.

Marjan is truly an amazing woman. Strong, Smart AND Sexy a trifecta so to speak. However her only threat is to fill her country with love, equality and art. The people of Iran as well as us here in the US are lucky to have her as a sister, in the fight for freedom and social justice.

Enjoy!


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/j-michael-welton/marjan-vayghan-_b_863903.html

http://rahavardenglish.com/arts-culture/

Labels: Building Bridges, Building Bridges Rooftop Reflections Series Tehran, Kelly Thompson, Kelly Thompson LA artist, LA Art Girls, Marjan Vayghan, Women artist in Iran, women of Iran

I'm looking forward to Marjan Vayghans work at 18th Street ArtNight. Marjan has been "Building Bridges"across the globe for years now. I hope to write more later until then here is some information about Marjan the 18th Street and Ghetty projects. Attached is the artists statement and the post by Business Wire that I pulled for you. Both links are attached. SEE YOU IN SANTA MONICA!!

Born to Azerbaijani parents in Tehran, Iran in 1984, Marjan Vayghan emigrated to the United States in the Spring of 1995, settling with her family in Los Angeles, California. Marjan continues to live alternately between Teheran and Los Angeles. Her practice is informed by this context of movement and flexible citizenship across both geographical and cultural spaces, and the multiple realities these spaces engender.


February 09, 2011 09:00 AM Eastern Time
18th Street’s ArtNight Salutes California’s Contemporary Art

SANTA MONICA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--18th Street Arts Center celebrates a “legacy” of Contemporary Art on February 19, 2011 from 6:00-9:00 p.m.

“to provoke public dialogue through contemporary art making.”

In the spirit of the Getty Foundation’s sponsored project, *Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945-1980, 18th Street has declared 2011 its “legacy” year. Artists chosen to activate the galleries will create projects to commemorate or pay tribute to California’s influential Contemporary Art Movement. This ArtNight debuts the projects of the first two artists, Richard Newton and Vincent Ramos, to activate 18th Street galleries under 18th Street’s “legacy” theme.

In the 18th Street Gallery, Richard Newton’s project, Have You Seen My Privacy, will involve multiple presentations of video, ephemera, and correspondence accompanied by public dialogues with artists active in Southern California from 1960 and onwards. Newton will also actively collaborate with younger artists to develop three performances allied with the presentations.

Vincent Ramos will occupy 18th Street’s Project Room with his research-based project, Outsider Art: Others From Elsewhere Doing Something Altogether Different…Sort Of. Ramos’ project will look at works developed in Southern California in the 1960’s by artists who were not from the region, but whose projects informed and influenced the work of local artists. He will develop new works along with constructing a visual timeline of the many disparate pieces from these “outsider” artists.

On this extraordinary February night, 18th Street visitors will witness new and engaging art installations created by 18th Street’s Visiting International Artists, open-artist studios from our Artist-in-Residence, a young artist-driven group art show in the Pasillos I featuring the eclectic art works from the students of Santa Monica College; a presentation by Womenfound in the Pasillos II showcasing the artwork of children from the Gongathi Sunitha Shelter in Hyderabad, India; and a delicious toss up of mouth-watering veggie and organic hot dogs from the AsiaDog Food Truck.

At 8:00 p.m. in the Highways Performance Space, visitors will be captivated by the mesmerizing and provocative performance art work of 18th Street’s Visiting South African Artist, MLu Zondi.

ArtNight is free to the public and will have a bar hosted by Izze Sparkling Juice, Pama Pomegranate Liqueur, Hpnotiq, and LunaAzul Tequila.

18th Street Arts Center is an internationally known alternative arts center whose mission is “to provoke public dialogue through contemporary art making.”

ArtNight is made possible (in part) by the City of Santa Monica Community Access and Participation (CAP) Grant Program and the Santa Monica Arts Commission.

* Pacific Standard Time is an unprecedented collaboration of more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California, coming together to tell the story of the birth of the L.A. art scene. Initiated through grants from the Getty Foundation, Pacific Standard Time will take place for six months beginning October 2011. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty. The presenting sponsor is Bank of America.

Gallery hours are Monday – Friday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m. 18th Street Arts Center is located at 1639 18th Street, Santa Monica, off Olympic Blvd.
Contacts

18th Street Arts Center
Ronald Lopez, 310-453-3711 x. 103
rlopez@18thstreet.org
www.18thstreet.org

Labels: 18th Street Arts Center, Civil Rights, Free Iran, Getty Projects, Green Party, Human Rights, Kelly Thompson, Marjan Vayghan, Pacific Standard Time Getty, Women's Rights

Location LMU, Ahmanson 1000
1 LMU Drive, Los Angeles, California 90045
Created By
Marjan Vayghan
More Info
LA ARTGIRLS PANEL

The LA Art Girls evolved from informal gatherings and studio visits, which started in 2004, as a mean of encouraging substantive discourse on contemporary art. The intentions of the LA Art Girls are to provide inspiration, support, dialogue and feedback to one another. The group strives to be a voluntary and non-hierarchical gathering of practices.

The LA Art Girls have produced several collaborative projects:... Strange Love (2005), an exquisite corpse-style video remake of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, exhibited at QED Gallery; Total Art performance Event, a series of Fluxus-inspired performances at the Getty Center in June 2006; group exhibitions at Anna Helwing Gallery, LACE and angles Gallery; String Theory, a radio show on Kbeach Global Radio; and Overflow, a re-invention of Fluids (1967) by artist Allan Kaprow, at the Getty Center in April 2008. While there are over 30 members of the LA Art Girls at this time, a lesser number participates in the collaborative projects on a self-selecting basis. Meanwhile, all members of the group pursue their own practice as contemporary artists and participate in meetings and studio visits as they choose. For more information on the LA ART Girls, please visit us @ www.laartgirls.com
LA Art Girls:
Stephanie Allespach, Tricia Avant, SE Barnet, Allison Danielle Behrstock, Rebecca Campbell, Carolyn Castaño, Krista Chael, Sydney Croskery, Catherine Daley, Betsy Davis, Jacqueline Dunbar, Karen Dunbar, Angela Ellsworth, Anoka Faruqee, Amber Fox, Phyllis Green, Leila Hamidi, Micol Hebron, Parichard Holm, Dawn Kasper, Ellina Kevorkian, Leigh McCarthy, Claudia Parducci, Nancy Popp, Kim Schoenstadt, Sarah Riley, Felis Stella, Ten Terrell, Kelly Thompson, Elizabeth Tremante, Marjan Vayghan.


Panel Chair:
Ellina Kevorkian MFA. Claremont Graduate University. Kevorkian has had solo exhibitions in Los Angeles with the Mark Moore Gallery and Western Project. In 2007 Kevorkian was included in the Southern California Council of the National Museum of Women in the Arts–sponsored retrospective Multiple Vantage Points: Southern California Women Artists, 1980–2006. More recently, she was included in Girly Show: Pin-ups, Zines & the So-Called Third Wave and the forthcoming Separation Anxiety, both at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art. Her Black Lace Project can be seen at the Central Utah Art Center (CUAC) in fall 2010. Curatorial projects include Violet Against Women: Confronting Notions of the Feminine, an evening of performance art and video at Loyola Marymount College and re-: (un)historical documents, a group exhibition at the Guggenheim Gallery at Chapman College. www.ellinakevorkian.com


PANELISTS: NANCY BUCHANAN, PHYLLIS GREEN, NANCY POPP, MARJAN VAYGHAN:

NANCY BUCHANAN
Nancy Buchanan began using video as a natural extension of performance and installation in the late 1970s. Her works, which are often socio-documentary with a wry sense of humor, have been exhibited and screened in the U.S., Europe, Korea, and Iraq. She also produces mixed-media work, drawings, and digital prints on paper and fabric. She is on the Film/Video faculty of California Institute of the Arts, where she has taught video since 1988.
Buchanan was an original member of F Space Gallery in Orange County, and participated in various artist-run organizations such as Grandview I & II Galleries at The Los Angeles Woman’s Building, later continuing her involvement with feminism and art through Double X; she also served on artists' committees at LACE. She was a co-producer of CLOSE Radio with artist Paul McCarthy and has curated various exhibitions. http://nancybuchanan.net/

PHYLLIS GREEN
Raised in Canada, Phyllis Green moved to California in 1978 to pursue graduate studies in art. She received an M.F.A. from U.C.L.A. in 1981, and began her professional career as an artist, teacher and curator in Los Angeles. Her practice integrates feminist politics and classic modernist themes. Trained as a ceramic artist, she produces mixed media sculpture and installations that include animation video. This work has been exhibited extensively in exhibitions nationally and internationally. She is the recipient of individual artist's fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and was among the first artists to be awarded a C.O.L.A. grant by the City of Los Angeles in 1996. She has lectured in colleges and universities around the world, and is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Art Department of Loyola Marymount University, and at the Roski School of Fine Arts at U.S.C. in Los Angeles.

Phyllis Green produced and hosted a radio show on the visual arts, “LOOK/ hear”, on KXLU:88.9FM from 1996-1998. She was appointed to the Santa Monica Arts Commission in 2000, and served as Chair from 2004 to 2006. An extensive survey of her sculpture from 1985-2010 will be presented in the Ben Maltz Gallery of the Otis College of Art and Design in January 2011. http://www.phyllisgreen.net/


NANCY POPP
Nancy Popp is a Los Angeles-based artist working a range of media, including performance, video, drawing and photography. Her projects investigate the body as a site and a material, along with the risk and vulnerability of serious play. Recent exhibitions include the Overflow at the Getty Research Institute, Untitled (Street Performances) at the Atlanta Contemporary Arts Center, The Audacity of Desperation at Gallery PS122 in New York, Documental at Pilot Projekts in Dusseldorf, and Cheking Point at The Rex Cultural Center in Belgrade. She holds degrees from Art Center College of Design and the San Francisco Art Institute. http://www.nancypopp.com/


MARJAN VAYGHAN:
Born to Azerbaijani parents in Tehran, Iran, 1984. In 1995, I emigrated to the United States and settled with my family in Los Angeles, California. I continue to live alternately between Tehran and Los Angeles. My practice is informed by this context of movement and flexible citizenship across both geographical and cultural spaces, and the multiple realities these spaces engender.
The impetus behind my creative practice is to bridge these diverse communities into a space of creativity and understanding. Building Bridges is a series of exchanges and performances that began in 2002. As my work began transcending rigid notions of borders and classifications, my sense of “home” became more clearly defined while simultaneously created sensations of displacement and alienation. As I identify with both cultures, the annual Building Bridges exhibitions and film festivals function as a site where issues of dislocation find reconciliation. I find I am able to create an alternative space that engenders community and belonging for myself and those who exist between cultures, borders, and sanctions. For information on current projects visit www.MarjanVayghan.com

Labels: Ellina Kevorkian, LA Art Girls, Marjan Vayghan, Nancy Buchanan, Nancy Popp, Phyllis Green