LOS ANGELES, CA (October 30,  2021) – South LA Contemporary (SoLA Contemporary) is pleased to present a culminating art exhibition of SoLA’s 2021 *Critical Response program.  The collaborative group of 14 participating artists have been working together and meeting monthly on Zoom in supportive and critical interaction.  The pandemic year of 2020-21 had a profound impact on SoLA's approach to the program and online communication proved very meaningful, efficient, and fostered creative approaches as well as creating "community”, a primary goal of the program.  

In addition to the critique process itself, instruction and practice writing of personal artist statements enhanced deeper reflection and communication. In the tradition of inviting an outside art critic to reflect on the exhibited work, Kristina Newhouse, curator at the Kleefeld Contemporary Art Museum, located on the campus of Cal State Long Beach, California, will be attending the group exhibition to offer her professional perspective.

We invite artists at all levels to join SoLA Participating artist groups: Creative Exchange (emerging artists) and Critical Response (established artists).

Join SoLA Contemporary this month, as we usher in the new season with our Creative Exchange program’s inaugural exhibition, Remembering Together. This multidisciplinary show features the work of six emerging artists who, for the past eight months, have engaged in a collaborative creative practice.

Under the guidance of photographer and educator Adrian White, these artists honed their craft by articulating their artistic ethos and offering critique of one other’s work. The result is a show that is grounded in integrity, yet replete with intrigue. The various artworks, which include paintings, photographs, videos, and mixed-media, engage in a dialogue of their own. Remembering Together reads like a conversation between individual artists and their unique mediums, inspirations, and aesthetics. It addresses themes of spirituality, sexuality, ancestry, motherhood, beauty, and empowerment in ways that feel intimate and meditative. The deeply personal quality to the artists’ work emerges from the period of workshopping with curator Adrian White, who said the following about Remembering Together:

“Art allows us to write our own stories. It always starts with a journey, an experience or a memory. It is a piece of us - a response to who we are or what we’ve gone through... I believe nostalgia places an emphasis on both time and place. The art always points back to the artist’s experience, their own lives, and that is where I find the most beauty.”

Designed to foster community and reciprocal dialogue, Creative Exchange cultivates a safe space for and among artists. “Creative Exchange gave me an opportunity to work with a group of artists in an intimate and vulnerable way I never had before. It gave me confidence to show my work with honesty... Collaborating with this group I know now there are no barriers for me because I make work that's genuine to me,” said Samuel Mokelu, painter, videographer, and current member of the Creative Exchange cohort.

FRESH 2021, is a retrospective collection of art that engages with the challenges, tragedies, and triumphs that humanity has experienced in this past year. 

Anuradha Vikram has selected 33 artists who use various mediums, including photography, video, paint, sculpture, and mixed media to process and reflect on this complex moment in time. Rather than dwell heavily on the past, however, these artworks analyze, interpret, and transform the trauma.