The work of eight talented black artists is on exhibit in the West Los Angeles College art gallery with the theme of Honoring Black History Month.
The exhibit, which is free, opened this week and until March 24. The gallery is open Monday through Thursday from 9 to 4. Adjacent parking is available in the S. Parking Structure for $2. Exact change is highly recommended. The college will also host a free reception in the gallery on Thursday, February 11 from 5 to 7.
Exhibiting artists include June Edmonds, Fred Eversley, Mark Steven Greenfield, Regina Herod, Pamela Smith Hudson, Joe Lewis, Adolph (Kush) Simpson, and Holly Tempo.
Molly Barnes, Doug Blechner and Pamela Smith Hudson are the curators.
Artist Joe Lewis is the recipient of numerous awards, commissions and fellowships including an Award of Excellence from Communication Arts, several National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Ford Foundation Fellowship and a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. He has written on art for Art in America, The LA Weekly and Artforum, and has been published in anthologies and peer-reviewed journals. He has also served as the dean of U.C. Irvine’s Claire Trevor School of the Arts and the School of Art and Design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York; chair at the Dept. of Art at Cal State Northridge, and as a faculty member at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Mr. Lewis was also the co-founding director of Fashion Moda in New York. He is a visual artist, photographer, musician, and art critic. His visual art often focuses on digital manipulations of the image.
Mark Steven Greenfield studied under Charles White, one of America’s most renowned African-American and social realist artists. Greenfield concerns himself with the complexities of the African American experience in contemporary society. His work often involves his interpretation of the process by which images are formed in the subconscious. It is his contention that we borrow from this subliminal well on the conscious level and alternately navigate through various layers of consciousness to reach the source of our spiritual selves. He has served as an administrator for the Los Angeles Dept. of Cultural Affairs and as the director of the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery. He has exhibited extensively throughout the U.S. and internationally in Thailand, Naples, Seoul, and Gan Dong. His awards include the City of L.A. Individual Artist Fellowship and the California Community Foundation Artist Fellowship. He has been a visiting professor at CalArts.
Backgrounds of the other featured artist are impressive and diverse as are their works which include vivid color on canvas, space inspired sculpture, and collages speaking to the essential nature of urbanism.
For more information, contact Mr. Blechner at 310.287.4576.
Ms. Long-Coffee may be contacted at longcofm@wlac.edu