The remaining postcards from our first two Huddle exhibitions are here online (below) for a discounted rate of $10 (marked down from $25) with 100% of proceeds going to ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Trevor Project. Huddle #1 raised $1500. You can also view them in person on April 20th from 3-6 during the reception.
Send an email to shoeboxprojectsla@gmail.com letting us know which postcards you would like to purchase (artist names/numbers in captions) and you can pay either via check or paypal (kristineschomaker@gmail.com). We will mail your postcard to you once payment is received.
The #equalityforall #resist postcard art show
Hosted by Shoebox Projects and Art and Cake
Curated by Kristine Schomaker
Sponsored by Shoebox PR
From womensmarch.com…
“First, we marched. Now we Huddle. We will gather together in our neighborhoods all over the world to define our next steps, and envision how to transform the energy we saw at Women’s Marches into local and national action.
Huddle (n.) – a small group of people holding an informal conversation”
I was part of a recent huddle in Los Angeles. It was an amazing experience to feel like we aren’t alone in our thinking about the current political climate. We talked about what is going on in our country and what we could do to make a difference.
Sales: All work is donated to the show and sold for a suggested donation of $25 each. 100% of proceeds will be donated equally to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Trevor Project. Payable by Check, Cash or Credit Card (additional fees may apply) at the reception.
The remaining postcards from our first 2 Huddle exhibitions are here online (below) for a discounted rate of $10 (marked down from $25) with 100% of proceeds going to ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Trevor Project. Huddle #1 raised $1500.
Send an email to shoeboxprojectsla@gmail.com letting us know which postcards you would like to purchase (artist names/numbers in captions) and you can pay either via check or paypal (kristineschomaker@gmail.com). We will mail your postcard to you once payment is received.
The #equalityforall #resist postcard art show
Hosted by Shoebox Projects and Art and Cake
Curated by Kristine Schomaker
Sponsored by Shoebox PR
From womensmarch.com…
“First, we marched. Now we Huddle. We will gather together in our neighborhoods all over the world to define our next steps, and envision how to transform the energy we saw at Women’s Marches into local and national action.
Huddle (n.) – a small group of people holding an informal conversation”
I was part of a recent huddle in Los Angeles. It was an amazing experience to feel like we aren’t alone in our thinking about the current political climate. We talked about what is going on in our country and what we could do to make a difference.
Sales: All work is donated to the show and sold for a suggested donation of $25 each. 100% of proceeds will be donated equally to the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and the Trevor Project. Payable by Check, Cash or Credit Card (additional fees may apply) at the reception.
Boredom-as-Catalyst in Martin Cox’s Museum of Ennui at The Closet
(Los Angeles, California) – The Shed Collective was created when four artists decided to host art events in their sheds and closets. Coined “the alternative to alternative galleries” a group of sister galleries emerged. Inspired by spaces like “Elevator Mondays” and Gallery 1993 and believing that artists have to create their own opportunities to exhibit and curate, the first show opens at “The Closet” an annex in the Shoebox Project space at the Brewery on March 17th from 3-5pm.
As an experience, The Shed Collective attempts to capture the imagination in its challenging of existing modes of presentation of contemporary art. It responds both to the artist’s need to experiment and curator’s need to stage exhibits in unconventional spaces in order to engage new dialogues. Seen together, The Shed Collective fluidly explores both artistic and curatorial conditions in its varied spaces. Formed by Kristine Schomaker, Cathy Immordino, Sheli Silverio, and Diane Williams, the group aims to more efficiently enact the presence of art in varied communities throughout Los Angeles and capture a unique sense of diversity and character within each of its spaces and projects.
L.A.-based artist Martin Cox’s Museum of Ennui, another alternative project, will inaugurate The Closet as the first exhibition. Mr. Cox has long examined places where natural and man-made worlds meet. The artist’s capturing of landscapes, often abandoned or vacated shelters, and other artifacts inject the past within the present, as a site of imagination and evolution. Cox refers to these spaces of possibility and potential doom in his most recent project, The Museum of Ennui that began at Fjuk Art Center Residency in Iceland. Shifting modes from his own singular production, Cox reached out to a wide range of artists all over the world. The artist asked each participant to produce a piece of art in response to their own reflections of ennui. The word, Cox feels, has been wrongly perceived as a condition of debilitating despair and lethargy. The artist’s investigation brings historical and literary dimension in championing its connotations of boredom and melancholy as necessary to human invention throughout history.
Inspired by the museums often dedicated to a single subject or person dotted throughout Iceland, Cox developed the Museum of Ennui, as a mobile object that could alter in form and travel with all of its elements contained within its apparatus. In its second iteration for the Closet called Museum for One, the artist has added new additions from artists he is in contact with throughout the globe, as well as text and sound pieces. Though mostly digital photographs, Museum for One also includes drawings and mixed-media works. The piece’s title refers not only to The Closet’s architecture, who’s maximum capacity is one person, but the concept of ennui as a state of being solitary.
21 artists will be represented at the museum of ennui including visual, literary and sound artists from the US, UK, Iceland, Canada, India, Germany, and France have responded with small art works. Participating artists: Anna Amethyst, Cynthia Minet, Douglas Hill, Gary Edward Jones, Jessie Rose Vala, Julie Murray, Katrina Alexy, Kim Abeles, Kirthana Devdas, Kristine Schomaker, Maggie Lowe Tennesen, Marina Rees, Martin Cox, Nataliya Petkova, Röðull Reyr Kárason, Rose Portillo, Ryan Hill, Sally O’Reilly, Sara Jane Boyers, Scott MacLeod, Thora Solveig Bergsteinsdottir.
December 4, 2017 – January 14, 2018
Reception: Saturday, January 13, 2018, 3-6 pm
Shoebox Projects is pleased to announce “Embodied: St. Anthony and the Desert of Tears” a residency and exhibition featuring the work of Leonard Greco. Greco’s residency runs from December 4, 2017 – January 14, 2018 with a reception on January 14, 2018 from 3-6pm.
During his residency at Shoebox Projects Greco will create a new body of work in which he explores the relationship between the solitude of the artist in his/her studio and disruptions from the realities of life. The installation draws from the narrative of “St Anthony of the Desert” and the fact that St Anthony resisted supernatural temptations during his desert sojourn. In this exhibition, Greco will explore his own struggles, making mixed media works that reflect on the temptations of lust, boredom and the perils of isolation.
Leonard Greco is a painter, printmaker and puppet and doll maker. Largely self-taught, Greco has had a successful career as a decorative painter and muralist for over 25 years. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions including, Tomorrow Today at the Pasadena Museum of California Art (2011); Clive Hicks Jenkins, Wales, UK (2012); Kaleidoscope, Couturier Gallery, Los Angeles (2014) and Out There, Gallery, 825, West Hollywood (2016). He had a solo show at Ave. 50 Gallery in 2017 and was also included in numerous exhibitions: Pop-Surreal Playhouse at Artshare LA; Stitch Fetish 5, The Hive, Los Angeles; Pickles Galore, curated by Linda Vallejo, Lamperouge Gallery, Los Angeles; The Faces Within, South Bay Contemporary, San Pedro and With Liberty and Justice for Some, Walter Maciel Gallery, Los Angeles.
For more information on Leonard Greco please visit: leonardgreco.me
About Shoebox Projects
Shoebox Projects is a new experimental art space in DTLA, where emerging and mid-career artists are given an opportunity to freely experiment with new ideas and directions for their practice. Founded by Kristine Schomaker, multimedia artist and director of Shoebox PR, Shoebox Projects intends to give artists a chance to recharge and renew their relationship with their work.
This installation titled Circling is inspired by the traditional Japanese activities of ema and omikuji. Ema are votive plagues on which worshippers/visitors write prayers or wishes and they are tied to a stand. Omikuji is fortune-telling paper strips that are scrolled or folded up, attached to a tree or tied to a string. Both are in designated areas outside the shrines or temples.
Borrowing from the concepts of ema and omikuji, I used brush and ink drawing circles repetitively on Chinese grid papers, folded them up into strips and tied to the ropes in which I hung outdoors. In this time of constant visual assault in our daily lives, my act of circling serves as a mantra for peace. In the process of drawing and folding over and over and over again, not only do I feel a sense of direct concentration, but it also helps to induce a state of consciousness.
Being away from my studio in Long Beach and daily life, and secluding myself in a rural, isolated residency has provided me a time of reflection and experience working in a different location. Particularly, it has enabled me to explore this installation project in an outdoor environment.
Shoebox Projects, located at the Brewery Art Community in Los Angeles, California, is a project space that features work-only artist-in-residence space as well as gallery space. Founded in 2016 by Kristine Schomaker of Shoebox PR and Art and Cake, the residency is designed to allow emerging contemporary artists time and space to create new work exploring their practice.
Artists may submit a proposal of a project which will utilize the space as a studio to create new work. The residency will culminate in a solo closing reception that is promoted across Shoebox’s extensive network of art world influencers and press.
Proposals must have a contemporary art focus showing experimentation and career reach for the artist. We are especially interested in projects that involve social practice and push the artists’ work into new arenas of practice or theory. We urge artists to propose involving the public in their creative process.
Program Goals:
To offer support and space to artists who are ready to move their work forward in the contemporary art landscape;
To encourage artists to experiment and explore their concepts amongst a community of artists.
Eligibility:
The residency is open to Southern California artists only, with a preference to Los Angeles area artists;
We are interested in emerging artists who show a strong drive to move their career forward;
Mid-career artists will be considered if they can show the residency will provide the catalyst for a significant change in direction.
Details of Residency:
The period of residency is either 3 or 6 weeks;
Residencies begins June 2018 and are being filled through 2019;
Cost to the artist is $300 for 3 weeks or $600 for 6 weeks; A $75 non-refundable deposit is required upon acceptance of residency in order to hold your space;
The obligation from the artist will include being present within the space a minimum of 20 hours a week;
225 Square Foot Studio/Gallery space at the Brewery Art Colony;
A 30% commission will be put on all sold work;
The project space is flexible daytime work only (i.e., no live-in accommodation);.
To Apply:
Letter of interest explaining your specific interest in working with Shoebox Projects along with a proposed idea for utilizing the space;
Artist bio;
Artist statement;
Link to artist website and relevant social media;
Selection of 10-15 jpeg images of recent work;
Give preferred availability for 2018-2019. and let us know if you would like the space for 3 or 6 weeks.
Title folder “{your name} – Shoebox Projects Residency”;
Email shoeboxprojectsla@gmail.com to alert us that the file is there.
We will send confirmation of receipt within 48 hours. Proposals may take 6-8 weeks after deadline to be considered.
Dwora Fried and Bibi DavidsonChenhung Chen“Off the Wall” – small works showDiane WilliamsKarrie RossKatie Shanks, Cece Caro, Stephanie SherwoodMike McLainSusan AmordeSusan Feldman and Jennifer Gunlock
Shoebox Projects Residency
Reception: December 2, 2017 3-6pm
Shoebox Projects
660 South Avenue 21 #3
Los Angeles Ca 90031
661-317-1069
shoeboxprojects.com
chenhungchen.com
(Los Angeles) – We are pleased to present Chenhung Chen’s I Ching In America, Hexagram #32 an installation created as an artist-in-residence at Shoebox Projects. The completed work will be on view during the reception on Saturday December 2nd from 3-6pm.
Chenhung Chen’s artistic language utilizes the physical and suggestive capabilities of line, material and space. She uses repurposed and discarded cables and copper wire to convey a sense of the force whose original function was to harness electricity and transforms its potential, bending it to the will of man. This function has always fascinated Chen, so she utilized these man-made materials to create sculpture and installations.
Interested with the dichotomy of order and chaos, Chen is able to touch on the pursuit of and embrace of balance. She is inspired by the innovation and perseverance of mankind to create the technological phenomenon of the information age.
In her artist’s residency at Shoebox Projects, Chen will be working on her hexagram series entitled, I Ching In America, based on the hexagrams by I Ching. This three-dimensional installation will be composed of a “skeleton,” which will consist of a computer desk and a large crocheted piece of electronic fabric, made from electric wires and components.
Touching on the subject of continuity and un-ending change within the natural cycle of creation and destruction, Chen’s I Ching In America, Hexagram #32, refers to I Ching’s hexagrams. Each one represents the human condition and its consequences and acts as an oracle to provide insight and understanding.
Chenhung Chen is a visual artist living and working in Los Angeles. Born in Beigang, Taiwan, Chen graduated from the Chinese Cultural University. She received her MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City where she studied with Ursula von Rydingsvard and Jackie Winsor. She has traveled the world as a volunteer for The Prem Rawat Foundation, working for global peace. Her artwork has been exhibited across the United States and internationally. Chen has exhibited at the PS1 Museum, Hwa Kang Museum, UVU Woodbury Art Museum, Marin Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego Art Institute, Crafton Hills College Art Gallery, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Torrance Art Museum and Gallery 825 in Los Angeles. She has been written about in The Creators Project, Konbini, Art and Cake, Diversions LA, 365artists365days and Trebuchet Magazine.
Bibi Davidson and Dwora Fried “Two Women, One Reality”
Bibi Davidson and Dwora Fried
Two Women, One Reality
Shoebox Residency September 25 – November 5, 2017 660 South Avenue 21 #3 Los Angeles, CA 90031
On view during the upcoming Brewery Artwalk October 21st and 22nd 11-6pm
For their residency and exhibition at Shoebox Projects, Bibi Davidson and Dwora Fried will collaborate on an installation entitled Two Women, One Reality. Though both artists grew up in the fifties in different parts of the world — one in Israel, the other in Austria — they both vividly remember being left alone as toddlers, watching their parents get ready for a night on the town feeling imprisoned in their cribs, crying; terrified by noises, shadows and ghosts and are using these memories as the point of departure for their collaboration. Through ongoing discussions of these personal experiences Davidson and Fried will translate their memories into an installation. They envision the exhibition as a “fifties room” with a crib, ugly wallpaper and a video filmed by Dwora’s daughter Anjoum Agrama, that evokes a visit to the darker places in their collective psyche—a kind of self portrait of the early days of the artist’s lives and surroundings, that evokes the idea that evil—real or imagined— is lurking around the corner.
Shoebox Projects is a self-directed residency program founded in 2016 by Kristine Schomaker where artists are given space and time to conceptualize and create new works. During a residency, artists have the time and freedom to try out new ideas, open their space to viewers for feedback or embark on collaborations as Davidson and Fried are doing with Two Women, One Reality. Though these artist’s individual practices are quite different— Bibi Davidson is a painter whereas Dwora Fried makes mixed media sculptures and installations, there are overlaps in their subject matter and approaches which makes this and ideal opportunity for collaboration.
Bibi Davidson is an Israeli born, Los Angeles based artist whose illustrative-style works are allegorical representations of the chaotic and unsettling realities of her childhood. Her boldly colored narrative paintings are autobiographical and social commentary while simultaneously layered with elements of humor. They are captivating and purposefully quirky works that investigate personal and universal conflicts, as well as the chaos that defines our times. Through the process of painting, Davidson charms and calms her inner self.
Davidson’s most recent solo exhibition was The Girl in the Red Dress at Gallery 825, Los Angeles (2016). Her work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions throughout Southern California including: Laluzapalooza, La Luz de Jesus Gallery, With Liberty and Justice for Some, Walter Maciel Gallery, Love and Hate, Avenue 50 Studio (2017); A Feminist Perspective, MuzeuMM, Mas Attack, Torrance Art Museum (2016); Day Dreamers, BG Gallery, Sacred Memories, Pico House Gallery, Bunnymania, Chungking Studios and Wilding Cran Gallery (2015). For more information visit: http://www.bibidavidson.com
Dwora Fried is a mixed media assemblage artist who creates both small tableaux in glass fronted wooden boxes and life-sized enterable installations. She grew up in post-war Vienna, where as a Jewish lesbian and child of Holocaust survivors she felt like an outsider and has parlayed these experiences into artworks that explore themes of danger, loss and secrecy. Recent works also comment on the current political climate and the immigrant experience in Los Angeles.
Fried’s most recent solo exhibit was BIG BOX/little box at Gallery 825, Los Angeles (2016). In addition, she had solo exhibits at the Jewish Museum in Venice, Italy (2014), Benedict Gallery in Vienna, Austria (2013), Woolfson &Tay in London, GB (2011). She has been exhibiting in group shows at Elmhurst Art Museum in Chicago (2017), OCCA (2017), Walter Maciel Gallery (2017), Art Share LA (2016), SPARC (2015). Fried also has work in the permanent collection at Vienna’s MUSA museum. For more information visit: http://dworafried.com
Rebecca Bennett Duke has been using the space at Shoebox Projects to shift her focus from three-dimensional objects back towards drawing with an emphasis on making a connection between two-dimensional work (large format drawings), and three-dimensional work (the “Toys for Imaginary Children” series) while at the same time exploring the limitations of each.
Three-dimensional work accesses sublimated feelings in the viewer through materials that carry with them a complex history. Two-dimensional work relies on the fabrication of space to tell the same story. Both can lie, both can expand on the truth, I seek to find out how the two processes can inform each other beyond one simply being in service to the other.
Rebecca is building sculptures in the “Toys for Imaginary Children” series while she makes drawings that will both result in new sculpture and be a reaction to existing sculpture. The culmination will be a display of both and a written reflection on her findings on the relationship between the two inevitably intertwined bodies of work.
Artist residency and exhibition at Shoebox Projects
660 South Avenue 21 #3
Los Angeles, CA 90031
Residency from June 5 – July 9, 2017
Closing reception: Saturday, July 8th, 3pm – 6pm
dianewilliamsartist.com
shoeboxprojects.com/
Diane Williams is a multidisciplinary artist whose work stems from the political and social landscape that surrounds her—specifically the ethnically diverse neighborhoods of Los Angeles. She uses art as a call to arms, creating works that explore issues about immigrants and gender to encouraging cultural and social understanding.
In her series Monsters & Aliens, Williams created masks woven from shredded paintings and discarded materials and wore these masks in performances where the masks clearly signed for “other.” She wanted viewers to question what they feared from strangers and to begin to examine their own prejudices with respect to race and gender. In a mixed media work entitled Fractured but not Broken, she also displayed the masked and fragmented female body– depicting the disparate body parts in photographs and drawings, overlaid with Plexiglas and blue and yellow duralar. This human scaled work confronted viewers declaring, “see me for who I am — not as a cultural stereotype.”
During her residency at Shoebox Projects, Williams will create a site-specific installation that further explores ideas of marginalization by physically dividing the space. In addition, she will embark on a new series of works that track the surges in hate crimes since the inauguration of President Trump. In her work, Williams seeks to find a common ground between the works she makes and the community at large. For example in the participatory piece, This in my America, she asks viewers to write the first name of an immigrant they know and their relationship to that person on a piece of paper and then post it on a wall. Collectively illustrating the idea of an extended community.
About the artist:
Diane Williams is a multi disciplinary artist and an emerging curator living and working in Los Angeles, CA. She earned her BFA degree from California State University, Long Beach in 2013. Her work has been featured in select publications and exhibited in solo shows and several group exhibitions including Personal Narrative at the Annenberg Beach House Gallery, Santa Monica, With Liberty and Justice for Some at Walter Maciel, Culver City (2017), Countenance Divine, at Gallery 825, Los Angeles, and Defend & Advance, National Immigration Law Center, Los Angeles (2016).
About Shoebox Projects:
Shoebox Projects is a new experimental art space in DTLA, where emerging and mid-career artists are given an opportunity to freely experiment with new ideas and directions for their practice. Founded by Kristine Schomaker, multimedia artist and director of Shoebox PR and Art and Cake, Shoebox Projects intends to give artists a chance to recharge and renew their relationship with their work.
